Papyrus Contract

It is very difficult to know exactly what life was like for the Ancient Romans’ daily life. Few events were recorded, mostly important ones, and even those were dramatized for the reader’s enjoyment. Fortunately, these ancient civilizations kept some records of their daily transactions, such as loans, bills, contracts, and receipts, as well as a few letters. These records, which were made on one of the first writing surfaces, papyrus, have been excavated from sites in Egypt, where they have been preserved by the arid desert. Many of these contracts give insight into the types of entertainment and festivities that were held. One papyrus from the collection in the Hatcher Library Papyrology Archive describes a contract between Artemisia, an elite woman, to Isadora, a castanet dancer. Because this piece has two different styles of handwriting on it, there is a possibility that Artemisia could write, and that she wrote this contract herself. Although, she very well could have used two separate scribes to transcribe the message. In the translation, Artemisia states:
I wish to engage you with two other castanet dancers to perform at the festival at my house for six days beginning with the 24th of the …show more content…
In addition to the money that Isadora and her fellow dancers are being paid, they were also fed and guarded, along with their travel accommodated. Though this transaction seems insignificant, it grants insight to the worth of certain types of entertainment and shows that some women were able to handle money. Artemisia may have been in control of her own assets, something very unusual for the time, because women were generally required to have a male guardian of some sort, even if it was only for show. Typically women are mentioned in terms of their guardians, but in this contract, Artemisia gives no mention of any men, possibly meaning that she did not have any sort of financial