Title: List of Supplies for Bayasa (Bessus)
Date: Kislev, year 1 of Artaxerxes V, corresponding to November–December 330 BC
Location: Bactria
Materials: ink on leather
Dimensions: 33 x 39.5cm
Accession Number: IA 21
Other Notes:
Bayasa is the Aramaic spelling of the Iranian name familiar through Greek transmission as Bessus. Bessus proclaimed himself king under the name Artaxerxes V after he killed Darius III, and was subsequently killed when he fled from Alexander to Sogdiana.
The document lists provisions for him in Maithanaka, when he passed from Bactra (modern Balkh) to Varnu. These include 1 horse; 1 sheltered bovine; 1 calf; 2 grazing bovines; 1 donkey; 33 sheltered sheep; 33 lambs; 100 grazing sheep; 5 geese; 30 chickens; and specified quantities of fine flour; white flour; plain flour; lapis-lazuli-coloured (?); barley meal; spices; cheese (pieces); white oil; oil for fire; vinegar; sour milk; wine of Chistakana (?); [wine of[ Arachosia; and fodder.
Script:
written in Official Aramaic, in two columns
Bibliography:
J. Naveh & S. Shaked, Aramaic Documents from Ancient Bactria (Fourth Century BCE), London 2012, no.C1, pp.174–85.
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