Inventory number

General description

Contract granting religious services 

The manuscript contains two contracts written in Demotic. The content of the texts are similar, namely the assignment of four days of liturgical service between priests of the deities Amun, Min-Apis, and Hathor in the temple of Hathor over the course of one year. The father of one of the parties acts as guarantor for the fulfillment of the contract. On the verso is a list of 16 witnesses who were present that day.

The papyrus is part of an archive that was found in early 1905 while excavating in a house near the Hathor temple at Deir el-Medina. It was preserved in two sealed jars  (Archivio Fotografico C01790). Once opened, they revealed 61 documents written in Greek and Demotic, dated to the 2nd century BCE. The papyri were wrapped in linen strips or sheets bearing archival notes, featuring information about the priest of Hathor, Totoes, and his wife, Tatehathyris, who were members of two Egyptian priestly families. A large part of the documents is related to liturgical days in the Hathor temple and other shrines. The archive also includes several marriage and divorce contracts, kept for relatives.