ARAMAIC DOCUMENTS FROM ANCIENT EGYPT

(Review Article)

The third volume of the Textbook of Aramaic Documents from

Ancient Egypt (TAD)1, newly copied, edited, and translated into English
and Hebrew by B. Porten and A. Yardeni, contains literary and his-
torical texts, accounts, and lists. From a literary point of view, the two
major pieces of this collection are the Words of Ahiqar (C1.1) and the
Aramaic version of the Bisitun Inscription of Darius the Great (C2.1).
The verso of the Bisitun inscription, already reedited by J.C. Greenfield
and B. Porten in the Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum2, contains several
columns of accounts (C3.13), while the Ahiqar words are written over
erased text, a multicolumn Customs Account deciphered by Ada Yardeni
and published here for the first time (C3.7).
The decipherment of the erased customs account for year 11 of
Xerxes I, i.e. 475 B.C., reveals a succession of Egyptian months which
provides an objective criterion for a different order of the papyrus sheets
and for an evaluation of the number of columns missing. Altogether,
parts of thirty papyrus sheets are preserved and the complete scroll
would have contained about forty-six sheets. The scribe added some
seven sheets to the end of the account to achieve the extra space needed
for all of the Ahiqar proverbs.
The Words of Ahiqar may originally have comprised as many as
twenty-one columns but only fourteen are preserved, in whole or in part.
The narrative preceded the proverbs, that were not inserted in its midst,
as was proposed by P. Grelot3. However, four columns are missing
between the five columns preserved in the narrative and the nine
columns of proverbs, none of which is fully intact. The numbering of the

1 B. PORTEN - A. YARDENI, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt,

newly copied, edited and translated into Hebrew and English 3. Literature, Accounts,
Lists, Jerusalem, The Hebrew University, 1993. Vol. 1: text, copies in reduced size
(LXVI+295 p.); Vol. 2: copies (36 foldouts). 24,3 ≈ 33,8 cm. Distributed by Eisenbrauns,
Winona Lake (IN), U.S.A.
2 J.C. GREENFIELD - B. PORTEN, The Bisitun Inscription of Darius the Great: Aramaic

Version (Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum. Part I: Inscriptions of Ancient Iran. Vol. V:

The Aramaic Versions of the Achaemenian Inscriptions. Texts I), London, 1982.
3 P. GRELOT, Documents araméens d'Égypte (Littératures anciennes du Proche-

Orient 5), Paris, 1972, p. 427-452.

62 E. LIPINSKI

lines of the narrative parallels the one in Cowley's edition4, but there are
important changes in the order of the columns with proverbs:

TAD COWLEY
Lines 79-94 = Lines 95-110
Lines 95-108 = Lines 159-172
Lines 109-125 = Lines 173-190
Lines 126-141 = Lines 126-141
Lines 142-158 = Lines 142-158
One column missing
Lines 159-173 = Lines 111-125
Lines 174-189 = Lines 79-94
One column missing
Lines 190-206 = Lines 191-207
Lines 207-222 = Lines 208-223
One column missing

The rearrangement of the columns does not provide any link between
the last proverb of one column and the first saying of the following one.
On the contrary, the supposed connexion between old lines 94 and 95 is
broken up, since these lines become now 189 (94) and 79 (95).
The newly deciphered Customs Account for the year 475 B.C. (C3.7)
is an important document for various reasons. Specialists of onomastics
will certainly pay attention to this papyrus from the beginning of the
5th century B.C. which preserves several captains' names that are Greek
or Greco-Anatolian: Mrgy[l]s br Pq… (BR 1, 8), Margúlov son of
Fwk…(?); Swmn br Smnds (CR 2, 4), SÉmenov son of Simwnídjv;
Tmt… (DR 3, 9; KV 2, 5), Timóqeov (?); P[n]tln br Msks (ER 2, 12),
Pantaléwn son of Mósxov; Ywny br }rgl[s] (ER 2, 18), ˆIwníav (?)
son of ˆErgílov; Tmkts br Mks (KR 2, 24), Timo/akrátjv /Timó/
ákritov son of Míkkov; Glprs (GR 2, 16; KV 2, 22; EV 1, 11),
Gláfurov or Glafúrav; Krystn br Prytkm (JR 1, 3), Xarisqénjv
son of ?; Pns b[r…] (JR 1, 6; EV 2, 17), ƒan±v/ƒániv son of …;
Ywkls br S[…] (JR 1, 27; EV 2, 15), ˆIwklßv son of S…; Spytk (KV 2,
16), Spitákjv, a Persian name; Mrsls (KV 3, 2), Morsóliv or

