An Aramaic papyrus text from ancient Egypt, though not this text. (credit)
This letter, written home by a soldier, is one of the oldest surviving examples of Aramaic. It comes from Egypt, where the dry atmosphere preserved documents that give us glimpses into everyday life. This undated letter was probably written around 500 BCE.
Ptah was the city god of Memphis, where the soldier was probably stationed. The text’s actors appear elsewhere in the letter stash where this was found, but any exact familial relationships are speculative; “sister” and “brother” did not necessarily indicate a sibling relationship.
To: my sister Taru (and Tabi)
From: your brother Nabusha (and Makkebanit)
May Ptah bless you and keep you in good health until we see you.
Now then. Did you know that they haven’t sent us anything from Syene? Even Shail hasn’t sent me a letter, or anything else, since I left Syene!
So have them bring us a chest and bynbn. And if you can, send us some castor oil. Have Harudj bar Bethelshezib bring it personally, when he comes to bring atryh to Bmršry.
But what the hell? Why haven’t you sent me a letter? Even when I got bitten by a snake, and I was dying, you didn’t even write [to see] if I was alive or if I was dead!
Well, I’m writing so you can be at peace.
To: Taru
From: Nabusha bar Petekhnum
Deliver to Luxor.
Miptahiah (480-416 BCE; also Mibtahiah or Mibtah) was a Jewish woman from the Egyptian island of Elephantine. We have a cache of legal contracts connected to her, and they give us several glimpses of her long and eventful life. Her father was in the military — likely at a high rank, based on his wealth and the fact that his grandson would become the colony’s leader. Mibtah was his youngest child, and he had set aside a plot of land for her, protecting it from various legal challenges.
The documents connected to Mibtah show that she could engage in lawsuits (and win!), own land, and divorce her husband. Her first husband was Jewish, but her second (or third?) husband was an Egyptian architect who may have later converted to Judaism. Between her legal rights and her willingness to swear oaths by Egyptian deities, Mibtah exemplifies a very different Judaism from the rigid fundamentalism portrayed in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, her approximate contemporaries.
This document functions as both marriage contract and pre-nuptial agreement between Mibtah and her last husband. While the document is technically contracted between her husband and her father, it goes to great lengths to protect her economic and legal rights. The bold section headers are my own additions.
Date and Parties
On 24 Tishri (the 6th day of the month Epeiph),
in year 16 of King Artaxerxes I [= October 14, 449 BCE],
Eshor bar Djeho, king’s architect,
said to Mahseiah, an Aramean of Syene in the Varyazata Division, as follows:
Declaration of Intent
I have come to your house to marry your daughter Miptahiah.
Pronouncement of Marriage
She is my wife and I am her husband, from this day and forever.
Mohar (dower)
I have given you, as the mohar for your daughter Miptahiah, 5 shekels by royal weight. It has been received and accepted.
Property Assets
Your daughter Miptahiah has personally brought to me:
Silver coins (12 shekels by royal weight)
She personally brought to me:
One new wool garment, dyed and hand-embroidered, 4 meters by 2.5 meters (worth 28 shekels by royal weight)
One new woven wrap, 4 meters by 2.5 meters (worth 8 shekels by royal weight)
Another wool garment, finely woven, 3 meters by 2 meters (worth 7 shekels)
One bronze mirror (worth 1.5 shekels)
One bronze bowl (worth 1.5 shekels)
Two bronze cups (worth 2 shekels)
One bronze jug (worth .5 shekels)
The sum of the silver and the value of the goods: 65.5 shekels by royal weight. It has been received and accepted.
One papyrus-reed bed with four stone inlays
One raised (?) tray
Two ladles
One new palm-leaf box
Five scoops of castor oil
One pair of sandals
Decease Clause
Sometime in the future, should Eshor die without a male or female child by Miptahiah his wife, then Miptahiah has legal rights to Eshor’s house, his goods, his properties, and everything he possesses.
Sometime in the future, should Miptahiah die without a male or female child from Eshor her husband, then Eshor shall inherit her goods and her properties.
Divorce Clause
Sometime in the future, if Miptahiah goes to court and says, “I hereby divorce Eshor my husband,” she is responsible for the divorce payment. She shall weigh out 7.5 silver shekels on the scales for Eshor. Then she may take out everything that she personally brought, every scrap and sundry, and she may go wherever she wants, without needing a legal ruling or lawsuit.
Sometime in the future, if Eshor goes to court and says, “I hereby divorce Miptahiah my wife,” her mohar will be forfeit. She may take out everything that she personally brought, every scrap and sundry, all at once, and she may go wherever she wants, without needing a legal ruling or lawsuit.
Legal Challenges and Monogamy
Anyone who sues Miptahiah to evict her from Eshor’s house, goods, and properties shall give her 200 silver and abide by the ruling of this document.
