A loan dated by the sabbatical year

A debt acknowledgment from Wadi Murabba'at is dated by the shemittah in the second year of Nero. A private loan document uses the release cycle as its calendar.

In plain words

A private loan from Wadi Murabba'at is dated by the sabbatical year, in Nero's second year. The parties were not making a point; they were dating a debt, and that is the strongest kind of evidence that the practice was real.

The mechanism

RELEASE, OBSERVED IN A PRIVATE CONTRACT — the strongest class of evidence a practice can have, because the parties were not making a point. They were dating a debt.

How it was checked

• EvidenceT7 PRIMARY DOCUMENT / MEASUREMENT; Status: COMMITTED; a release
• Letter eraTHE WITNESSES AND THE TURN 44 to 312 AD
• SourcesPRIMARY DOCUMENT — the Wadi Murabba'at papyri