4 A. COWLEY, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C., Oxford, 1923, p. 212-214.
 ARAMAIC DOCUMENTS FROM ANCIENT EGYPT 63

Mursílov; Prtwkls (JR 2, 20), Prwtokl±v ; Sm[p]rwn (EV 1, 2),

Sumférwn; Hpwn (EV 2, 3), ÊIppwn. The use of shin to transcribe the
initial sigma is remarkable: Swmn, Smnds (CR 2, 4), Sm[p]rwn (EV 1,
2), S[…] (JR 1, 27; EV 2, 1). One should also notice the transcription of
the khi by a kaf: Msks (ER 2, 12), Krystn (JR 1, 3). The Greek termi-
nation -s of the nominative is generally indicated, but there are some
exceptions, as Iwny (ER 2, 18), Swmn (CR 2, 4), or Krystn (JR 1, 3), if
the reading and the explanation of these names are correct.
The document records four kinds of ships, each with its own cargo
and a specific custom duty (mndt}) or tithe (m{sr} ), which was collected
(gby) from each ship and “made over to the royal warehouse” ({byd {l
byt mlk}).
There are nineteen large ships (spynh rbh), each identified by the
name of its Greek (Ywny) captain and paying a fixed custom duty, appar-
ently in the range of 20%, on seven items: gold staters (zhb sttrn), silver
(ksp), wine (Ìmr), oil (msÌ), wooden shafts ({q smkt), and empty jars
(spn ryqnn), either coated or not (l} spytn). These items are listed twice,
under two different rubrics. The expression {q smkt is tentatively inter-
preted by the editors as “wooden support”. The customs account refers
most likely to wooden shafts or pillars that were always badly needed in
Egypt for construction and carpentry works. The word sp is translated by
“jar”, although it apparently designates a drinking cup or a libation ves-
sel in Hebrew and in Ugaritic. In fact, oil is transported in spn according
to the customs account, while wine is kept in kndn, a dissimilitated form
of kadd that is attested in ancient Hebrew, in Phoenician, and Ugaritic5;
it was borrowed in Neo-Babylonian under the form kandu and in Greek
as kádov. The West-Semitic, Neo-Babylonian, and Greek use of the
term indicated that knd < kd was an “amphora” employed mainly for
storing and conveying wine. Instead, sp must here designate a clay jug
or a jar for the storage and the transport of olive oil. In consequence, the
spn ryqnn were probably “empty jugs” imported to Egypt because of
their better quality. The jugs zy l} spytn are rightly interpreted in the
sense of “not coated”, which implies that these jugs were of an inferior
quality. In fact, ceramics tend to “breath”, letting the olive oil out and
allowing oxygen in. In order to deal with the seepage and oxidation of
the stored olive oil, the jugs and storage jars were “coated” with a thick

5 M.G. GUZZO AMADASI, Noms de vases en phénicien, in Hommages à Maurice

Sznycer I (= Semitica 38), Paris, 1990, p. 15-25 (see p. 17-20).

