This papyrus from the Zenon archive can be dated precisely to the January 5, 254 BCE. This is beacuse the beginning of the text contains a dating formula that tells us exactly when the papyrus was written. Many other papyri do not contain these types of formulae, and must instead be dated on the basis of paleography, the letter forms of the hand that wrote the text.
The first character in this papyrus is an abbreviation for the word ἔτοϲ, or year. This is then followed by a number that indicates the regnal year of the current king, in this case, Ptolemy II. The dating formula then records the name of the month and the date. The year and the month are in the genetive case, while the date is in the dative. In this case, the month, Ἁθύρ, is an Egyptian word, and has not been declined. The Egyptians used a lunar calendar of twelve 30-day months; the final month was followed by 5 holy days to align the lunar calendar with the solar year. The months of the Egyptian calendar and their modern equivalents are:
Egyptian Months |
Modern Months |
Agricultural
Cycle |
| Φαῶφι | September | Nile peaks and begins to recede |
| Ἁθύρ | October | Planting of crops, olive and date harvest |
| Χοίακ | November | Cultivation |
| Τῦβι | December | Cultivation |
| Μεχείρ | January | New season of olives and vines |
| Φαμενώθ | February | Preparation for harvest |
| Φαρμοῦθι | March | Preparation for harvest |
| Παχών | April | Grain harvest |
| Παῦνι | May | Grain harvest. threshing |
| Θώθ | June | Rise of the nile, end of harvest |
| Ἐπείφ | July | Nile in flood stage |
| Μεσορή | August | Highest point of Nile flood |
| αἱ ἐπαγόμεναι | August (extra days) |