I may not say, “I have another wife besides Miptahiah and other children besides the children that Miptahiah may bear me.” If I say, “I have other children and wife besides Miptiah and her children,” I shall give Miptahiah 200 shekels of silver by royal weight.
I may not withhold my goods and properties from Miptahiah. If I remove them from her, I shall give Miptahiah 200 shekels of silver by royal weight.
Validation
Nathan bar Ananiah wrote this document at the request of Eshor.
Its witnesses herein:
[Several witnesses follow, although the document breaks off after four.]
Edited to add:
@thelittlethings1619 asked whether Mibtah’s name referred to Ptah, a major Egyptian deity. It’s a great question, but in this case, probably not. The “iah” ending on her name, like her father’s, stands for Yahweh, and it would be extremely odd for a theophoric name to invoke two different deities. Instead, her name probably comes from מִבְטָח (mibtaḥ): “trust, reliance.” Altogether, it means “Yahweh is [my/her] trust.”
Two Old Aramaic Curse Litanies (KAI 309 and KAI 222)
These inscriptions are two of the oldest documents we have in Aramaic, and both offer vivid examples of Semitic curse formulas. In situations where it would be difficult to punish someone with human courts, divine appeals were paired with magical curses to strike the offending party.
The first inscription was written on the skirts of a statue of King Hadd-yit’i, to warn future generations against defacing or removing the statue. The inscription is bilingual, written in both Akkadian (the international lingua franca of the time) and Aramaic (the local vernacular). It was carved around the 9th century BCE in northeast Syria, near modern Ras al-Ayn.
The second inscription comes from a group of 8th-century stelas near Aleppo that documented a treaty between an Aramean city-state and a Mesopotamian ruler. The treaty’s terms are decidedly imbalanced; Mati’el is required to stay loyal to his Mesopotamian allies, but no reciprocal terms are mandated. (Many biblical scholars have compared the treaty to aspects of the book of Deuteronomy.)
I’ve said this before, but it’s impossible for me to research these texts outside the context of the recent situation in Syria, where the “clamor of screaming and wailing” is far too strong. If you can, please support the World Food Program, a non-partisan organization that has been sustaining Syrian refugees and is now addressing widespread famine in Africa. Any amount helps.
The Inscription of Hadd-yit’i’s Statue (Aramaic Version)
[This is] the statue of Hadd-yit’i, which he set up before Hadad-of-Sikkan —
who supervises the waterways of heaven and earth,
who pours down abundance,
who gives pasture and irrigation to all lands,
who provides wells and jugs to all the gods, his brothers,
who supervises the waterways of all rivers,
who turns all lands into a paradise,
Merciful God whose hears prayer kindly,
who dwells in Sikkan,
great lord,
lord of Hadd-yit’i, king of Gozan, son of Sas-nuri, king of Gozan
— in order to revive his spirit, lengthen his life, multiply his years, preserve his house, preserve his heirs, preserve his people, ward misfortune from him, hear his prayers, and accept his requests. He constructed it, and he gave it to him.
If it should ever crumble, may later generations restore it and put my name upon it. But if anyone strips my name from it and puts down his own name, may mighty Hadad prosecute him!
[This is] an image of Hadd-yit’i, king of Gozan, Sikkan, and Azran. In order to undergird his throne, lengthen his life, and ensure that gods and humans would accept his requests, he made this statue; he improved on the earlier one. He placed the image before Hadad, who dwells in Sikkan, lord of the Habur.
If anyone strips my name from the implements of my lord Hadad’s temple:
May my lord Hadad refuse bread and water from his hands.
May my lady Suwala refuse bread and water from his hands.
May he sow but not harvest.
May he sow a thousand rows of barley and gain back only one.
May a hundred ewes suckle a lamb without sating it.
May a hundred cows suckle a calf without sating it.
May a hundred women suckle a baby without sating it.
May a hundred women bake bread in a tandoor without filling it.
May his people forage in trash piles for barley to eat.
May plague, the agent of Nergal, never depart from his land.
The Sefire Inscription (Excerpts)
[The first section lists the treaty’s parties — Bir-Ga’yah, king of KTK, and Mati’el, king of Arpad — and reiterates that it also applies to all their descendants and peoples.] [1]
They set up the stele with this text as this treaty.
Divine Witnesses
Bir-Ga’yah has forged this treaty before Ashur and Mullesh, and before Marduk and Zarpanitu, and before Nabu and Tashmet, and before Erra and Nuska, and before Nergal and Laṣ, and before the Sun and the Light, and before the Moon and the Moon’s Bride, and before NKR and KD’H, and before all the gods of Raḥbah and Adam [2], and before Hadad of Aleppo, and before the Seven, and before El and Elyon, and before Heaven and Earth, and before the Abyss and the Fountains, and before Day and Night.