64 E. LIPINSKI

light colored wash6. The form spytn is the plural of the passive participle
of spt, that the editors relate to zpt, “pitch”, and propose to translate “to
coat with pitch” (p. xlvi). However, the corresponding Arabic verb is
zaffata, a denominative fa{{ala form derived from zift, “pitch”, while
spyt is a passive participle of the pe{al stem. Besides, it is unlikely that
the slip used for coating the surface of the jugs consisted of pitch.
I believe therefore that spt is a technical term used by the potters to sig-
nify “to coat” or “to wash” ceramics, i.e. to cover it with a slip.
Seventeen other large ships bear the cryptic designation }swt kÌmws and
are likewise identified by the name of their respective Greek captains.
They pay a fixed duty in gold and silver; the weight of silver paid amounts
here to about one-fifth of the quantity perceived from the first class ships.
This fraction is likely to reveal the meaning of Ìmws, that is probably
derived from Neo-Assyrian Ìamussu, a “one fifth” tax. In fact, the Aramaic
numeral “one fifth” would have been written Ìwms instead of Ìmws. If
this interpretation is correct and the borrowing dates back to the 8th or
7th century B.C., one should logically consider }swt also as a word bor-
rowed in that time from Neo-Assyrian. In this case, a feminine formation
from nasû, “carrier”, “carrying”, would offer a plausible explanation,
since nasû is used with direct objects meaning “tax” or “tribute”; besides,
the Neo-Assyrian “s” appears as “s” in Aramaic7 and the initial n- of Neo-
Assyrian words is sometimes dropped in Aramaic transcription, as in }nrt
for Ninurta8, }sn for Nis(s)an9, and }pÒ for nipÒu in the very Customs
Account. The expression }asût kaÌamus would thus designate the ship
“carrying the ‘fifth’ duty”. This interpretation is confirmed by the repeated
usage of Ìamussu nasû in a Neo-Assyrian letter from the 7th century B.C.10.

6 Cf. M. ARTZY, On the Storage of Olive Oil in Antiquity, in M. HELTZER - D. EITAM

(Ed.), Olive Oil in Antiquity, Haifa, 1987, p. 1-4.

7 E. LIPINSKI, La correspondance des sibilantes dans les textes araméens et les textes

cunéiformes néo-assyriens, in P. FRONZAROLI (Ed.), Atti del Secondo Congresso Inter-

nazionale di Linguistica Camito-Semitica (Quaderni di semitistica 5), Firenze, 1978,
p. 201-210; F.M. FALES, Aramaic Epigraphs on Clay Tablets of the Neo-Assyrian Period
(Studi semitici, n.s., 2), Roma, 1986, p. 61-66.
8 H. TADMOR, A Note on the Seal of Mannu-ki-Inurta, in IEJ 15, 1965, p. 233-234.
9 D. HOMES-FREDERICQ - P. GARELLI - E. LIPINSKI, Archives d'un centre provincial de

l'Empire assyrien (Documents du Proche-Orient ancien. Épigraphie 2), in press, Nos.

42,11; 44,8; 49,6 (?); 58,6.
10 ABL 532, reedited by J.N. POSTGATE, Taxation and Conscription in the Assyrian

Empire (Studia Pohl: Series maior 3), Rome 1974, p. 280-281, lines 5-7, 9, and 23-24.
For the forms *naÒÒ of the verb nasû, used in this document, see S. PARPOLA, The Alleged
Middle/Neo-Assyrian Irregular Verb naÒÒ and the Assyrian Sound Change s > s, in Assur
1/1, 1974, p. 1-10.
 ARAMAIC DOCUMENTS FROM ANCIENT EGYPT 65

