CONTRACT ON MINE CONTRACT ON MINE EXPLORATION FROM ATHENIAN LAW (IG II2 411) Cover Image

УГОВОР О ИСКОРИШЋАВАЊУ РУДНИКА ИЗ АТИНСКОГ ПРАВА (IG II2 411)
CONTRACT ON MINE CONTRACT ON MINE EXPLORATION FROM ATHENIAN LAW (IG II2 411)

Author(s): Gerhard Thür
Subject(s): History of Law
Published by: Правни факултет Универзитета у Београду
Keywords: Ancient Greek Law; Legal Epigraphy; Athenian Procedural Inscriptions; Mining Law; Lease

Summary/Abstract: The author analyzes a controversial epigraphic text excavated at the Athenian Acropolis. Different interpretations of its content are conceivable to be offered due to the deficiency of the text. This may affect a decision if the text can or cannot be included into collection of Athenian procedural inscriptions that the author is working on, after publishing remarkable collection of procedural inscriptions from Arcadia. Legal relationships described in the text are interpreted as a contract between a person with the state (polis) related to exploitation of a silver mine, as a contract of arable land lease or as a contract on new silver mine founding, where the party is not a simple mine lessee, but a specialist in ore finding with a better standing – a so-called prospector. The author is of opinion that if a prospector (person who is entitled to detect the location for exploitation) was permitted to search for ore in a certain area, no other person was to be entitled to enter or dig to explore (not even the owner). The issue of compensation or share in income was probably solved indirectly, when the owner gives to lease the surrounding land to another private person – mine lessee, who has to perform related works and activities in connection with exploitation of the mine (ergasteria). Without such a “working area” (ergasterion) silver mine rented by the state was worthless. If successful, the prospector was not paid on a fixed basis, but obtained a share of income from the mine. The state leased it out and, for 25 years, every second year the prospector got the rent. It seems that contract with prospector points to a sovereign right of the state over ore.

  • Issue Year: 55/2007
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 34-43
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Serbian