All the gods of KTK and the gods of Arpad are witnesses.
Consequences of Betrayal
If Mati’el bar Attarsamak, king of Arpad, proves false to Bir-Ga’yah, king of KTK, or if a descendant of Mati’el proves false to a descendant of Bir-Ga’yah:
[About five lines are missing here.]
… a ewe, may she not conceive.
If seven nurses grease their breasts to suckle a boy, may he not have enough. [3]
If seven mares suckle a colt, may it not have enough.
If seven ewes suckle a lamb, may it not have enough.
If seven widows go seeking vengeance, may they kill nothing. [4]
If Mati’el proves false to Bir-Ga’yah, his son, or his descendants, may his reign become like a reign of sand — a reign of sand! — for as long as Ashur reigns. May Hadad send forth everything evil in earth or in heaven, and everything harmful. May he send hailstones onto Arpad.
For seven years, may the locust consume.
For seven years, may the maggot consume.
For seven years, may chaos (?) rise up on the earth’s surface.
May no grass sprout, so no green is seen.
May no plants be seen.
May the sound of the lyre not be heard in Arpad.
May its people have a cacophony of oppression and a clamor of screaming and wailing.
May the gods send everything that consumes to Arpad and its people.
May snake, scorpion, bear, moth, and mold consume.
[…] a serpent’s gullet.
May its plants be utterly annihilated.
May Arpad become a den for [wild creatures:] the gazelle, the fox, the hare, the wildcat, the owl, […] and the magpie.
May they speak of this city no more — nor of MDR’, MRBH, MZH, MNLH, ŠRN, Tu’im, Bethel, BYNN, […] Arneh, Ḥazaz, or Adam.
Sympathetic Curses [5]
Just as this wax burns in fire, so may Arpad and her many satellites be burned.
May Hadad sow them with salt and weeds, and may they speak of her no more.
This thief (?) and this […] are Mati’el; it is his spirit. [6]
Just as this wax burns in fire, so may Mati’el burn in fire.
Just as this bow and these arrows are smashed, so may Anahita (?) and Hadad smash the bow of Mati’el and the bows of his chiefs.
Just as (this) wax man is blinded, so may Mati’el be blinded.
Just as this calf is cleaved, so may Mati’el be cleaved and his chiefs be cleaved.
Just as (this?) prostitute is stripped naked, so may Mati’el’s wives be stripped naked — and his descendants’ wives, and his chiefs’ wives. [7]
Just as this wax woman burns and is struck in the face, so may they take Mati’el’s wives and […]
[The remainder of the treaty contains the actual terms of agreement, which include provisions like fighting Bir-Ga’yah’s enemies and providing a tribute. However, the text is extremely broken.]
[1] Arpad was a city-state in Syria, near modern Aleppo. KTK was apparently a city or region in Mesopotamia, but a hundred years of scholars have been unable to figure out where.
[2] “Adam” is likely the name of an unknown city, despite its resemblance to the biblical character and his namesake (adamah, the ground).
[3] Seven may seem a little unimpressive, compared to the hundreds in the previous set of curses. My theory is that the author of this curse was engaging in a little wordplay. Instead of a hundred, they wrote seven (שׁבע); instead of “to sate,” they wrote “to satisfy” (שׂבע).
[4] This line is rather difficult and uncertain. “Widows” is literally “weeping women”; women in the ancient Near East were also hired as professional mourners. My own guess is that this line means that after the babies die of starvation, their mothers will be unable to enact revenge. Another alternative is, “If seven hens go seeking food, they shall kill nothing.” The word for “war” or “food” is also the word “bread,” and so the parallelism with the Fekherye curse sequence above makes me want to translate this as a similar attempt to bake bread. However, the word for the female actors isn’t connected to baking (that I could find), and the word for killing also isn’t used in a culinary context, so it would take substantial new evidence to show that.
[5] I mean “sympathetic” in the magical sense, exemplified in popular culture by the “voodoo doll”: the idea that a magical connection exists between similar things, so that things done to one will affect the other. This sort of curse was very common in the ancient Near East — Hittite treaties in particular often featured it. Most likely, each part of this section was accompanied by a physical ritual in the initial treaty agreement.
[6] This line is both broken and confusing. Something appears to be identified with Mati’el and his spirit (i.e. his personhood), but “thief” would only make simple sense if a human thief were punished as part of the ritual, which would be unusual. No better suggestion has been made, unless the term refers to an unknown kind of wax figurine.
[7] The context would seem to imply that an actual prostitute would be stripped at this point in the ritual, but it could merely intend to evoke a well-known mental image, as “this prostitute” is not stated explicitly.
