The Parchments of Avroman (or Awraman) are three

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

documents, found in 1909 in a cave in the

Hawraman Avroman or Hawraman, (, ) is a mountainous region located within the provinces of Kurdistan Province, Kurdistan and Kermanshah Province, Kermanshah in western Iran and in north-eastern Kurdistan Region in Iraq. The main part of the Hawraman regio ...

region of Iranian

Kurdistan Kurdistan (, ; ), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo- cultural region in West Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based. G ...

. They were found in Tang-i Var, Kuh-e Salan Mountain, near the village of Shahr Hawraman. The documents were found in a sealed jar by a villager, and then sent to London in October 1913. The documents date from 88/87 BC to 33 AD, with two written in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and one in

Parthian Parthian may refer to: Historical * Parthian people * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery sk ...

. They document the sale of a vineyard and other land, and include the names of Pātaspak, son of Tīrēn and Awīl, son of Baænīn. They were translated by

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

Ellis H. Minns and published in the ''Journal of Hellenic Studies''.

References

1st-century manuscripts 1st-century BC manuscripts Archaeological discoveries in Iran 1909 in Iran Parthian language Manuscripts in Greek {{Archaeology-stub