The Vineyard, the Vintage, and the Making of Wine in the Ancient Orient. 6l 



not in kind, not npoc^ Y8vr]p.aTa, as the phrase is used in the 

 documents, but in money, npdc, dpyupiov. This was already 

 the rule in the Ptolemaic times i. For instance in the petition 

 ofKXeoov AiOTijioo'^: .-TapaYeYpap-iJLai tcoi .-rpdKTopi cue 6[cpeiAtov] 

 jrpoc rd dp..-re>aKd toO Xl-Tq i. e., "I was noted down by the 

 praetor for being ninety drachmae in arrears for the land tax 

 of the vineyard of the thirtieth year". Since the third century 

 B. C. the land tax for vineyards was always paid in cash and 

 Wilcken notes only one exception. He cites line 30 ff. of the 

 decree of Rosette, according to which Ptolemy V., Epiphanes 

 freed the temples of Egypt in the eigth year of his reign 

 from xfiq d[:^0TeTaYJp.svr](; dprd<^i]q Xi]i dpoupai rfiq iepd; Y^l^^ 

 Ktti Tfjq dpuireAiTiSoq 6p.oi[coq] to Kepdp-iov xf^i dpoupai. The 

 temples up to that time thus paid one keramion of wine per 

 arura of vineland. 



The Demotic ostracon D45, published and translated in 

 Theban Ostraca, Univ. of Toronto Libr., I9I3, dating back to 

 102 B. C, is another document which shows that the vine- 

 yard tax was paid in kind. "Herakleitos, son of Aristippus, 

 has paid for the rent of his vineyard in the cornland of Ophi, 

 which was conveyed before Amonrasonther the great god, 

 together with his wine for one vineyard two (keramion of) 



wine for his vineyard (and) for the (of) the produce 



half a (keramion of) wine, making 2V2 (keramia of) wine. 



They are received by reckoning(.?). Written by son 



of Khapokhonsis, year 15 = year 12, Thoth(.'*) day 25 etc." 3. 



In the well known comparison, the prophet Isaiah speaks 

 of the laying out of a vineyard (DID) in Palestine. For the vine- 

 culture a sloping tract of ground was selected 4. Care was 

 taken to rid the ground from the superabundance of stones^. 

 This was a task which the Hebrews could undertake to do 

 even during the Sabbatical year*". According to Pliny'' the 



II See Wilcken, o. c , pp. 150 and 151. 2) Petr. Pap. II, 13, 17. 



3)' I follow the translation of Thompson, but change the word "garden" 

 to "vineyard". Km has both meanings. 



4) Is. 5. i; Jer. 31, 5; Amos 9, 13; Jo. 4, 18; Ps. 80, ii etc. 



5) Mishna, I, 6; Is. 5, 2 (bpD). 6) Mishna, Shev. 



7) Hist, nat., XVII, 35. The wine gained from low growing vines was 

 superior to that gained from vines trained on espaliers. 



