Women and society in Greek and Roman Egypt: A Sourcebook, Jane Rowlandson et al. eds. Cambridge (1998) from chapter 5 "Economic Activities" 218-230, 245-253 (#162-167, 182-185).

Chapter 5 Economic activities

Introduction

The documentary evidence of the papyri tells us far more about the economic lives of women than we can deduce from any literary evidence. Although it would be difficult to maintain that many women had 'careers' in the modern sense of the term, except in a very few specialised areas, the evidence from Egypt suggests that women's economic activities were not confined to circumstances in which they were either working as slaves or working because they needed to do so in order to survive. They must also have supplied much routine labour in contexts which do not find description in the written evidence. What we have in the papyri certainly suggests that the somewhat restrictive legal institutions and provisions did not inhibit independence and initiative as much as we might expect.

This chapter is divided into two sections. Section I traces in chronological sequence the developments in women's capacity to possess agricultural land, and to participate in agricultural work or management. Section II looks at the range of women's other economic activities: property ownership, the use of money, and types of employment, particularly in weaving and prostitution. In Section II, the texts are grouped by subject matter as much as by date.

I Women and agricultural land

The early Ptolemies were responsible for important agricultural improvements in Egypt, introducing better strains of wheat and new varieties of vine, and extending and improving the quality of the agricultural land. Development may have been particularly intensive in the Fayum, but was clearly widespread throughout Lower and Middle Egypt. However, women's participation in these developments, and access to the possession of arable land in their own right, was significantly restricted by the conditional system of land tenure (Rowlandson, 1995). Much land was allocated in temporary grants to groups who performed certain important functions within the state: thus soldiers received allotments (kleroi) of kleruchic land; high officials received gift-estates or doreai; and newly acquired royal land was held by royal farmers, also almost exclusively male. The groups of immigrant entrepreneurs developing the Fayum in the mid-third century attested in the Zenon correspondence and other contemporary groups of papyri were resolutely male, although women were included among their native workforce (as perhaps in 162). Even by the late second century BC, no woman seems to have held land in the Arsinoite village of Kerkeosiris.

However, on the temple and royal lands of Upper Egypt, where older traditions prevailed, Egyptian women are found throughout the Ptolemaic period possessing arable land in their own right. Egyptian custom also seems to have allowed women to perform agricultural work in the fields, as we see from the reliefs on the Tomb of Petosiris (Plate 26). Upper Egypt remained a predominantly Egyptian milieu despite some Greek influence from military units and from Ptolemais, the Greek city founded by Ptolemy I (cf. Ch.3 Arch.C); and women are regularly documented in Egyptian, and later also Greek, contracts, buying or selling, inheriting, and leasing arable land (163, 165-6). Even in Lower Egypt, not only queens (Cf. 2.9) but also non royal women might possess vineyards: the most striking example is Eirene daughter of Orpheus who possessed a vineyard and garden on royal and gift-estate land in the Arsinoite 'model-town'of Philadelphia (164).

By the first century BC, a major change had begun to take place in the tenure of kleruchic land, which before the end of the Ptolemaic period had become heritable, not only by sons who could be expected to take over the obligations of military service associated with it, but also by daughters (167). It was, however, left to the Roman administration when Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC to take the final step and make kleruchic land fully private property (now called katoikic land), along with certain other categories of land, for instance 'bought land' (eonemene). This facilitated the wide-scale acquisition of agricultural land by women, both through inheritance and by purchase. It appears from land registers and other evidence throughout the Roman period that about one-third of landowners were women, perhaps owning between 16 and 25 per cent of the land. Women from the imperial family of the Julio-Claudian dynasty are also documented as possessing Egyptian estates, for instance Antonia the Younger (see 2.17).

Women at all levels of society can be found during the Roman period buying and selling agricultural land. The sale transactions, however, sometimes involved buying from or selling to close relatives (as indeed had been true of sales from the Ptolemaic period: 163, Cf. 2.30); and one suspects that rather than being 'market transactions', these were employed to adjust the effects of the inheritance system (168). Although the Roman administration treated land as the property of single individuals, owners, both male and female, were in fact locked into a nexus of family and local connections which must have restricted the extent to which any individual really exercised a wholly free disposition over his or her property (cf. Rowlandson, 1996, chs. 5 and 6).

Although agricultural land was not included in the core of a bride's dowry, the pherne, in the Roman period it was occasionally given as a supplementary element (see Ch.6 Sect.III introduction; cf 4.136). The desire to provide for a daughter's future marriage may also have motivated purchases of land by parents on behalf of their daughters (171). According to the rules of intestate inheritance, women inherited private land on the same terms as other property; and this was no doubt a major factor in explaining the extensive ownership of land by women. However, it is interesting to see that even a woman who herself owned agricultural land might discrimmate, when drawing up her will, between male and female heirs, reserving the agricultural land for the males (170).

As well as being the titular owners of land, women in the Roman period certainly could play an active role in agriculture. Women are documented undertaking various types of agricultural work for wages (169). Private letters from the Roman period commonly reveal women's involvement in agricultural management and decision-making (172-3, 180). Women are also documented borrowing wheat in quantities which suggest that it was intended not merely to provide food for a household, but to finance a year's agricultural activities on credit (178). In contrast, it apparently remained extremely rare for women to undertake a tenancy of agricultural land: scarcely a handful of examples survive among nearly one thousand land leases of Roman or Byzantine date (165(b)), although leasing of land by women to male tenants was not uncommon (179, 181, cf. 172).

