Treatment of Criminals in Ancient Kemet

The Treatment of Criminals in Ancient Egypt: Through the New Kingdom Author(s): David Lorton Source: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 20, No. 1, Special Issue on The Treatment of Criminals in the Ancient Near East (Jan., 1977), pp. 2-64 Published by: BRILL Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3632049 . Accessed: 05/12/2013 20:18 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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andSocialHistoryof the Orient,Vol. XX, PartI Journalof theEconomic

THE TREATMENTOF CRIMINALSIN ANCIENT EGYPT THROUGH THE NEW KINGDOM 1) BY

DAVID LORTON (Baltimore)

SI.I. The merits of the ancientEgyptianlegal system canbe inferred from the fact that of all such systems in the Near East, only that of Egypt earned the respect of the Classical world. This is explicitly x) Since this paper is addressed to an interdisciplinaryaudience, an attempt has been made to avoid lengthy philological discussions and to simplify references.In dealing with the Old Kingdom materials,I have essentially followed the important recent studies by Goedicke, KDAR and PRAR-though my renderings are sometimes a little freer-with additional references to Urk. I. With regard to the later materials, reference is made to one more text publications, and to English translations. The examples from earlier periods are quoted at greater length than those from the New Kingdom, since they are less familiar to non-Egyptologists, and partly to convey the "flavor" of Egyptian legal documents. Those interested in further pursuing the passages quoted can find ample bibliographiesby referring to the works cited. List of Abbreviated Titles AHAW der Heidelberger Akademieder Wissenschaften Abbandlungen Studien Recht Recbt, tr. Bente and Raecke Lurje, Zum altdgvptischen Altdgypt. (Weimar, 1971) ANET3 Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relatingto the Old third edition (Princeton, 1969) Testament, ARE Breasted,AncientRecordsof Egypt (Chicago, 1906-1907) ASAE Annalesdu ServicedesAntiquitisde l'Egypte BIFAO Bulletin de l'Institut Franfais d'ArchiologieOrientaleau Caire CASAE Cahiers supplimentairesaux Annales du Service des Antiquitis Period Community Cern?, A Community of Workmenat Thebesin the Ramesside (Bibliotheque d'Etude 50o) Culture Wilson, TheCultureof AncientEgypt (Chicago, x19 I) EG3 to the Study Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar,Being an Introduction of Hieroglyphs,third edition (London, 1957) Seidl, Einfiihrungin die dgyptische vum Rechtsgeschichte Ende des Einfibrung bis NeuenReiches(Agyptologische Forschungen Io) Sethe, Erliduterungen Erlduterungen (Leipzig, 1927) ZudenAegyptischen Lesestiicken

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TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT

3

"Esquisse"

Capart, "Esquisse d'une histoire du droit penal 6gyptien",

Gita

in Wien Junker, BerichtdiberdievonderAkademieder Wissenschaften Kosten mit Dr. Wilhelm unternommenen t auf gemeinsame Pe/iZaeus Grabungen auf demFriedhofdes Alten Reichesbei denPyramidenvon Giza (Denkschriften der OsterreichischeAkademie der Wissen-

Revuede l'Universite de Bruxelles 5 (1899-1900), 305-338

schaften, 1931-1955)

Journalof theAmericanResearchCenterin Egypt Journalof EgyptianArchaeology Journalof Near EasternStudies Lorton, The Juridical Terminology of InternationalRelations in EgyptianTexts ThroughDyn. XVIII (Baltimore, 1974) KDAR Goedicke, K 'niglicheDokumenteaus dem Alten Reich (Agyptologische Abhandlungen 14) Harris, ed., TheLegacyof Egypt, second edition (Oxford, Legacy I97x) Peet, TheMayerPapyriA & B (London, 1920) MayerPapyri MDAIK des DeutschenArchaologischen InstitutsAbteilungKairo Mitteilungen DeutscheAkademie MIO Mitteilungendes Institutsfir Orientforschung, der Wissenschaften ZuBerlin Erman, NeuigyptischeGrammatik,second edition (Leipzig, 1933) NiiG Die Neudgyptizismen vor der Amarnazeit: StudienZur Kroeber, Neuiigyptizismen Entwicklungderaigyptischen SprachevomMittlerenZumNeuenReich

JARCE JEA JNES JT

Ostrakaund Papyri

Papyrusof the

Late Middle

Kingdom PRAR PrimitiveLaw RdeT RIDA3 SPA W Studien

(Potsdam, 1970)

Allam, HieratischeOstraka und Papyri aus der RamessidenZeit (Tiibingen, I973)

Hayes, A Papyrusof the Late Middle Kingdomin the Brooklyn Museum [Papyrus Brooklyn 3,.1446]

