Demotic contract papyrus – Vienna AS 3874

Demotic papyrus
Ptolemaic period, 170-116 BC
Acquired before 1824

In the publication Memphis under the Ptolemies by Dorothy J. Thompson (1988) the following is written: “A further, less common, form of document recording property transfer is the gift or endowment form of contract.  There are only two examples of this among the Memphite contracts published or described to date. In P. Vienna 3874 in 149/8 B.C. the undertaker Teos, son of Pasis and Shemti, endowed his daughter Taues with half of his property; his second daughter, Shemti, receives the other half and his wife Taimouthes guarantees the gift.”

AS 3874, Ägyptisch-Orientalische Sammlung
Photo: VB 2022

Contract

Length ? cm, width ? cm
AS 3874, Ägyptisch-Orientalische Sammlung, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna
Photo and panorama view VB 2022/2023 (quality remarks)