The particle k- before Ìmws has no comparative function in this case,

but an asseverative one, like the so-called kaf veritatis. This asseverative
k- is already attested in Combination I, 2 (4) of the Deir {Alla
plaster inscription: kms}.}l “the very instruction of El”. It appears in the
7th century B.C. in Aramaic deeds from Upper Mesopotamia: 10 ks}rn,
“10 (shekels) are actually the balance”, }{l kbdl, “I shall bring the very
tin”11. This kaf veritatis is attested also in an Aramaic document from
Egypt: sm{t k{ml} zy {mlt, “I heard of the very effort you made”12.
Six ships mentioned in the Customs Account are called spynt kzr/dy
(FV 3, 25), but the reading spynt {zry seems also possible. In this case,
{zry could be a Phoenician proper name, the more so because these ships
carry Sidonian wine and cedar wood. They fall into two small groups of
three ships each: the dwgy qnd/rt{t and the dwgy qnd/rtsyry. Dûgî was
originally a fisher-boat, as indicated by its name, but it came to desig-
nate every light-going ship or a coasting vessel. The ulterior qualifica-
tions of the ship consist of two words: qnd or qnr and t{t or tsyry. The
first word might designate a kind of boat in Egyptian, but it does not
seem possible to correct the reading qnd/r into qwr, which could then be
a transcription of Egyptian Èwr, “cargo vessel”13. The second element of
these qualifications is most likely t-{í.t, “the great ones”, and t-srí.t,
“the small ones”. Besides wine (Ìmr) and cedar wood ({q }rz), these
ships were carrying wool (qmr), iron (przl), bronze (nÌs), metal powder
(}pÒ), and clay (†yn). The word }pÒ is translated by “tin” in the text14,
but not in the glossary, that does not mention it at all. It is probably a
loan-word borrowed in the 8th-7th centuries from Assyrian nipÒu,
“metal powder”15, with apheresis of initial n-. There are two kinds of iron
mentioned in the text, przl pkdn/pkrn and przl sny; the meaning of both
qualifications is unknown. Also the wood receives different qualifications:
{qy }kdpk or }krpk16, {q }rz sy17, {q }rz mlwt18, {q }rz pq19, {q }rz p{my20.

11 E. LIPINSKI, in op. cit. (n. 8), Nos. 45,8; 53,1.

12 B. PORTEN - A. YARDENI, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt 1.
Letters, Jerusalem, 1986, No. A3.6, 2.
13 WbÄS V, p. 21, 13-13.
14 FR [1,16]; 2,21; 3,16; GV 2,14; DV 1,10.
15 AHw, p. 792a, sub nipÒu 2); CAD, N/2, p. 247b.
16 GB 2,26; 3,5.13.22; 4,5.[19]; FR 1, [15]; 2,20; 3,15.
17 GR 4,7.21; FR 2,25; 3,20; GV 2,21.
18 GR 4,8.22; FR 2,26; 3,21; GV 2,22.
19 JV 1,16.24; FV 1,14; 2,17; 3,13; GV 2,23.
20 JV 1,17.25; FV 1,15; 2,18; 3,14; GV 2,24.
66 E. LIPINSKI

The word sy is rightly related to Egyptian sw, “beam”, “plank”, while

mlwt should be compared with Coptic melôt, “panels”, “wainscot”21.
The word pq is related to Coptic pôge, fôgi, “plank”22. There is besides
an item lq, translated tentatively by “oar”, that can be “old” ({tyq) or
“new” (Ìdt).
There are two kinds of wool, apparently designated according to their
origin, which obviously implies a different quality: qmr kpr Ò{ and kpr
[.]bn. The wine was either Greek (Ìmr Ywn) or Sidonian (Ìmr ∑ydnyn),
and it was new, from the 11th year or Xerxes I, or one year old, from the
10th year. The bronze is always qualified slmw} 23 and the clay is desig-
nated as smws 24. The word slmw} is unlikely to derive from a place-
name, as the editors believe. It rather corresponds to Neo-Babylonian
sulummû, “good quality”25, and it is used in the emphatic state *sulum-
muwa}: “bronze of good quality” as opposed to }Òp, “metal powder”.
As for smws, it should be related to Jewish Aramaic simmus, “service”,
“attendance”26, and to Syriac tesmesta}, that has the same meaning but
can also designate utensils and vessels27. In consequence, †yn smws is
likely to be “potter's clay” or, more precisely, “clay for tableware”.
The sailing season, as revealed by the Customs Account, was quite
long, extending from the month of Athyr, i.e. February/March, to the
month of Mesore, i.e. November/December. This contradicts the com-
mon opinion that the number of sailing days was limited in Antiquity
and confirms Demosthenes' statement in his Private Law-Court Speech
56, 30 that sailing from Rhodes to Egypt run practically the year round
at the end of the 4th century B.C. The sailing frequency increased as the
year progressed and the list of outgoing ships indicates that the departure
of the ships took place from seven to twenty days after their arrival. One
of the captains, Glaphyros, sailed twice in the period concerned: he
departed on the 30th of Pharmuthi (August 16th, 475 B.C.) and returned
two months later, on the 5th of Epiph (October 20th, 475 B.C.), to leave
again before the end of the same month. If he staid about two weeks for

