Bactrian Manuscript Listing Sheep Supplied from Various Named Individuals

CIRCA 5TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.

7 3/4" (3.81 grams, 19.5cm long).

Recto bearing twenty-one incomplete lines of cursive Avestan text concerning a list of sheep supplied, reading: '...which from...a list for... and (?) which from the requisition...in the city...[from] Yolan: three sheep.-From Kh[...]yog: three sheep.-From [...]z: two sheep.-From Pap: three sheep.-From Nat-[...]nd: two sheep.-From Waraz-warahran:...sheep.-From Bagwye-shan: one sheep.-From Yolwyeshan: two sheep.-From Mihrbaman: one sheep.-From Bag-mareg: one sheep.-From Wind-fruman-yamsh together with Piyar-yamsh: one sheep.-From Bakh-arag:...sheep.-...-[From...]man: one sheep.-From Bib-sen: one sheep.'; verso bearing five incomplete lines of text; accompanied by a typed transcription and translation of the text, additional contextual information and bibliographic references. [No Reserve]

Provenance

David Lindahl, Sweden, 2001.
Collection of Bruce Ferrini, USA.
Central London gallery.
Property of a UK collector.

For UK buyers only, this item is not exportable from the UK.

Published

Sims-Williams, N., Four Bactrian Economic Documents. Bulletin of the Asia Institute, 1997, New Series, vol.11 (1997), pp.3-15, doc 4; and Sims-Williams, N., Bactrian Documents I: Legal and Economic Documents (revised edition) (Studies in the Khalili Collections Volume III), London, The Nour Foundation, 2012, MS ak; and Bactrian Documents III, pl.115a-b.

Footnotes

The Bactrian kingdom of southern Transoxiana was only known from a handful of inscriptions, seals and coins until circa 1991, when a cache of around 150 documents was discovered in an archive belonging to the ruler of the city of Rob, dating between the 4th-8th century AD, leading to major developments in the understanding of the Bactrian language. Many of these documents were sold on the art market and collected by Dr. David Naser Khalili for his Nour Foundation.

CONDITION

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LOT 1085