Thus the Roman administration faced a dilemma in its policy towards female landowners. Male landowners were required to cultivate, or at least to pay the taxes on, unproductive public land. Women were officially exempted from this burden on the grounds of their weakness and unsuitability to agricultural tasks (4.149); yet some women evidently did not find agricultural management beyond their capabilities, and particularly by the third and fourth centuries AD, there were women who clearly derived enormous wealth from agriculture and associated activities (174, cf. 175). The increasing prominence of female landowners may indeed be partly the result of their exemption from some of the burdens imposed on men, a privilege the Roman administration was increasingly reluctant to concede (cf. 176). More generally, the pleas of weakness by women claiming assistance from public officials should not necessarily be understood literally, but represent a conscious strategy by articulate women to further their own ends by invoking an officially sanctioned image of female weakness (177).

162. Petition by a widow named Senchons to Zenon

PMich. I 29
Philadelphia, July 256 B C

An Egyptian widow complains to Zenon (see Ch.3 Arch.A), in a letter full of misspellings due to 'Egyptianisms' that Nikias (an overseer of transport: see P. Mich. I 34) has summarily taken her ass, which she needs to carry beehives to the honeybearing pastures. Greek munigrant entrepreneurs of this period, such as Zenon and his associates, often owned hives which they leased to Egyptians, in return for a rent; tax was also paid to the king. This case illustrates Egyptian women's involvement in outdoor agricultural tasks (cf. Plate 26). The terse style, and reminder that Zenon himself and the king will suffer if the ass is not returned, are typical of petitions of this early period, even from a humble Egyptian woman to a man of great influence as Zenon was.

To Zenon, greeting, from Senchons. I petitioned you about my she-ass which Niklas took from me. If you had written to me about her, I would have sent her to you. If it seems good to you, tell him to return her, so that we may carry our beehives to the pastures, lest they be ruined both for you and the King. If you look into the matter, you will be persuaded that we are useful to you. I beg you and supplicate you not to keep me waiting, for I am a widow. Farewell.

(Docket on the verso) Year 30, Pachon 2[.]. Senchons, about an ass.

P.Berl.dem. 3142 and 3144 (ed. Grunert, 1981) West Thebes (Memnoneia), 9July-7 August 199 BC

Formal Demotic contracts of sale normally consist of two parts, sometimes, though not always, made up at the same time and then written on the same papyrus. The first part is the 'writing for silver' or money-document (sh n db3 hd, syngraphe praseos) in which the seller states that his (or her) heart has been satisfied with the money given by the buyer. The second part is the cession-document (sh n wy, syngraphe apostaseos), by which the seller withdraws any further claim on the sold property. Either part without the other may serve a function other than that of sale: a money-document without a cession-document may for instance be a mortgage or a will , a cession-document without a money-document may be drawn up when a party has lost a battle in court. A comparison of the phraseology of the typical example below with that of a Greek sale such as 165 shows that the Demotic sale is generally more elaborate and sophisticated in the formulae by which the purchaser's title to the property is guaranteed.

P.Berl.dem. 3142 and 3144 constitute the money?document and the cessiondocument for a sale of three plots of land, of about 2.5 arouras of agricultural land in the Memnoneia between two women, Senininis and Tanouphis. One year later the buyer Sennunis sold half of the land to a certain Psenchonsis, son of Amenothes and Tanouphis, pastophoros of Amenhotep (P.Berl.dem. 3146). He may be a son of Tanouphis, who is the vendor in the present documents. In that case the sale is perhaps not a commercial transaction, but one of the many ways in which priestly families exchanged property (and family ties) among each other (cf. 2.30).

The texts are dated to year 6 of the reign of the rebel king Haronnophris (Pestman, 1995b; see p. 8 above); PBerl.dem. 3 146 belongs to year 7 of his successor Chaonnophris, who continued the numbering of the regnal years of his predecessor.

(a) P.Berl.dem. 3142

Year 6, Pauni, of Pharaoh Haronnophris, may he live forever, beloved of Isis, beloved of Amon-Re, king of the gods, the great god.

The woman Tanouphis daughter of Psenthotes, her mother being Ata, has said to the woman Sennimis daughter of Pachnournis, her mother being Tamenos:

'You have satisfied my heart with the money of half of my '/6 portion of the three plots of land which are in the temple estate of Amon on the island of the artisans on the west side of Thebes. Their list: 2 Plots of land, taken together measuring i i arouras with their surplus of measurement;

(neighbours)
South: the land of Parnonthes, son of Pachnourms
North and West: the land of Taoueris daughter of Timolaos East: the canal of Libys The other plot of land, measuring 5 arouras with their surplus of measurement;

(neighbours)
South: the lands of Herieus son of Phatres
North: the land of Psenamounis son of Pachnournis
East: the canal of Libys
West: the land of Pachnourriis son of Pa-ws.t

Total of the neighbours of all three plots of land mentioned above, of which I gave you half of their 1/6 portion.

