We have some very nice specimens of double contracts from Elephantine in the south of Egypt. These are Greek contracts from the late fourth and early third century B.C. [see List Nos. 5-8].

Figure 1a shows a contract written twice on a papyrus sheet. The upper part of the sheet is cut halfway- through. In figure 1b, the upper part is rolled up, in figure 1c it is folded double, and in figure 1d it is sealed with three seals, which are made from clay. The following figures show how the lower part is rolled up.
        To seal part of a document, a papyrus fibre is put through a hole, called c on figure 1c, and tied around the part that is rolled up; part of the clay is pressed on it; then the papyrus fibre is wound once more around the roll and its end laid in the clay; finally, the rest of the clay is pressed over it.
         Subsequently, somebody writes next to the clay seals the names of those who have to seal the document. The names are written in the genitive ("(seal) of Mister X"). Then these persons impress their seal in the clay next to their name (see Plate). There are two cases where, as a consequence of this practice, a few letters of the name are covered by the clay, which has spread out through the pressure.

Now we come to the question: who seals the document? We are dealing with a type of contract that has to be signed by six witnesses, and called "six-witness contracts" (suggrafai; eJxamavrturoi) (8).  Normally, both contracting parties and the six witnesses apply their seals (9).  One of the witnesses is the person who will keep the contract under his surveillance, the so-called suggrafofuvlax, the guardian of the contract for as long as it runs (10). Therefore, the two parties and six witnesses, on average eight persons, have to put their seal-impression on three clay seals, viz. three, sometimes four impressions on one clay seal. The order of the names is not fixed in this early period.

At the end of the third century B.C., the degeneration of the six-witness contracts began, inter alia through the neglect of the scriptura interior (11).  Furthermore, the upper part of the papyrus-sheet is cut through no longer, but the upper text is simply rolled up and sealed with three clay seals [see List Nos. 11-17].
         The order of the names becomes more structured. The names are arranged into four groups of two names each, surrounding the three attached seals, now often lost [see list Nos. 12- 20].
 

By the end of the second century B.C., the parties and witnesses no longer impress their seals in the clay, although their name - in the genitive - still appears next to it. From then onwards only one person puts his imprint on the three clay seals. Thus the same seal-impression can be found three times. In the case of Pap.Lugd.Bat. XXII 17 [see List No. 15], for instance, Sarapis and Isis can be discerned on the two preserved seals. The third seal is lost. Was the impression made by one of the witnesses, or by the official who registered the contracts (12)?  Indeed, from the end of the second century B.C. onwards, the six-witness contracts were registered (13),  and the contents of the contracts were then secured by this registration and to a lesser degree by the seals [see List Nos. 14-20].
         From some point in the Ptolemaic era onwards, only two seals were used, one between the first two pairs of names, and another between the last two pairs [see Figure 3; List Nos. 18-20]. In the end, the seals of six-witness contracts seem no longer to have had any impression in the clay at all [see List No. 20].
 

P. Cair. Zen. I 59003 from the third century B.C. [see List No. 10] testifies to another system of sealing a six-witness contract: the scripura interior is sealed with six seals, not accompanied by names. They are apparently those of the six witnesses.
         It is stipulated by law that the scriptura interior of the contract is to be sealed by the witnesses (and perhaps also by the contracting parties) (14),  otherwise the contract is invalid, as a man who wanted to rent a piece of land discovered (15).