BGU VII 1568 (P. 11473 R)
If you lend something, you want to get it back. It does not matter whether the loan was ordered or voluntary. The text on this papyrus provides a brief insight into one such case: a lost donkey is to be found again.
The papyrus was found in the winter of 1906/1907 during an excavation by Friedrich Zucker in Gharabet el-Gerza in the north-east of the Fayum, a large oasis south-west of Cairo. Gharabet el-Gerza is the modern name for the ruins of ancient Philadelpheia, a foundation of the second Ptolemaic king Ptolemy II Philadelphus. However, the papyrus does not date from this early period, but was written several centuries later, when Egypt was part of the Roman Empire. This is also indicated by the date formula in the last two lines of the text, which corresponds to 14 June of the year 261 AD.
The Greek text on the front (recto) of this papyrus is a request. This request was written in the form of a letter and contains the typical greeting formulae of ancient letters at the beginning and end. In this petition, officials of the Arsinoites, as the Fayum was called in antiquity, requested the return of a donkey from the officials of the neighbouring district of Neilopolites. The officials were the so-called Eirenarchs, who performed the duties of a police force. The donkey had been requested for state services. Although these are not described, it is highly likely that they were tasks that were probably related to the state’s grain transport.
Grain transport was a central task of the state and closely linked to the tax system. The grain that was collected from the farmers was stored in central granaries and distributed further. The stored grain was distributed to farmers as seed loans or used to supply Egypt’s cities. The grain was often transported by land, as the granaries were not always located on navigable canals. Donkeys were most suitable for land transport and were also relatively cheap.
The donkey from Philadelpheia, which is the subject of this text, was apparently also collected and used in such a context. At the end of the work, it should have been returned directly to its owner in Philadelpheia in Fayum. However, this apparently did not work out. Instead, it was mistakenly herded together with animals from the neighbouring district of Neilopolites after the end of its work for the state and brought to this part of the country.
The request was made to identify the current owner of the donkey or the transport manager responsible for the incorrect return transport of the animals and to return the donkey to the owner. The owner is already on his way to the neighbouring district where the animal is said to be located and is accompanied by a police officer. The donkey was to be handed over to him in exchange for a receipt. It is not known whether the donkey was found and returned to Philadelpheia, as no further texts on this incident have survived.
The main text was obviously written by a scribe or at least by a person other than the senders, as the greetings in the third last line and the dating formula in the last two lines were written by a different hand and one can assume that one of the senders was the writer of these lines.