I have given it to you. It belongs to you. Your half of the 1/6 portion of the three above?mentioned plots of land is it. I have received their price in money from you, complete without any remainder. My heart is satisfied with it. I have no claim whatever against you in his (sic) name. No person at all, myself included, shall be able to exercise authority over it except you from this day onwards. As for anyone who will proceed against you on account of them in my name or in the name of anyone at all, I shall cause him to stay away from you. I shall clear it (sic) for you from any document, any title?deed, from anything at all at any time. To you belong their documents and their title?deeds, wherever they are. Every document which has been drawn up for me about it (sic) and every document by virtue of which I am entitled in respect of them, it belongs to you, with the right conferred by them. To you belongs that by virtue of which I am entitled in respect of them. The oath or the proof which will be imposed upon you in the courthouse concerning the rights (conferred by) the above?mentioned document, which I have drawn up for you, to cause me to swear it, I will swear it, without alleging any title?deed or anything on earth against you.,

Written by Panechates son of Herieus.

(b) P.Berl.dem. 3144

Year 6, Pauni, of Pharaoh Haronnophris, may he live forever, beloved of Isis, beloved of Amon-Re, king of the gods, the great god.

The woman Tanouphis daughter of Psenthotes, her mother being Ata, has said to the woman Senminis daughter of Pachnoumis, her mother being Tamenos:

'I am far from you concerning your half of my 1/6 portion of the three plots of land which are in the temple estate of Amon on the island of the artisans on the west side of Thebes. Their list: 2 Plots of land, taken together measuring I I arouras with their surplus of measurement;

(neighbours)
South: the land of Pamonthes, son of Pachnoumis
North and West: the land of Taoueris daughter of Timolaos
East: the canal of Libys
The other plot of land, measuring 5 arouras with their surplus of measurement;

(neighbours)
South: the lands of Herieus son of Phatres
North: the land of Psenamounis son of Pachnoumis
East: the canal of Libys
West: the land of Pachnoumis son of Pa-ws.t

Total of the neighbours of all three plots of land mentioned above, of which half of their 1/6 portion belongs to you, as I have made for you a document of money concerning them in year 6, Pauni, of the pharaoh, may he live for ever.

It belongs to you. Your half of the 1/6 portion of the three above-mentioned plots of land is it. I have no claim at all against you in their name from today onward. As for anyone who will proceed against you on account of them in my name or in the name of anyone at all, I shall cause him to stay away from you, whereas you are able to constrain me by the right conferred by the document of money, which I have drawn up for you about them in year 6, Pauni, of the pharaoh, may he live forever, to carry out for you its obligations at any time, besides the document of cession above, to fulfil the two documents. And I shall carry out for you their obligations at any time, without a blow.'

Written by Panechates son of Herieus.

164. Arrangement for the management of garden land
belonging to Eirene daughter of Orpheus

PMich. III 182
Philadelphia, 4 March 182 B C

Eirene daughter of Orpheus is one of few female landholders from the Ptolemaic period whose activities are known from more than one text (Pros.Ptol. IV 8147; discussed by Pomeroy, 1990, 158-60). By 185/4 BC, she was in possession of the crown land and gift-estate mentioned below, consisting of vineyard, orchard and garden land; in 183/2, she leased the crops of the orchard to Leontiskos and his partners in return for their paying the state dues on this land. She also took on the substantial loan from Nikandros Of 44 talents 4800 drachmas at interest mentioned below. In the text translated here, Leontiskos and his partners (who had in fact not paid the state dues of the previous year) contract with Nikandros to repay Eirene's loan, in lieu of rent on the orchard, which they had again leased from Eirene for the following year. Despite apparently gaining no economic benefit herself from the arrangements described here, Eirene seems to have been a well-to-do woman, who was probably literate (see PMich. III 18 3), and appears to have supervised her own business actively, hiring labourers to work on the vintage, and keeping detailed accounts.

Year 23, Panemos 28, Tybi 28, in Krokodilopolis of the Arsinoite nome. Leontiskos son of Leontiskos, Persian of the epigone, and Thymos son of Megakles, Macedonian of the epigone, and Tesenouphis son of Petous, Arsinoite, agree with Nikandros, Syracusan of the troop of Theodoros of the second hipparchy, holder of an eighty?aroura allotment, that they will pay to him on behalf of Eirene daughter of Orpheus, Macedonian woman,i to be credited against the loan, with interest, Of 44 talents and 48oo drachmas granted in accordance with the mortgage of a vineyard and garden belonging to her located in Philadelphia of the Herakleides division, contracted in year 23, month of Daisios: 48 talents of bronze money (which is) the rent of the olive, fig and pomegranate crops located in the aforesaid garden on royal and gift-land within a single boundary which Leontiskos, Thymos and Tesenouphis have leased from Eirene for year 24, according to contracts of lease; and (they agree) that they will make payments to Nikandros or to whomsoever he orders, in Philadelphia, according to the clauses in the contracts, from Pauni of year 23 to Thoth of year 24, 2 bronze talents per month; and in Phaophi, 8 bronze talents; in Hathyr of the same year 15 talents; and in Cholak of the same year the remaining 17, Nikandros or his agents providing them with receipts for each payment.

And if they do not make payments according to the stated terms, let Leontiskos, Thymos and Tesenouphis immediately pay as penalty to Nikandros what they owe plus half as much again. But if they in no way infringe the contract, let Nikandros receive on Eirene's behalf the aforesaid 48 bronze talents towards the loan on mortgage and the interest in accordance with what was stated above, and whatever remainder they owe to him in connection with the mortgage. If there is any shortfall in respect of the 48 bronze talents whether through ruin, risk or failure of the crops concerned in the aforesaid leases which Eirene made with the aforesaid men, having received this fi7om Eirene let him make a cancellation of the mortgage in the time specified therein.

