Heqanakht letter 1

Some drawings and pictures of relevance

Send to: Heqanakht residence, Nebsyt

Priest Hequanakht to Merisu.

All the irrigated land is your responsibility, and many people are dependent on this land. You are the accountable person. You are in charge of scheduling farmwork. Make sure the seed grain is stored safely, and watch out for theft. You are the accountant. Take good care of my estate.

Arrange for Nakht Hetiah and Sanebnot to go to Perhaa to sow about 7 acres of farmland on lease. The lease should be paid with the household cloth from here, I mean there. Take the cloth to Perhaa, and trade if for grain. Plant only what can be rented for the cloth, which I ordered to be woven. Get it valued in Nebsyt, and only lease what it’s worth. If everything is right, you should be able to lease 7 acres. Plant half with our seed, the other 3.5 acres in commodity barley, from Khepeshyt.

Don’t buy just any seed, but go to Hau the younger. If he doesn’t have any, then you will have to go to Herenefer. He is in charge of irrigated lands in Khepshyt.

Look, before I came here You set aside enough seed barley for 5 acres. Don’t skim any from this. You need to make sure not to use the seed barley for money, you have done this in the past and its been a pain for me to deal with.

Look, with barley, 5,200 liters yield from 10 acres of land, itself produced from 375 liters of delta barley grown on 1/2 acre of land, is not a bad yield. They say 14 acres of land should produce 7,500 liters of barley. (1 dar should yield 100 sacks). Don’t spend even a cup from the seed barley you are sending.

It’s not a year for you to think I’m going to be generous, nor will your father, nor your brother.

Now, as for everything Nakht Heti will do in Perhaa, mind this, He will need a month’s salary, which is 75 liters of barley. Also an additional 37 liters for his needs, to be given on the first of the month. If this is not how you spend it, I’ll take it out of your salary. If I say to deliver a sack of barley per month, make sure it’s not an 80% full sack per month. Ok.

Now, whats this, sending Sihathor with old, dry barley bought from Djedsut, he was supposed to bring 750 liters of fresh barley, which is worth less. Look at you, eating farm fresh barley for meals, and I’m out here in the desert. Now that you are in charge, do you see how many errors you make? If you send me traded barley in order to stockpile the farms barley, what am I to say? You have it too good. And if you keep sending me dry barley calculated by the volume of fresh barley, then I’ll stop calculating your salary completely. 

Now, wasn’t I just saying, “Sneferu is all grown up?” Take care of him. Give him a salary. Say hello to Sneferu, my eldest son, a thousand times, a million times. Follow everything as is written. When the land floods, he should plow with you and Anubis, and when he can, Sihathor. Watch him closely. After you plow send Sneferu to me.

Have him bring 150 liters of emmer, along with all the barley in storage, but only after keeping enough to pay yourselves till harvest.

Don’t neglect anything about which I write. I can see, it’s going to be a year when a man will need to work for his master.

Now, as I am doing here and also in Sinwi, I am only farming flax. Don’t rent these lands to just anyone. Moreover, anyone you find who wants to lease a farm, first talk to P’s son Khentekhtai about him. However, you should do barley in our irrigated fields. Don’t do emmer. But if it’s a wet year, you should plant it in emmer.

Take good care of Anubis and Snefru. Your fate is hitched to theirs. Take good care, they are more important than all other considerations. Don’t be neglectful.

I want you to get rid of Senen, the housemaid. Whenever Sihathor returns with this letter she needs to be gone. Not one more day! You are the one who let her do these things to my 2nd wife. Have I ever allowed things like this to happen to you? Has she done anything bad to you? Greetings to my mother Ipi a thousand times, a million times. Greetings to Hetepet, and the whole household, and Nefret. Now, what to do about the ill treatment of my 2nd wife? Get it over with.

You have been delegated my powers. Use those to do these things. And have an accounting sent of the costs of the farming in Perhaa. Be careful, don’t forget things.