κριθῆς μάτια δύο

[maryh10000]

A phrase from a Roman ostraka in the eastern desert, written in Greek, around 100 AD, translated as "two matias of barley". Anyone know how much barley that is? How much is a "matia" of something? It's supposed to be an "Egyptian measure of capacity" according to Liddell Scott Jones.

[spiros]

ματίον -ον, τό meas. mation, Egypt. meas. of capacity (1/12 of an artaba) APPATR. 65.381C PTEBT, 314.18 (IIE) 4 also μάττιν ΙΟΜΟΒΟΗ. Prat. 161.
— Brill dictionary

The artaba equals 48 choenices or 72 x estai. Its implied size in metric terms is thus 38.78 litres, and in Roman terms 4 1/2 basic modi
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20181077
LacusCurtius — Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

The term μάτιον appears only in Suda: (M 285) μάτιον: εἶδος μέτρου· “mation: type of measure,” but hardly in any other lexicographical source. The scholia to Aristophanes (Clouds 451b) include the same explanation as Suda for the term ματιολοιχός “devourer of meal,” and Hesychius refers to a homonymous word without referring to this meaning. The term is indeed of Egyptian origin from Dem. md3t, a measure for dates, and is widely attested in the Greek papyri in more than 250 hits in papyri.info from the third century BCE to the seventh CE.
How Egyptian is the Greek of Septuagint?: Some Lexical Notes in: Journal for the Study of Judaism Volume 54 Issue 4-5 (2023)

Περικλῆς Σαραπᾶτ̣ι τ̣ῷ
κυρίῳ μου π̣α̣τ̣ρ̣ὶ χαίρειν.
παράσχου τῷ ἀδελφῷ Ἀμ[μ]ωνίῳ
τῷ καμηλάτῃ κριθῆς μάτια
5ἑκατὸν τεσσεράκοντα.
ἐρρῶσθαί σε ε̣[ὔχο]μαι,
ἀδελ̣φ̣έ̣.
ε̣ ἰν[δι]κ̣(τίωνος) Μεχείρ̣ [⁦ -ca.?- ⁩]
aegyptus.90.43 = HGV  Aegyptus 90 (2010) S. 43         = Trismegistos 219740

[maryh10000]

Thanks! Just what I was looking for.