בתכן אצלם" - חידה מן החידות של מגילת הנחושת"

The phrase בתכן is written five times, with slight modifications, in the Copper Scroll (3Q15): V: 7; XI: 1, 4, 11, 15. The interpretations given by Milik (tout près de là), Allegro (1960: inside them figured coins; 1964: arranged side by side) and Lehmann (inside them defaced coins) are unsatisfactory for several reasons. The author suggests a new, paleographically sound reading: כתבן אצלם = "their dockets with them". These dockets were sherds, put inside the tithe vessels, specifying the kind of tithe or the kind of agricultural product contained in them. Such dockets are referred to in Rabbinical literature, and samples of them have been found in the Masada excavations.