DCLP Transcription [xml]
Introduction
Shopping list. The fragment (6.3 x 7 cm) preserves on the recto the final 6 lines of a column with a lower margin of 3.3 cm; on the verso only faint traces survive. The first editor interpreted the text as a veterinary recipe (see the former, erroneous readings [ἄ]λ̣λ̣ο̣ at l. 1 and [κ]τήν̣η, ‘beast’, l. 6); Giuseppina Azzarello’s careful revision (Azzarello 2004) has nonetheless suggested the papyrus should contain a food shopping list including spices and seeds, with quantities (the amount paid?) written aside. The handwriting, sloping and quite inaccurate, is assignable to the first Ptolemaic period (3rd-2nd cent. BC).
1α̣λ̣ ̣ ̣[ -ca.?- ](*)
ἰς κύμινον ε
ἰς κόριον ξηρὸν ε(*)
πασπέρμη̣[ς] ε̣(*)
5κεράμω̣[ν -ca.?- ](*)
τημ̣η[ -ca.?- ](*)
Apparatus
^ 1. or ἀ̣λ̣ο̣η̣[τοῦ -ca.?- ] (or ἀ̣λ̣ο̣ή̣[τρων -ca.?- ]), or ἀ̣λ̣ο̣η̣[τῇ -ca.?- ], Azzarello 2004, 253-254 : [ -ca.?- ἄ]λ̣λ̣ο̣ ̣α̣[ -ca.?- ] prev. ed.
^ 2-3. l. εἰς, i.e. εἰς, Azzarello 2004, 253-254 : [ -ca.?- ] ις (l. ιϛ) κύμινον ε | [ -ca.?- ] ις (l. ιϛ) κόριον ξηρὸν ε prev. ed.
^ 4. Azzarello 2004, 253-255 : [ -ca.?- ]πα σπέρμα̣[τ̣α -ca.?- ] (or [ -ca.?- ἄλυ]πα σπέρμα̣[τ̣α -ca.?- ]) prev. ed.
^ 5. Azzarello 2004, 253, 255 : [ -ca.?- μίξας(?) ἐν] κεράμῳ [ -ca.?- ] prev. ed.
^ 6. l. τιμή, Azzarello 2004, 253, 255-256 : [ -ca.?- κ]τήν̣η prev. ed.
Notes
- 1.
This item can refer either to threshing costs (ἀ̣λ̣ο̣η̣[τοῦ] or ἀ̣λ̣ο̣ή̣[τρων], see P. Tebt. 1.90.1, 3, 5, etc.; PSI 7.810.2) or to a thresher salary (ἀ̣λ̣ο̣η̣[τῇ], see P.Lond. 1.131r). Another alternative is ἀλόη, but this healing herb occurs only in pharmaceutical papyri and the context seems here to exclude this possibility.
- 2-3.
ἰς is a very common, iotacistic form of εἰς.
- 4.
πασπέρμη: variant of πανσπερμία. It is only attested in documentary papyri and defines a mixture of all seeds (legumes, cereals) used for food, see Luc. Herm. 61; schol. Ar. Ach. 1076; P.Dubl. 17.19; P.Tebt. 1.9.12, 17.
- 6.
τιμή: the ‘price’ can refer to the κέραμοι of l. 5 or to an additional item lost in the gap at l.6. It could also sum up the total cost of the entries listed above.