This is one of a small but very distinctive group of Egyptian contracts, in which the woman addresses the man and says "you have made me your wife." For a similar contract, dated 510 B.C., see AET 6.2.A ; and a third example, P. Berlin 3078 dated 492 B.C., was translated by W. Spiegelberg, "Papyrus Libbey", pp.6-7 ( PDF ). All these examples are from the period of the Persian kings and of the native rulers who established themselves in opposition to the Persians. However it is clear that the conventional format of demotic contracts under Ptolemaic rule, in which the man addresses the woman and says "I have made you my wife," was also used in the earlier period; for instance, in P. Lonsdorfer dated 364/3 B.C. ( German translation by H. Junker : PDF ).
This contract provides crucial evidence for the date of the little-known ruler Khababash, because Peteharpres, the scribe who wrote the document, was almost certainly the scribe of another document, which is dated to 324 B.C. ( see AET 7.8.A ). Setairetbint had a second name, Thabis, and she lived on until at least 311 B.C. Some details about her subsequent life can be found in an 'archive' of papyrus rolls related to her family, the Archive of Teos and Stairbint alias Thabis.
The papyrus was bought in Cairo, and was published in 1907 by W. Spiegelberg ( PDF ). This translation is taken from K. Donker van Heel, "Mrs. Tsenhor", p. 64.
Regnal year 1, third month of the akhet season {Hathyr}, under Pharaoh (l.p.h.) Khababash. Setairetbint daughter of Petehorpakhrat, her mother being Tsenmin, has said to the pastophoros of Amenophis of the west of Thebes Teos son of Iuphau, whose mother is Neshorpakhrat:
You have made me your wife. You have given me 5 kite of silver, making 2½ staters, making 5 kite of silver again, as my woman's gift. If I repudiate you as husband and if I hate you or love another man, I will give you 2½ kite of silver making 1¼ staters making 2½ kite silver again out of this 5 kite silver makes 2½ staters makes 5 kite silver again, that you gave me as my woman's gift, and I will be far from you regarding the one-third of everything and every possession that I will acquire together with you. On your day of telling me that you will do, namely: 'Cause that a copy of the above contract is laid down in another papyrus,' I will cause that it will be laid down. I will include every word above in said contract. I will cause that it is completed with sixteen witnesses and I will give it to you, whereas I will not be able to fix another date with you on account of it, without negotiating any legal contract or any word on earth with you.
Scribe: Peteharpres, son of Pachas.
{ On the reverse are the signatures (only partly preserved) of 16 witnesses. }
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