(New York, 1955)

aus dem Alten Reich Goedicke, Die privaten Rechtsinschriften (Beihefte zur WienerZeitschriftfiir die Kundedes Morgenlandes, 5. Band)

Diamond, PrimitiveLaw, Past andPresent(London, 1971) i la philologieet a l'archiologieigyptiennes Receuilde travauxrelatifs et assyriennes Revueinternationale des droitsde l'antiquiti,third series der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Sit.Zyngsberichte desPharoanenSpiegelberg, StudienundMaterialienZumRechtswesen

reichesder Dynast. XVIII-XXI

1892)

(c.

z

v. Chr.) (Hannover,

oo--ooo

Tomb-Robberies Peet, The Great Tomb-Robberies of the TwentiethEgyptianDynasty Urk. I Urk. IV

(Oxford, 1930)

Sethe, Urkundendes Alten Reichs, Urkunden des ;agyptischen Altertums, erste Abteilung (Leipzig, 1933) Sethe and Helck, Urkundender i8. Dynastie, Urkunden des

igyptischen Altertums, vierte Abteilung and Berlin, 19555-1958)

(Leipzig,

1927-1930

in der altiigyptischen Verfahrensrecht Allam, Das Verfahrensrecht Arbeitersiedlung von Deir e/-Medineh(Tiibingen, 1973)

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4

D. LORTON

stated by Diodorus Siculus2), and those who choose not to follow his assertionthat Lycurgusand Solon visited Egypt and studiedher laws 3) must neverthelessacknowledge that the very existence of the tradition is suggestive. The divine origin of Egyptian law was acknowledged by no less distinguisheda legal figure than Cicero4). A particularobject of admiration was the Egyptian practice of written legal briefs 5), alreadyattestedin Dynasty V 6). ? 1.2. Though the Egyptians apparently did not progress to an abstracttheory of law or the developmentof a legal profession, remaining throughout their history at the level called by Thdodorides7) "legal empiricism",their respectfor and fondness of the law is attested to not only by Diodorus 8), but perhaps most eloquently by the fact that a juridicalprocedureof the Old Kingdom came to occupy a central place in Egyptian funerary beliefs as the concept of the "Last Judgment"9). The early kings responsible for the transition to the historicalperiod must have been concerned with reconciling the laws of the petty chieftainshipsof Upper Egypt, and the legal system of Lower Egypt at the time of the Unification.Further,the rapiddevelopment of the economy which must have followed the Unification and the drainingof the Nile marshesthrough large-scaleirrigationworks 10) undoubtedlyincreasedthe numberof legal questionswhich arosein the Erman and Grapow, ed., Wirterbuchder aegyptischen Spracheim Akademien(Leipzig, Auftrageder deutschen 1926-1963) ZAS Zeitschriftfir igyptischeSpracheundAltertumskunde 2) Libraryof History,i.68. 3) Ibid.,i.68, 96 and 98. On Solon, see also Herodotus, Historiae,ii.x77. 4) De deorumnatura,iii.z2. 5) Diodorus Siculus, op. cit., i.75. 6) Urk. I. 13, 4. 7) In Legacy,291. On the development of law in prescientificsocieties, including those of the ancient world, see A. S. Diamond, PrimitiveLaw. Wb.

8) Op.cit., i.75.

9) See Anthes, JNES 13 (i954), 21-5I and 191 f. For discussions of the Last in denSargtexten(AgyptoloJudgment, see especiallyGrieshammer,DasJenseitsgericht in der igyptischen gische Abhandlungen zo) and Spiegel, Die Idee vom Totengericht Religion(Leipziger agyptologische Studien 2). io) See Wilson, Culture,9 ff.

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TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT

J

ordinary conduct of affairs11). In the case of a literate society, one would fully expect these factorsto have led at an earlydate to a written code of laws. Thus, it is not surprising that Diodorus refers to an eight-volume compilation of laws 12) and lists five lawgivers, the first of whom was "Mneues", i.e., Menes, the legendary first king of Egypt 13). Unfortunately, no such code has survived, with the exception of an unpublished fragment of a Demotic law code from Hermopolis of the third century B.C. 14). Until recently, confirmation of a written law has had to rest on indirectinferencesfrom statements in the literature, and some scholars, notably Frankfort 15)and Wilson 16),

have denied the existenceof such codes. However, we now know for a certainty that law codes did exist in Pharaonic times, thanks to the fact that a recently published papyrus of Dynasty XII date cites by subject matter five laws dealing with fugitives 17). 5 1.3 Most of the legal material which has survived from ancient Egypt consists of royal edicts and private contractsof sale, enowment, marriage,and the like. Consideringthe apparentsophisticationof the Egyptian legal traditions, as noted above, it is indeed unfortunate that so little of this materialhas survived from the first two thousand i i) On the relationship between economic development and the development of legal systems, see Diamond, op. cit., passim.

