Receipt for a Grain Loan
1 of 17
Object Label
In the fifth century B.C.E., Egypt’s Elephantine Island was home to Egyptians, Persians, and Jews. This document comes from the archive of a Jewish family whose first language was Aramaic rather than Egyptian. It states that in December 402 B.C.E., Ananiah, son of Haggai, borrowed two monthly rations of grain from Pakhnum, son of Besa, an Aramaean with an Egyptian name. This receipt would have been kept by Pakhnum and returned to Ananiah when he repaid the loan. No interest is charged on the loan, but there is a penalty for failing to repay it on the appointed date.
Caption
Aramaic. Receipt for a Grain Loan, December, 402 B.C.E.. Papyrus, ink, mud, a: Object: 11 13/16 × 13 3/4 in. (30 × 35 cm) a: Frame: 14 15/16 × 16 1/4 in. (38 × 41.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Theodora Wilbour from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 47.218.93a-b. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 47.218.93_transp5427_SL3.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Gallery
Not on view
Culture
Title
Receipt for a Grain Loan
Date
December, 402 B.C.E.
Dynasty
Dynasty 28
Period
Late Period
Geography
Place found: Elephantine, Egypt
Medium
Papyrus, ink, mud
Classification
Dimensions
a: Object: 11 13/16 × 13 3/4 in. (30 × 35 cm) a: Frame: 14 15/16 × 16 1/4 in. (38 × 41.2 cm)
Credit Line
Bequest of Theodora Wilbour from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour
Accession Number
47.218.93a-b
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Is there a way to see the transcripts of the other papri in the archive of the Jewish colony?
There are images of 8 of the papyri in our collection online, if you can read Aramaic! You might also want to check out "Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt" by Edward Bleiberg which was published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name and is available in our shop. You may also be interested in "The Elephantine Papyri in English: Three Millennia of Cross-Cultural Continuity and Change" by Bezalel Porten with J. Joel Farber et al.
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