שטר מכר ממדבר יהודה: נחל צאלים 9

The largest in the still unpublished Naḥal Ṣe'elim group of documents is an undated deed of sale written in Aramaic on papyrus. This is a double document, i.e. a document written twice on the upper and lower parts of a papyrus sheet, the upper part being then folded and sealed. The document was torn into several pieces some of which were lost. Most of the fragments have now been replaced while a large part of the document has been reconstructed, including all the nine lines of the upper text which are almost fully preserved. The document is written in the name of the seller — Yaʿakov Bar Shimʿon — and by himself. The property — a field or a garden — was sold to a man by the name of Yehuda (probably a neighbour). A single place-name is mentioned — ykim — which may perhaps be identified with a site near Hebron known today as Khirbet Bani Dār or Khirbet Yakin. The script is a cursive Jewish hand from approximately the late Herodian period. The variation in the orthography of certain words and particles occurring in the text (mainly m/mn, d/dy, dnh/dnn, as well as the alternation of h/' at the end of words) indicates the increasing influence of the spoken vernacular on the written Aramaic language that occurred in Judaea in the late Second Temple period. The formulation of the deed and its structure are similar to other sale deeds from the Judaean desert.