The pi ni was considered to be an agricultural company with joint and several partners run by
the pittakiarch or else as a method of cultivating public land imposed by the administration:
the pittakiarch took large areas on lease and sublet most of it to other cultivators while
remaining liable to the tax authorities. In the twenty or so texts on the pittakia that are
currently available there is unless I am mistaken no evidence of forced cultivation or
subletting of the land nor any signs of solidarity between the members of the group. The role
of the pittakiarch remains undefined. What can be pointed out again is that two pittakiarchs
were at the same time pi liturgists exercising some control over the pittakia that several
cultivators were members of two pittakia at the same time and that there were lasting
relationships between some members of a pittakion also noteworthy is the transfer of some
plots of land made from one pittakion to another. In addition we find a number of people not
attested elsewhere and new toponyms Greek or Egyptian in origin indicating the location of
cultivated land.
