Aramaic receipts and title-deeds on clay tablets are formally distinguished in the 7th century B.C., although they are closely related juridical documents. Only two receipts are known at present and both have a triangular shape like loan contracts. Instead, titledeeds, often called sale acts, have a rectangular shape and are narrowest along the lines of writing. They are sealed on the upper edge of the tablet or in the upper part of the obverse. So far, there is only one Aramaic title-deed concerning a field and a second one fixing the boundary between two properties. Instead, four or five deeds concern the acquisition of persons, not necessarily slaves. Considering the state of the clay tablets and their somewhat inadequate edition, a new transliteration and translation of the operative parts of the deeds are provided below, omitting the lists of witnesses. Short comments are proposed also for the fragment of a title-deed dated in the 34th year of Nebuchadnezzar II.

The article examines two Aramaic contracts found on the island Elephantine and dating from the early fifth century B.C. The first one is a loan contract providing for payment of compound interest on silver lent: interest not paid timely is to be added to the capital and itself becomes interest-bearing at the same rate until actual repayment. If this is not done at an agreed date, the remaining debt is doubled. The second contract concerns delivery of barley and lentils from a ship to a royal store-house deserving a garrison. The parties are the ship-officer and functionaries acting on behalf of the store-house, where barley and lentils are supposed to be brought. It is a contract of delivery combining its acceptation on the ship and the foreseen completion of the contract in the store-house with expected financial results. Both contracts refer to silver “by the stone-weights of Ptah” and record its alloy.