March
25
/ 2014
I agree that I have made a contract with you on the condition that I guard your property, a vineyard near the village Panoouei, from the present day until vintage and transport, so that there be no negligence, and on the condition that I receive in return for pay for all of the aforementioned time. These are the words written by a guard hired to protect a vineyard in ancient Egypt, as described in a new paper published in the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists. The text has come to light thanks to the translation of a 1,600-year-old labour contract scrawled in Greek on a piece of papyrus, dating back to a time when the Roman Empire was
