Dikaiou Nesos (meris of Polemon)

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Documentation
The village Dikaiou Nesos is attested by 105 references (in 71 documents) ranging from 250 BC (P.Lille Gr. I 44) to the seventh and eighth centuries AD (e.g. Stud.Pal. X 245, AD 700-799). An unusually high percentage of the texts date from the Byzantine period. No attestations from the first century BC or the fifth century AD have thus far been found, but overall, we can track the village rather well from the early Ptolemaic down to the early Arab period.

Name
The name Δικαίου Νῆσος is derived from a local land owner, perhaps the estate owner Dikaios who is attested in the Zenon archive (cf. P.L.Bat XXI, p. 315). In demotic the name is simply translated as t3 m3y n Tygs "the island of Dikaios".
The village name is frequently abbreviated into Δικαίου, though the full name, with Νῆσος, remains in use until the early third century AD (SB VI 9155, AD 223). The most elaborate form, ἡ Δικαίου Νῆσος is rare; once it is replaced by ἡ Δικαίου Κώμη (P.Enteux. 19, second half of the third century BC). This is also the earliest attestation for the status of 'kome'. In SB VIII 9777 (dated AD 597), Dikaiou Nesos is called a 'kome' as well as an 'epoikion'; seventh century texts call it an 'epoikion' or a 'chorion'.
The variant ἡ Δικαία Νῆ(σος) in P.Tebt. III 1027 must be a lapsus. Δικέου in Stud.Pal. III 423 (AD 500-599) and Τικέου (Stud.Pal. X 271, AD 700-799; Stud.Pal. X 289, AD 600-699) are mere spelling variants.

Location
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According to P.Tebt. I 24Vo, P. Graux III 30 and P.Berl.Frisk 1 XXXII Dikaiou Nesos was in the meris of Polemon. Most villages found in combination with Dikaiou Nesos are in the meris of Polemon, although some are in Themistos. Perhaps the village was near the border between the two merides, towards the north-west of the Polemon meris. According to P.Lille I 44 and 45 it belonged to the nomarchy of Diogenes, which covered most of the meris of Polemon and the south of Themistos [cf. Héral 1992, pp.149-157].
A plot of catoecic land in Phylakitike Nesos is situated west of the pedia of Dikaiou Nesos; the dividing line is a canal. Dikaiou Nesos also had close bonds with Aristarchou Nesos; the two villages are taken together as a single entry in P.Tebt. II 609 and PSI VII 820 and are also mentioned side by side in P.Teb. I 24. The fact that three "island" villages are so close together no doubt points to a common water household.

Population
Some interesting details about the Greek settlers of Dikaiou Nesos are found in three contracts from CPR XVIII, which were registered in the village. All three involve cleruchs; in CPR XVIII 19 (231 BC) Epikrates, a Thracian cavalryman and 100 arouras-holder leases his kleros to Artabazes, a Macedonian cavalryman with a Persian name. CPR XVIII 20 and 21a are drawn up for Diodora from Pelle, the wife of Damon, a 100-arouras holder and cavalryman from Herakleia (CPR XVIII 20, 231 BC). She inherited a house with courtyard in Lysimachis, previously belonging to her brother (CPR XVIII 21a, 231 BC). Both Damon and Epikrates belong to the fifth hipparchy; presumably they were given land at Dikaiou Nesos shortly after it became an independent settlement, around the middle of the third century BC.

Land
For the hekatontarouroi Epikrates and Damon, see the section on population above.
All other references to land use date from the Roman period or later. Besides the usual receipts for wheat and barley, a lot of beans (κύαμος) were apparently cultivated in the village. Between July 17 to August 13 AD 42 a certain Eirenion transported no less than 16,972 artabas of beans and 314 artabas of lentils from Dikaiou Nesos by donkey (BGU III 802, passim). In
SB XVIII 13238 two arouras of ἰδιωτικὴ γῆ and 6.5 arouras of κατοικικὴ γῆ in Dikaiou Nesos are sold by a Roman woman (Julia daughter of Julius) to another lady. In the late sixth and early seventh century, some of the land of Dikaiou Nesos belonged to the estate of Flavius Strategius Paneuphemos (see Palme 1997c).

Economy
In the third century BC, Phanesis and Nektenibis are oil-sellers in Dikaiou (Petrie III 66a and P.Petrie III 66b). Two papyri from the same period, no doubt from the archive of Kleon and Theodoros, SB 24 16062 and an unpublished, mention work on dykes near Dikaiou Nesos. An ergasterion, perhaps a central office for the administration of tax grain [cf. Duttenhšfer 1993] is attested in 176 BC (P.Tebt. III 895). In PSI IV 379 (BC 248) a representative of Zenon receives 17 pigs from Petosiris, a swine herd at Dikaiou Nesos; P.Cairo.Zen. IV 59736 deals with workmen cutting vine roots, a rare indication for viticulture in Dikaiou Nesos. It is not until AD 597 that we hear again of a single aroura of ἀμπελικὴ γῆ in the pedia of the village, leased by Aurelius Paulus (SB VIII 9777)
In a tomos synkollesimos of the mid 2nd cent. AD at least 7 donkey-drivers of Dikaiou transport grain from the granaries to the harbours of the Polemon meris. P.Graux. III 30 (AD 155) mentions three demosioi ktenotrophoi, Herakleides, Ischyras and Theon. In P.Col.II 1Ro the same Herakleides is accompanied by two other donkey drivers, Pnepheros and Heron. Heron shows up again in P.Berl.Frisk. I xxxii (AD 155) as one of three donkey drivers from Dikaiou, together with Ischyras (probably not the same as in P.Graux. III 30) and Pakemis.

Religion
In Demotic texts Dikaiou Nesos is called village of Souchos. In the second half of the third century BC, there was a thesmophorion of the Greek goddess Demeter (P.Enteuxe. 19) in the village; for the cult of Demeter in the Fayum, see Thompson 1998.
By the Byzantine period, Dikaiou Nesos had become christianised, as is clear from names (e.g. Theodosia in SB VIII 9777 or Ioseph in Stud.Pal. III 540) and from the presence of a priest (πρεσβύτερος) Anoup in AD 573 (SB VI 9293).

Administration
The unpublished demotic P.Cairo dem. II 31164 mentions Harsiesis son of Onnophris as village scribe of Dikaiou Nesos and of "the island of Patous" (perhaps the Egyptian name of Aristarchou Nesos?) in the Ptolemaic period. A person named Panther, who is among a group of accused of fraud concerning crops (P.Tebt. I 24Vo; 117 BC) , might have been an official, though the reading/supplement ἀρχιφυλακίτης is very uncertain. A granary guard (θησαυροφύλαξ) is found in P.Tebt. III 1027 (183 BC or 159 BC).

Prosopography
For a list of people from Dikaiou Nesos, click here.

Bibliography

B. Van Beek, Mar 7 2003