If Nikandros, having received from the aforesaid men the 48 bronze talents stated above, either does not credit them to Eirene or furthermore having received the shortfall, does not make a cancellation of the mortgage, let Nikandros immediately pay to Eirene a fine of one thousand silver drachmas of old Ptolemaic coin, and nonetheless let it be obligatory for Nikandros to make a cancellation of the mortgage. Let this agreement be binding everywhere.

165. Tatehathyris and the land 'The Point'

Pap.Lugd.Bat. XIX 2 and 3
West Thebes (Memnonela), 109 B C

The documents relating to Tatehathyris were preserved with the family archive of her husband Totoes, discovered in two pots at Deir el Medina in 1905. Tatehathyris (born c.129) married Totoes early in 109 BC. Her father Psenminis had died the previous autumn, and on 8 May, she and her brother Pikos (born c. 136-134) drew up a division of their father's land ((a)). Pikos received two-thirds of the paternal inheritance, the double portion accorded to an eldest son by Egyptian custom, assuming responsibility for organising their father's funeral arrangements and for two-thirds of the cost.' Tatehathyris' share of the inheritance was the 7 1/2 arouras known as 'the Point', the history of which can be reconstructed in detail (Pestman, 1978). It had descended with other property to Tatchathyris' father from her paternal grandmother Lobais. On 12 January 109 (before the inheritance was divided, and almost certainly before her marriage) Tatehathyris leased it out for two years. However, on 20 October 109, another lease ((b)) was made for the same land by Totoes to a different tenant, a woman, without any indication that the land belonged to his wife, not to himself!. The next year Tatehathyris leased the land, along with other property, to her brother. In 104 Totoes acted as lessor, leasing it to a cavalryman, yet the next spring Tatehathyris received rent for it from her brother. And again in 101, it was leased out by Totoes.

In Greek contracts, Tatchathyris appears with a male guardian as the law required. In Egyptian legal transactions, women needed no guardian; yet Pestman has shown that in reality a male was sometimes present. It appears that before her marriage, or in transactions with other family members, Tatehathyris herself was formally a contracting party, even if she was actually accompanied or represented by a man, as in (a), while after her marriage, Totoes often simply acted in her stead in dealings with outsiders, as in (b) (Pestman, 1995 a; New Primer p. 52)

(a) Division of inheritance between Pikos and Tatehathyris

Pap.Lugd.Bat. XIX 2
8 May 109 BC

Although Tatehathyris acts without a guardian in this Demotic agreement, the use of masculine gender forms suggests that in fact a man may have been speaking on her behalf Pestman (1995a), 84?5 (referring also to Pap.Lugd.Bat. xix i = P.Tor.Botti 43)

Year 8, Pharmouthi 22.

Pikos son of Psenminis says to Tatehathyris daughter of Psenminis, his younger sister:

'I agree with you concerning the division, you agree with me concerning the division Of 21 arouras of land, which our father gave us. I have given you the parcel of lands, which are on 'the Point', which cover 7 1/2 arouras and their extension of measurement of which the neighbours are: South: Pasernis son of Thoteus; North: the field of Onnophris son of Psennuinis; West: Onnophris son of Psenmmis; East: the water of pharaoh, as inheritance. You have given me 456 1/3 deben and 6 artabas of wheat; on your head (there are still) 48 deben.' Whichever of us withdraws from doing everything in accordance with every word above, he shall give 5 talents before Montou, 5 before Jeme and 5 to pharaoh, whereas he will (nevertheless) be forced to act in accordance with every word above.'

(b) Totoes leases his wife's land to Tachrates

Pap.Lugd.Bat. XIX 3
20 October 109 BC

Quite apart from the fact that the land belongs not to the lessor, Totoes, but to his wife, this lease presents anomalies. The produce which the tenant pays Totoes cannot be rent, since she receives payment in return. The arrangement seems in effect to be a labour contract to grow a fodder crop (arakos was a legume, possibly wild chickling) with the intention, not of producing much yield, but of enriching the land by ploughing most of the crop back into the soil. Moreover, the final docket on the back (in Greek) suggests that Tachrates did not actually undertake any work herself; the land was apparently sub-leased, to Phibis, by a man who was presumably acting on her behalf as Totoes acted for Tatehathyris.

(Greek) Year 9, Phaophi 2, in the presence of Apollonlos, the person in charge of the office of the agoranomos of the Memnoneia and of the lower toparchy of the Pathyrite (nome). Totoes, son of Smanres, has leased to Tachrates, daughter of Pesouris, Persian woman, with her own son, Pamonthes son of Psenamounis, as guardian, the land belonging to him in Pestenemenophis, (measuring) 7 1/2arouras, whose neighbouring properties are: on the south: the land of Pasermis son of Thoteus; on the north: the land of Onnophris son of Psenimmis, a hollow path running between them; on the east: (the canal) of Patinis; on the west: the land of Onnophris son of Psenumms, or whoever are the neighbours on all sides; for the sowing of the 9th year, to grow arakos on the above-written land, (Totoes?) being responsible for measuring out to the royal treasury the appropriate dues for the land that shall be inundated; on condition that Tachrates shall give to Totoes a half aroura's produce of arakos and that Totoes shall give to Tachrates two artabas of wheat on the threshing floors in return for the half aroura's produce of arakos. And the landlord may not lease out (the land) to others within this time period, nor may the tenant abandon the land (within) this time period; but (after the time has lapsed) let her (Tachrates) hand over his land and let him lease it out to whomever he wishes.

