Third Time’s the Charm? A Document from the Reign of Claudius and the Councillor Priests, Redux

Abstract

This paper offers a new edition of P.Mich. inv. 664, a Demotic text that has already been edited twice and received miscellaneous reading corrections; further improvements can be made. The papyrus is a receipt issued by the crocodile priesthood of Soknebtunis and is also the oldest text yet known that records in Demotic the payment of the so-called “Temple Tax on Property Transfer.” It is therefore of no small importance for our understanding of the organisation of the priesthood and the fiscal status of the Tebtunis temple in the first century AD.