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of her four slaves and kept the remaining mother and minor child
in joint ownership till a future time (EPEB33). A slave was usually
filiated to his mother, and if houseborn would have a Hebrew name.
Under unknown circumstances, Zaccur son of Meshullam gave to
Uriah son of Mahseiah the child Jedaniah son of Takhoi, and in
the document before us, Uriah promised in the presence of the
Troop Commander, under a three hundred shekel penalty, not to
enslave him or otherwise brand him but to consider him his son
(EPEB42).4.4.2 The most striking case is that of Ta(p)met. Since she was
known by the name of her father Patou, the suggestion lies to hand
that she was originally freeborn.^5 At some point she was acquired
by Meshullam son of Zaccur, father of the Zaccur (above) who trans-
ferred the slave Jedaniah to Uriah. Meshullam gave Tamet in mar-
riage to the Temple official Ananiah son of Azariah (449 B.C.E.), but
not before the birth to the couple of the child Pilti (EPEB36).
Infrared photography aids in exposing the haggling between master
and groom that underlay the erasures and additions in the docu-
ment (see below).^6 Though not emancipated by her marriage, as wife
she attained equal rights in case of repudiation and upgraded status
in case of widowhood.^7 Three years after Anani acquired a piece of
abandoned property, he bestowed (434 B.C.E.) a room therein to
Tamet, designated “lady” (EPEB38:2) without the tag “her name.”
Perhaps this bequest was made on the occasion of the birth of a
second child, the daughter Jehoishma. In 427, Meshullam drew up
a deed of manumission (“document of withdrawal”) for Tapmet and
her daughter Jehoishma: “I thought of you in my lifetime.” Employing
an Old Persian loanword, he continued “(To be) free (azàta) I released
you at my death” along with Jehoishma “whom you bore me,” that
is, in the legal sense. Further expressions included the metaphor “you
are released from the shade to the sun” and the symbolic “you are
released to God/the god.” The release was conditional and partial.
Mother and daughter obligated themselves to serve Meshullam and his
son Zaccur after his death, “as a son or daughter supports his father”(^5) See Porten, Archives from Elephantine, 205.
(^6) Porten, “Aramaic Marriage Contract...”
(^7) For full discussion of this document, see Porten and H.Z. Szubin, “Status...”;
for reservations, see Westbrook, “The Female Slave,” 226–27, nn. 29–30.
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