21
M. VYCICHL, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue copte, Leuven, 1983, p. 111b.
22
Ibid., p. 168b.
23 KR 4,21; GR 2,10; 3,21; [4,4.18]; FR [1,13]; 2,18; 3,13; GV 2,13; DV 1,8; 2,12.
24 GR 2,25; 3,4.12; FR [1,18]; 2,23; [3,18]; GV 2,19; DV 1,15; 2,16.
25 AHw, p. 1270b.
26 M. JASTROW, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and

the Midrashic Literature II, New York, 1903, p. 1563b; M. SOKOLOFF, A Dictionary of
Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of Byzantine Period, Ramat-Gan, 1990, p. 559.
27 R. PAYNE SMITH, Thesaurus Syriacus II, Oxford, 1901, col. 4229.
 ARAMAIC DOCUMENTS FROM ANCIENT EGYPT 67

unloading and loading merchandise in the Greek harbour, where he was

probably coming from, the duration of his voyage in each direction
could be estimated at about three weeks. Herodotus calculates the aver-
age distance covered in a long day sailing to about 600-700 stadia28, that
is, 60 to 70 nautical miles per day. This agrees with the average speed
attributed to merchant ships by Thucydides29, but it would indicate that
Glaphyros' ship covered a distance of about 1500 miles! This result
should most likely be dismissed as exaggerated. Instead, if one adopts
the model worked out by Cintas, who estimated the normal daily stages
of Phoenician and Punic vessels at some 20 to 30 miles30, the 20 days'
sailing of Glaphyros' ship would imply the covering of a distance of 400
to 600 miles, that is the approximate distance from the Nile delta to
Rhodes.
The list of outgoing ships records thirty-six Greek ships carrying
natron (ntr} ), for which they pay variable dues in silver according to
the value (dmy) of the cargo. These dues are called tsy, an Aramaic
transcription of the Egyptian words t-sy.t, “dues”, “taxes”. The
natron, a native carbonate of soda that was easily collected in the Wadi
Natrun, to the west of the Nile delta, was obviously the main export item
loaded on the ships. Its name is Egyptian31, attested first in the Pyramid
texts as n†ry, later as ntry, and borrowed in Semitic languages and in
Greek where it appears as nítron or lítron (Ionian).

These few comments show the importance of the newly published

Customs Account for the study of Egypto-Aramaic vocabulary and for
the economic history of the Antiquity. This remark applies also to other
texts, like the Memphis Shipyard Journal for the years 473-471 B.C.
(C3.8), although this papyrus is in a pour state of conservation. The
remaining texts are lists of items or persons followed by some notation.
There is the disbursement of barley to the garrison of Syene (Assuan)
(C3.14), the account of the contributions to the Jewish sanctuary at
Elephantine (C3.15), the disbursement of emmer (C3.26), the account of
sales, income, and inventory from Edfu (C3.28), and lists of personal
names (C4), the purpose of which is unknown. The new readings offered
28 HERODOTUS, History IV,86,1.
29 THUCYDIDES, History II,97,1; III,3,5; VI,1,2.
30 P. CINTAS, Fouilles puniques à Tipasa, Alger, 1949, p. 9-11 = Revue Africaine 92,

1948, p. 271-273.
31 T.O. LAMBDIN, Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament, in JAOS 73, 1953,

p. 145-155 (see p. 152-153).

68 E. LIPINSKI

by the editors will undoubtedly lead to a partial revision of former inter-

pretations of proper names in the Aramaic documents from ancient
Egypt.
The value of the volume is enhanced by a computer-generated glos-
sary with all the references and by lists of divine names, place-names,
month names, gentilics or titles, and personal names. There is no doubt
that this vol. 3 of the Textbook is a significant contribution to Aramaic
studies and to the economic history of the Ancient Near East.

Ad. Lacombélaan 50/11 E. LIPINSKI

B-1040 Brussels (Belgium)