1, Apollonios, have handled (this business).
(On the back) Demotic: The lease of the land which Tachrates has made.

Demotic: The lease of land which Tachrates has made for (the land called) 'The Point'.

Greek: Petechonsis the elder has (?sub)leased to Phibis.

166. Sale of arable land by three women

Sel. Pap. 127
Pathyris, 15 November 107 BC

Three sisters, Taous, Sennesis alias Tatous and Siephmous, sell 3 1/2arouras of arable land in the northern plain of Pathyris in the Thebaid to Peteharsemtheus son of Panebchoums and his brothers. Although the document is written in Greek, the milieu of Pathyris remained very Egyptian throughout the Ptolemaic period, and this is reflected in the wording of the document, the character of the property transactions'and the fact that women own land there. See Lewis (1986), 139-52, particularly on the family of Peteharseintheus, the purchaser here.

(Summary). Year ii=8, Phaophi 28. Taous and Sennesis and Siephmous have sold to Peteharsemtheus and his brothers 3 1/2arouras for 9 bronze talents.

(Text). In the reign of Kleopatra and her son Ptolemy surnamed Alexander, mother-loving gods, year IIwhich is also the eighth, the priests and priestesses and kanephoros being those currently in office, on the twenty-eighth of the month of Phaophi, in Krokodilopolis; before Paniskos, agoranomos of the upper toparchy of the Pathyrite (nome). Taous daughter of Harpos, about 48 years old, of medium height, fair-skinned, round-faced, straight-nosed, with a scar on her forehead, and her sisters Sennesis alias Tatous daughter of Harpos about 42 years old, of medium height, fair-skinned, round-faced, straight-nosed, with a scar on her forehead, and Siephmous daughter of Pachnournis, about 20 years old, fair-skinned, round-faced, straight-nosed, without mark, all three being Persian women, with their guardian the husband of the said Taous, Psennesis alias Krouris son of Horos, Persian of the epigone, from the village of Gotnit of the lower toparchy of the Latopolite (nome), about 45 years old, of medium height or less, darkskinned, somewhat curly-haired, long-faced, straight-nosed, with a scar on the lower hip, have sold the high land, grain-bearing, undivided, in two parcels,2 which belongs to them in the northern part of the plain of Pathyris, three and a half arouras with the attached surplus out of 7 arouras in the 40 arouras, of which the neighbours are: of the first parcel, south: land of Patous son of Horos and his brothers; north: land of Chesthotes son of Melipais; east: land of Aes and his brothers; west: an embankment; and of the other parcel, south: land of the aforesaid Chesthotes; north: land of Chesthotes son of Panemgeus; east: land of Thrason and his brothers; west: the embankment; or whatever the boundaries are on all sides.

Peteharsemtheus son of Panobchounis, about 36 years old, of medium height, fair-skinned, rather curly-haired, long-faced, straight-nosed, and his brothers Petesouchos and Phagonis and Psennesis, all four Persians of the epigone, from Pathyris, have bought the land for nine bronze talents, each paying an equal share.

Negotiators and guarantors of everything regarding this sale are: Taous and Sennesis alias Tatous and Siephmous the vendors, who have been accepted by Peteharserntheus and Petesouchos and Phagonis and Psennesis the purchasers. 1, Paniskos, have registered it.

SB viii 9790
Herakleopolite nome, mid-first century B C

This opening to a petition, in which Rhodokleia, the daughter of a cavalry kleruch, refers to her succession to her father's property, including his kleros, demonstrates that before the end of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt a daughter's succession to her father's kleros in the absence of male heirs was officially permitted.

To Alexander, strategos of the Koites (toparchy), from Rhodokleia daughter of Menippos, orphan, one of the inhabitants of Phebichis. After the death of my aforesaid father, in accordance with the ordinances of our greatest kings I was authorised through the record office relating to cavalry to succeed to the twenty arouras left by my father from the allotment near Molothis because he had no male progeny; and the ownership of his other property fell under my [ ...

Women in the non-agricultural economy

There is plentiful evidence for the activities of women in a range of economic areas other than agriculture. The evidence for the Roman imperial period (30 B C -A D 284) is generally fuller and better than that for the Ptolemaic and Byzantine eras, but since that reflects the survival of papyrological evidence as a whole, it implies no striking conclusion about changes in the role of women. But it is worth keeping in mind the historical differences and developments over the whole period which could have caused changes in the economic behaviour of women: for example, the comparatively stronger position of Egyptian law in the Ptolemaic period, or the increasingly predominant role of the Christian Church from AD 300 onwards.

One important area of evidence concerns the ways in which women controlled and disposed of non-agricultural property, particularly houses or parts of houses. We can draw some conclusions about the amount of property owned or controlled by women and their degree of economic independence. Here the native Egyptian inheritance laws were clearly influential, and although the influence of Greek law might have eroded their power from the Ptolemaic period onwards, it should not be thought that the necessity for women to act with a guardian (kyrios), unless they enjoyed dispensation, involved any real curtailment of their ability to conduct legally valid transactions. Studies of the situation in Fayum villages during the Roman period (where, it must be admitted, the Greek influence may well have been stroger than in some communities in Upper Egypt, for example) shows that women may have accounted for up to one-third of the owners and controllers of real estate. This was a result of a partible inheritance system which tended to keep property within the family as far as possible, and to guarantee the prosperity of all members of a family, male and female, without simply making equal divisions (Hobson, 1983, 1984).

