Lot pagina - Van De Wiele Auctions

[TWO OSTRACA, WITH STONE MASON'S ACCOUNTS]

Accounts of masonry and stone, perhaps for a temple, mentioning priests and a person named Amonartis, in Demotic, on waste stone (alabaster) flakes

[Egypt (probably Luxor)
Roman period (most probably 1st or 2nd century)]

€1.200 - €1.800

Two fragments of stone: the larger with remains of 11 lines of Demotic on a flat side, with losses at top and to the lefthand side, a further 8 lines written across the arched back of the piece at 90 degrees to the front written face, 140 by 90mm.; the smaller with remains of 4 lines in Demotic on its flat front, reverse blank; both chipped and broken around all edges, 450 by 750mm.; with Ingels' photographs and paperwork

Provenance:

1. Taken as impromptu accounts, most probably in the quarry itself, and using waste pieces of stone for convenience.
2. S. Moulattan (1917-77), Egyptian antiquity dealer of Luxor, and holder of Egyptian Museum Cairo License no. 58.
3. John Ingels (1925-2016) of Sweden: his 'JI-0-2'; this recorded in his records as a gift from Moulattan to him in Luxor in 1962.
Text:
The text here was studied by Sten Wångstedt in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1978, who notes that the smaller fragment concerns accounts for masonry stone, and the larger more fuller readings. He reports the readings on the larger piece as: ""... priests who enter ... ... priests who count 15 rations ... ... SEM-priests 30 rations ... ... makes 56, half equal to 28 ... ... priests, who appear 72 ... ... to Amonartis 1 ration ...

Manuscripts