On the question of the meaning of words τοῦ ἡμιολίου in the economic inscriptions of Ai-Khanum

Abstract

The subject of this research is the inscriptions 117 and 119 from Ai-Khanoum (Greco-Bactria, II century BC) according to numeration Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum (Part 2, Volume 1). It is very likely that they represent two copies of the same text, which survived in two variations. The goal of this work is to determine the meaning of words τοῦ ἡμιολίου appearing in these inscriptions, as well as the overall meaning of the inscriptions, the understanding of which depends on interpretation of these words. Relevance of such research is substantiated by the fact that the survived written sources on the economy of Greco-Bactria are extremely brief and fragmentary, therefore every single word matters for the scholars. The comparison of inscriptions of Al-Khanoum with the papyri of Zenon Archive is carried out for the first time. The papyri under consideration contain a range of textual parallels with the reviewed Greco-Bactrian inscriptions. It is concluded that based on the analogies from the mentioned Egyptian texts, the words τοῦ ἡμιολίου (verbatim “one and a half” in the genitive) are direct object to the words ἀπὸ κεραμίων δύο (“out of two amphorae”) and indicate pouring olive oil over from one amphora and half of another amphora. The author provides a new translation of the unified text of inscriptions 117 and 118. The field of application of the presented materials is the source studies of ancient world, economic history of Greco-Bactria, Hellenistic world and ancient world.