Women could thus buy and sell houses and parts of houses or other assets in real and movable property. Leases are also common, as are the various means by which real property could be used to secure loans or to provide necessary cash. Women appear as money-lenders as well as borrowers (183-4, 188-90,193). It is important to note that whatever degree of independent economic activity existed it was not obviously affected by marital status - perhaps an important survival of the influence of Egyptian law. However, in times of financial difficulty, a family was perhaps most likely to draw first on the resources brought by the wife into the marriage, hoping to preserve the paternal property intact.

The range of assets held by women is varied but not particularly large. Apart from the expected personal possessions and money, often brought to a marriage as part of a dowry (see below), we find houses, parts or annexes (exedrae) of houses, plots of ground in towns and villages. There is little basis for any distinction between the towns and the villages in this respect. We also find ships (see 2.7 introd.), camels, slaves and revenue-producing enterprises of other kinds: milling equipment, a pottery, a fullery, a religious precinct (186-7, 194, 197, 217, 2.30). Such a range shows that the economic activity of women was certainly not confined to their domestic role, even if the weight of the evidence does emphasise the latter (Hobson, 1984). It is difficult to assess the degree to which that means that the real economic independence of women was curtailed. The answer may, indeed, not be susceptible to precise measurement derived from written documentation and was perhaps in any case less important to the large proportion of the female (and male) population who could not directly control the documentation which regulated their lives.

The texts which illustrate economic transactions tell us something about the ways in which women could raise and use money, many of which were not specific to women. Two areas in which they did have a specific and gender-related role were the use of the dowry and the provision of wet-nursing which amounted to the fiduciary sale of a child (213-14, cf. 3.91). Loans and speculations in various forms make it clear that from the Hellenistic period on, and certainly to a very great degree in the Roman period, this was a highly monetised province, a feature which applies to villages as well as towns, to women's lives as well as men's (Howgego, 1992).

As well as using assets, women could also engage in non-agricultural activities to make money. The two most prominent and traditional areas (apart fom wet-nursing) are weaving and prostitution, both of which are illustrated in the selections which follow (200-6, 207-8). Weaving was a cottage industry centered on peasant families in which women played an important part, especially in spinning the yarn. Garments were made mainly of wool or linen. There is no evidence in ancient Egypt for the widespread use of cotton. Owners of large establishments, who nuight be quite well-to-do, also clearly involved female members of the family in the business (cf. particularly 3.94). Apprenticeship contracts, especially involving female slaves, are common. Textile production was an important part of the activity on the estate of Zenon at Philadelphia in the third century BC, as the letters from the Zenon archive show (200-1). 201(a) is of particular interest since it illustrates the range of garments produced by a group consisting of two men (father and son?), a mother and a wife; it is noteworthy that in 201(b) there is a suggestion that the women workers would be paid at a lower rate than the men. The pattern of production seems to have involved spinning taking place at home and weaving in workshops.

There are a number of references in the papyri to women engaging in prostitution, both willingly and unwillingly. They are attested in a Ptolemaic census list, and in the Roman period the Koptos Tariff attests a tax on prostitutes. No doubt prostitution played a larger role than is reflected on paper and the same may be true of other personal and domestic functions which are so heavily represented in the servile inscriptions from the city of Rome, for which there is no counterpart in the towns and villages of Egypt; it is notable, for example, that there are no females at all mentioned in the will emanating from the wealthy Alexandrian household of the Tiberii Julii Theones (POxy. XLIV 3197) yet there must have been many such female slaves, given the prevalence of home-breeding. The general service-contract was another means of exploiting female labour (198-9). Other documents show that women could sell beer or wine (209-10), entertain as flute-players or dancers (215-16) and perform a variety of other waged jobs which are formal enough to be recorded in documents where occupations are listed. No doubt much of this was supplementary to, or a substitute for, male earning-power and, no doubt, as in other similar societies the actual share of work of all kinds performed by women was very much greater than formal documentation will ever tell us.

182. The daughter of a Greek settler buys a plot of ground

SB xiv 11376
Hibeh, 239 BC

In this contract of the early Ptolemaic period the daughter of a privileged Greek father as legal guardian, buys from another military settler a plot of ground for the substantial sum of 5oo silver drachmas. The credit arrangement made in the sale is unusual; it is couched in the form of a fictional loan without interest, allowing a period of ten days during which the vendor has to provide a certificate of sale; this presumably covers the interval during which the transfer and registration formalities can be completed.

In the reign of Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy and Arsinoe, brother-sister gods, the 8th year, when Onomastos son of Pyrrhon was priest of Alexander and the brother-sister gods and the benefactor gods, and Archestrate daughter of Ktesikles was kanephoros of Arsinoe Philadelphos, in the month Peritios, in Tholthis in the Oxyrhynchite nome. Theodote daughter of Leon, Cyrenaean, acting with her father Leon, Cyrenaean, private of Zoilos' troop, as her guardian, has lent to Zenion from Aenos, private of Antiochos' troop, 5oo drachmas of silver produced to view in the presence of the designated witnesses, without interest. In lieu of the 5oo drachmas which he has received from Theodote let Zenion give to Theodote a certificate of purchase of the plot of ground (?) ... belonging to him, either at the registry in Herakleopolis or at the registry in Oxyrhynchos within 10 days from the day on which Theodote gives Zenion notice to do so. If he does not give to Theodote the certificate after the aforementioned days, Zenion shall repay to Theodote twice the amount of the loan Of 5oo drachmas, and Theodote shall have the right of execution upon Zenion in accordance with the edict. This contract shall be binding wherever it is produced. The witnesses are Eurymedon ...

