History and find spot:
The O. BM EA 25166 was purchased in 1893 from R. J. Moss & Co. company for cotton and coal trading, later extending to antiquities and their transportation run by the British businessman Robert Johnston Moss (1838-1921), who acted as an agent for E.A. Wallis Budge.
There are no further details about where it was found.
Materiality:
It is a fragment of a vessel-body of centred-radial technique. The surface is roughly smoothed before firing. Measurements: height 12 cm, width 13.5 cm.
Textlayout:
The 5 lines of the inscription run against the horizontal direction of rotation of the vessel.
Text summary and date:
O. BM EA 25166 is a so-called r-rḫ⸗w temple-receipt ("that which was measured"). These documents form a part of the annually renewed "land registers", in which the area of the field to be cultivated, the tenants responsible for this work and their total grain debt (in wheat-artabas) are listed. These receipts originate from the greater Thebais area and date back to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. On the text genre: Kaplony-Heckel, in: Grund und Boden 46Kaplony-Heckel, U., 'Thebanische Acker- Amt-Quittungen ', in: Allam, S. (Hg.), Grund und Boden in Altägypten (rechtliche und sozioökonomische Verhältnisse). Akten des internationalen Symposions Tübingen 18.-20. Juni 1990 (Untersuchungen zum Rechtsleben im alten Ägypten 2; Tübingen, 1994), 189-197 (= Kaplony-Heckel, Land und Leute am Nil IIKaplony-Heckel, U., Land und Leute am Nil nach demotischen Inschriften, Papyri und Ostraka. Gesammelte Schriften I-II (Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 71.1-2; Wiesbaden, 2009)., 1007-1015); Vandorpe, AfP 46 Vandorpe, K., 'The Ptolemaic epigraphe or harvest tax (shemu)’, Archiv für Papyrusforschung 46 (2000), 169-232..
The r-rḫ⸗w temple receipt of O. BM EA 25166 concerns both the land lease and the field work (cf. Kaplony-Heckel, ZÄS 128Kaplony-Heckel, U., 'Teben-Ost III. Die r-rḫ⸗w-Tempel-Quittungen und ähnliche Texte. Erster Teil: Allgemeiner Teil und Texte Nr.18-25', Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 128 (2001), 24-40, Taf. XI-XV., Nr.20, 28, Taf. X. = Kaplony-Heckel, Land und Leute am Nil I-IIKaplony-Heckel, U., Land und Leute am Nil nach demotischen Inschriften, Papyri und Ostraka. Gesammelte Schriften I-II (Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 71.1-2; Wiesbaden, 2009)., Nr.20, 913) of Ammonios, son of Petechonsis, and Horos, son of Pates. The payment of the land lease was normally paid in advance during the first months of the agricultural year (here 28 1/3 Artabas wheat, 1 (measure) wine and 20 silver(deben), deposit: December/January). The scribe is not mentioned by name. However, it is probably the official who received the payment of the field lease (see line 4-5).
The document dates from the 4^th regnal year of Augustus, 22^nd December 24 BC.