Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 90 facts for kids
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 90 (P. Oxy. 90) is an ancient receipt written in Greek. It was found in the old Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. This special piece of papyrus shows that someone paid for wheat a long time ago, around 179-180 AD. Today, you can find it at the British Museum in London. It's also known by another name: P. Lond. 3 p. XXXII no. 761.
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What is Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 90?
This ancient document is a receipt, much like the ones we get today after buying something. It's similar to another papyrus called Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 89. The receipt says that a person named Clarus, who used to be an agoranomus (a market official), had put a certain amount of wheat into a public storage building.
The Secret Code
What makes this papyrus extra interesting are its last two lines. These lines are written using Greek letters, but they don't seem to make sense as Greek words. Experts think they might be a cryptogram, which is a kind of secret code! It's like a puzzle from ancient times that we still haven't solved.
Discovery and Size
This papyrus was found by two explorers, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, in 1897 in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. They published their findings in 1898. The piece of papyrus is quite small, measuring about 103 millimeters (about 4 inches) tall and 80 millimeters (about 3 inches) wide.
What the Papyrus Says
The text on Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 90 is a formal record. It states that Clarus, the former market official, deposited 8 artabae and 4 choenices of wheat. These were ancient Greek units of measurement for grain. An artaba was a large measure, and a choenix was a smaller one. So, it was a record of a specific amount of wheat being stored.
See also
In Spanish: Papiro Oxirrinco 90 para niños
