• 1 (The Account) of Flour
  • 2 In Strato’s Tower: 5 artabas
  • 3 In Jerusalem: 6
  • 4 In Jericho: 5
  • 5 In Abella: 3
  • 6 In Sourabitta: 9 artabas
  • 7 In Lakasa: 4
  • 8 In Noe: 10
  • 9 In Heit: 7
  • 10 In Baitanata: 14
  • 11 In Kudisos: 2
  • 12 In Ptolemais: 4
  • 13 In total, 79 artabas, which corresponds to 59¼ artabas when recalculated according to the artaba containing 40 choinikes (the ¾-artaba).

Transl. by Marek Dospěl

FLOURAL NOTES. Written in 259 B.C.E., this papyrus document (P. Cairo Zen. 1 59004) was found in the archive of personal and business papers of a Ptolemaic bureaucrat Zenon in his hometown of Philadelphia in the Fayum Oasis, Egypt. It is an account of flour used by Zenon during his business trip in Palestine. The first, left column of this front page lists 11 towns in which Zenon obtained flour. The second column, as well as the two columns on the reverse page, provide an account of flour quantities given to bakers to make bread.

Known as Kudisa, Kedesa, or Kadasa from the writings of Josephus Flavius, Tel Kedesh appears in this flour account as the penultimate stop on Zenon’s business trip in Palestine. Zenon apparently took on 2 artabas of flour at Kedesh before proceeding to Ptolemais (Akko) on the Mediterranean coast, from where he sailed back to Egypt. Paleobotanical evidence collected from storage jars at Tel Kedesh may reveal just what kind of flour Zenon and his travel companions used to make bread.