183. A woman makes a loan with the right to occupy property in lieu of interest

BGU vi 1273.1.40 (BL IX 26)
Oxyrhynchite nome, 30 August 221 B C

Another contract between members of Greek immigrant families from Cyrene. This is the inner text of a contract written in duplicate on both sides of a papyrus. Demetria lends Apollonios a capital sum Of 400 drachmas, of which he has the use, and receives the use of a tower belonging to Apollonios instead of interest. If he fails to repay the capital by the agreed date, he pays interest on three-quarters of the capital sum while Demetria continues to occupy his property in lieu of interest on the remaining quarter. Apollonios may be using this as a way of exploiting a piece of inherited residential property for which he has no direct personal need.

In the first year of the reign of Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy and Berenike, benefactor gods, when Nikanor son of Bakch,as was the priest of Alexander and the brother-sister and the benefactor gods, and Aristomache daughter of Ptolemalos was kanephoros of Arsinoe Philadelphos, the eighteenth of the month Gorpiaios, in the village of Takona in the Oxyrhynchite nome. Demetria daughter of Apollodotos, Cyrenaean, acting with her guardian Apollophanes son of Apollodotos, Cyrenaean of the epigone, has lent to Apollomos son of Patron, Cyrenaean of the epigone, four hundred drachmas in bronze money produced to view, bearing interest at the rate of two drachmas per mina per month, but in lieu of the interest on this loan Apollonios has leased to Demetria his tower inherited from his father in the village of Takona in the Oxyrhynchite nome, doors and all, for 1year from the month Hyperberetaios of the first year, on condition that Demetria and her associates (?) shall inhabit this tower for the agreed term of the contract, using it in whatever manner they wish and having a right of way through the existing passage from the tower to the street. The neighbouring properties of the tower are, on the south the house of Sosibios, on the east the portion of the property of Apollonios' brothers, on the north a public street, and on the west a public street. This loan Apollomos shall repay to Demetria in the month Gorpiaios of the second year with the interest. If he fails to repay it according to the written agreement, Apollonios shall continue to pay to Demetria interest on three hundred drachmas for the subsequent time at the rate of 2 drachmas per mina per month, but in place of the interest on the remaining one hundred drachmas Demetria and her associates (?) shall inhabit this tower, occupying and using it in whatever manner they wish and having a right of way as stated in writing, until Apollonios repays to Demetria the four hundred drachmas constituting this loan and the interest on the three hundred drachmas for the extra time in excess of the year, and Apollonios shall guarantee to Demetria and her associates the use of this tower and passage and doors during the aforementioned year and for the ensuing time until Apollonios repays to her this loan of four hundred drachmas and the interest on the three hundred drachmas as stated above. If he fails to guarantee as stated in writing, Apollonios shall forfeit to Demetria this loan of four hundred drachmas increased by half and the net interest on the three hundred drachmas, and Demetria shall have the right of execution in accordance with the ordinance and the lease shall be no less binding for the term of the contract, and it shall be lawful for Demetria and her associates to countereject anyone who tries to eject them from this tower and passage without being liable to any penalty or legal action. This contract shall be binding wherever it is produced. Witnesses: Timolaos, Thessalian, decurion, Parmenion, Persian, private, both of the troop of Philon; Perdikkas son of Polyarchos, Persian, Philonades son of Lysamas, Cyrenaean, Demetrios son of Therriison, Cyrenaean, Noumenios son of KaUixenos, Chalkidian, all four of the epigone.

184. A shrewd businesswoman forecloses on a loan

Pap.Lugd.Bat. XIX 6 (BL viii 202)
Pathyris, 18 February 109 BC

This text comes from the small archive of Nahomsesis, a woman of a priestly family from Pathyris. Although Nahomsesis' business transactions were conducted through Greek contracts (which were duly registered with the Ptolemaic bureaucracy), she did not make use of the customary male guardian (kyrios). Yet she does not appear to have been able to read or write Greek (whether she was literate in Demotic is unknown), and was indifferent to discrepancies and even mistakes in personal details about herself. Her name was rendered into Greek with five different spellings, although we can be confident that the documents all refer to the same individual because of the rarity of the name, Nahomsesis, daughter of Spemminis. Her descriptions also reveal considerable discrepancies: about 112 BC she was described as 'about 30 years,' middle height, dark-complexioned, straight-nosed; only three years later she was said to be 'about 45 years, middle height, sallow-complexioned, flat-faced, straight-nosed, scar on her forehead'.

