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lease were normally determined by the beginning of the flood.^152 A
description of the leased land, as well as the guarantee to farm the
land, was included in the normal formula of Ptolemaic Demotic
leases. The lessee was responsible for returning the land in good
condition and was liable for damage. The usual share of the crop
between lessor and lessee was one third to two thirds. The harvest
tax (“mw, mt.t pr-' 3 ) is estimated to have been normally 10 percent
in the early leases and fluctuated in Ptolemaic leases, depending on
the class of land.^153 Land could also be sub-leased.7.5 Exchange^154
Property could be exchanged. This kind of transaction was effected
in an unusual text from the Ptolemaic period, in which a party sub-
ordinates the sale of an empty plot suitable for building (wr ̇) to an
agreement of not hindering.^155 A variant may have occurred when
two simultaneous sets of sale and cession documents were made by
two parties.^156 While not many of this kind of transaction are doc-
umented, such an arrangement may have been common in the
absence of money. The exchange of animals, perhaps for breeding
purposes, is known from early Demotic sources.^1577.6 Loan^158
Loans of money and specie took many forms in Demotic instruments,
from loan documents (“document of claim,” s§n r'-w¢ 3 ) to letters,
mortgages, and sale with deferred delivery.^159(^152) The clause in the Ptolemaic leases runs “from the water of year X to year
X + 1.” Effectively, however, the work on the land began some months later, in
September, after “the water” (i.e., the annual flood), had receded (see Felber,
Demotische Ackerpachtverträge.. ., 125–29).
(^153) Donker van Heel, Abnormal Hieratic.. ., 88–91, based on estimates of Baer,
“Low Price.. .,” 33. Under the Ptolemies, the harvest share (rent + tax) could
reach as high as 50% of the harvest. There was a flat tax on all land exacted at the
rate of one artaba per aroura, called the eparourion, in addition to the harvest tax.
(^154) Depauw, Companion.. ., 143–44.
(^155) P. BM 10589 (175 B.C.E.), Shore and Smith, “Two Unpublished Documents.. .”
(^156) The two texts, P. BM 10726 (Andrews, Catalogue, text 42), and P. EgSocPap.
(El-Amir, Études de papyrologie), are dated the same day, September 14, 176 B.C.E.,
and are written by the same scribe.
(^157) Shore, “Swapping Property.. .” Additional Early texts are discussed by Cruz-
Uribe, Saite and Persian.. ., 95–96; Pestman, Pap.Tsenhor.. ., texts 11 and 17.
(^158) Depauw, Companion.. ., 146–47; Pestman, “Loans Bearing No Interest?”; Pierce,
Three Demotic Papyri.. ., 44–50.
(^159) Pierce, Three Demotic Papyri.. ., 92–92.
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