Despite this apparent indifference to legal formalities, Nahomsesis seems to have conducted her business affairs successfully. On 10 November 110 BC Harkonnesis, a cavalryman, had borrowed 9 artabas of wheat from Nahomsesis, promising to repay about one hundred days later 13 ½ artabas (i.e. 9 artabas at 50 per cent interest; the contract was designed to hide the high rate of interest not uncommon for loans of produce). As security for the loan, Harkonnesis put up a quarter of two parcels of royal land he had bought a few years earlier, filing a document of sale, in which the 13 ½ artabas represented the sale price for his mortgaged land, and the base figure on which Nahomsesis' payment for the tax on sales was calculated (C). By 18 February 509 Harkonnesis had not yet repaid his debt, which became subject to a penalty for non-repayment of 50 per cent of the principal (making a total of 18 artabas); and what had been a fictitious sale now became a real one with the 18 artabas representing the sale price, already paid by Nahomsesis the buyer (A-B). Two other documents filed on the same day show that Harkonnesis ceded the quarter of his grain land to her and that Nahomsesis acknowledged Harkonnesis' repayment of the loan of wheat (Pap.Lugd.Bat. XIX 7A/B).

(A;3rd hand) Year 8 Mecheir 2. Harkonnesis, son of Phigeris, sold a quarter of 2 parcels of high land' the Latopolite nome. Nahomsesis, daughter of Spemminis, was the buyer. 18 (artabas) of wheat (was the price).
(B; 1st hand) Year 8 in the reign of Queen (Kleopatra) and King Ptolemy,
the tower was substituted for the payment of interest in money. the mother-loving saviour gods, while King Ptolemy, the mother-loving saviour god, was priest of Alexander, of the saviour gods, of the brother-sister gods, of the benefactor gods, of the father-loving gods, of the gods manifest, of the god Eupator, of the god Philometor, of the god the new Philopator, the god Euergetes, the mother-loving saviour gods; at the time of the hieros polos of Isis, Great mother of the gods, of the athlophoros of Berenike Euergetis, of the kanephoros of Arsinoe Philadelphos, of the priestess of Arsinoe Philopator, who are (in office) at Ptolemais of the Thebaid. In the month Phaophi 22, in Pathyris before Sosos, public notary.

Harkonnesis, son of Phigeris, Persian of the wage-receiving cavalrymen, about 50 years old, good-sized, dark complexioned, long-faced, straight-nosed, sold a quarter of two parcels of the grain-bearing high land which belongs to him in the lower toparchy of the Latopolite nome: the first, of 8 arouras, whose neighbours are on the south, land of Pasemis; on the north,the hollow called Tpachis; on the east, land of the ibis-guards; on the west, land of Pasermis with a hollow in the middle. The other, of two arouras,(whose neighbours are) on the south, a dike; on the north, land of Patsantis; on the east, the base of a dike; on the west, a hollow; or whatever the neighbours are on all sides. Nahomsesis, daughter of Spemminis, Persian, bought for 13 1/2, artabas of wheat. Harkonnesis the seller was the guarantor whom Nahomsesis the buyer accepted.

I, Ammonios, agent of Sosos, have transacted the business.

(C; 2nd hand) Year 8 Phaophi 22. Nahomsesis, daughter of Spemminis paid
into the bank at Pathyris which Patseous directs a provisional payment for the 10 per cent sales tax on the sale of a quarter of 2 parcels of grain land in the lower toparchy of the Latopolite nome, one of 8 arouras and the other of 2 arouras, that she bought from Harkonnesis, son of Phigeris, for 13 1/2 artabas of wheat (equals) 2 talents and 4200 bronze drachmas, on which the tax is 1620 bronze drachmas, which, with the surcharge, makes 1950 bronze drachmas in all.

185. A mother sells two rooms to one of her sons

P. Mich. V 2 5 3
Tebtynis, 28 August AD 30

A Demotic contract, with Greek subscriptions, for the sale of two rooms by a mother to her son. Transactions of this sort between family members were frequently used to adjust the effects of the traditional Egyptian system of partible inheritance (see 168, 2.30). For the use of contracts written in Demotic in the early Roman period see Zauzich (1983). This is one of a small group of papyri recording transactions of members of this family. Thermouthis and her husband Eutychos had five sons, three of whom were called Eutychos. The elder appears as a property owner also in P. Mich. V 269 and 308; he also acts as a scribe. The reference at the end of the Demotic version to the handing over of documents with the property illustrates the importance of the written word in this society.

(Demotic) Year 16 of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, fifth intercalary day. The woman Thermouthis, daughter of Marepsemis, her mother being Demario(n), has said to Sisois the elder, son of Sisois, who is called Takn-lin, her son being present and acting for her as guardian ... who is called Eut(ycho)s, his mother being Thermouthis: You have satisfied my heart (with the) money of the price of my half share of this room which is built which is equipped with beams and doors downstairs ... together with my half share of the way of entrance and exit, together with my half share of this bedroom (in) the third storey, he having authority against her in the gate of the courtyard, (in the) Souchos town of Tebtynis (in) the division of Polemon, on the south side of the canal Moeris, (in the) Ar(si)noite nome. The boundaries of the entire, undivided house: south, the house of Petenefer ... (?), together with its courtyard; north (the) house of Karnes and his brothers; west, the royal road; east, the courtyard of this room. No man in the world, myself included, shall be able to exercise authority over them, except you, from this date. He that shall come to you on account of them, I will cause him to be far from you in respect of them, of necessity, without delay, and I will cause it to be clear for you from every writing, every document, everything in the world. Yours is every writing [which has been made] concerning them and every writing which has been made (for) my father (or) my mother concerning them and every writing which has been made for me concerning them. Yours ... together with their law. The oath (and the) confirmation which shall be required of you (to) cause that I make it, I will make it.