Iz) Op.cit.,i.75.

13) Ibid., i.94 f.; see also i.79. The other four lawgivers are Sasychis (apparently

intended for a monarch of the Old Kingdom), Seso6sis (Sesostris), Bocchoris, Amasis, and Darius. 14) P. Cairo Journal d'entrie 89127-30. According to the preliminary report by Mattha, Bulletin de l'Institut d'Egypte 23 (i941), 297-312, the document deals with

the tenure of arable land, the retention of real property, the assertion of title to property, litigation concerning the ownership of house-property,litigation between neighbors, and matters of inheritance and the rights of the eldest son. I wish to thank Professor Richard A. Parker for making Mattha's article available to me. On the text, see also ? 28.9 and n. 234 below. 15) TheBirth of Civilizationin the Near East (Doubleday Anchor Books, Garden City, 1956), 99, with n. 15.

16) Wilson et. al., Authorityand Law in the Ancient Orient(Supplement to the Journalof the AmericanOrientalSociety,No. 17), 5 ff. 17) Hayes, Papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdom49-5 2, with reference to a number

of passagesin the literaturewhich can now be definitelyregardedas referringto

written law.

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D. LORTON

years of Egypt's history18). Because of the nature and the paucity of the evidence which we possess, we have relatively little information from which we can reconstructthe history of the treatmentof guilty parties.Further,such informationas we do possess is concerned almost exclusivelywith offensesagainst the king (what we would call criminal offenses) or offenses against the king and god (sacraloffenses), rather than with offenses committed by one private party against another (civil offenses),thus yielding a ratherunbalancedpicture. Since scholars tend to pose questions accordingto the relativeavailabilityof answers, the present paper is, so far as I am aware, the first attempt to compile and analyze extensively the data relating to the punishment of criminals 19). ? 2. For lack of preserved codified law, we must seek information from documents which define certain acts as delicts and specify their sanctions. The earliest such document is the decree of the Dynasty V king Nefer-ir-ka-Reexemptingthe temple at Abydos from all forms of taxation: With regard to any man of the district who takes any royal mortuarypriests who are on a field of the god, for which they do priestly service in this district, (for) work of the (royal) property or any corv6e of the district,you shall send him to court (bwt-wr).[He himself] shall be given over [to the gra]nite(-quarry), and (his) harvest-yieldof barleyand emmer [shall be given to .. .]. With regard to any man of the district who takes any serfs who are on a field of the god (for) work of the (royal) property or any corv&eof the district,you is the ground-breakingmodern study of the juridicalaspects SS) Seidl, Einfiihrung of this material.A fundamentalstudy concerned with legal institutions of the Old Kingdom, though not confined to strictly legal material,is that of Pirenne, Histoire des Institutionset du Droit Privu de l'AncienneEgypte (Brussels, 1932-35). For more recent work on Old Kingdom materials,see Goedicke, KDAR and PRAR. Allam, is a major new study of the legal material from the workmen's Verfahrensrecht, at Deir el-Medina. The works just listed are importanthandbooks and studies village consulted by Egyptologists; there are in addition, of course, many articles on individual texts and problems. Older studies, still important though somewhat outdated, are Capart,"Esquisse", and Spiegelberg, Studien. i9) For a brief summaryof punishments,without mention of theoreticalimplicader Aegyptologie(Wiesbaden, 1956), tions, see Helck and Otto, KleinesWiirterbuch 359 f. Punishmentsin the Old Kingdom are summarizedby Goedicke, KDAR, 247 f. Wilson, Culture,242, has noted the earlier and later systems of punishment which will be discussed at length here.

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TREATMENT OF CRIMINALSIN ANCIENTEGYPT

7

shall send him to court. [He himself] shall be given over [to the gra]nite(-quarry), and (his) harvest-yieldof barley and emmer [shall be given to.. .]. Any magistrate, person attached to royal propertys0), or possessor of a (royal) income 21) who does (wrong), according to all that (my) majesty22) has commanded, shall be given over to the court. The land, the people and everything which was in his possession shall be taken 2").

If Goedicke's ingenious restorationof the lacuna is correct, the penal servitude in the granite quarriesis the forerunnerof penal servitude as attested in the Middle and New Kingdoms (see ? ? Io and 14-15 below). 5 3. A private documentfrom early Dyn. VI recordingthe terms of a mortuaryendowment seems to indicate that unjust litigation will fall under the purview of the royal courts: With regard to any mortuary priest of the mortuary endowment who shall turn on and litigate [against his colleague] who has joined the mortuarypriests [of the mortuary foundation, he will be accused in] the name of the king [and.. .] 24).

The mannerin which a society views a specific delict can be deduced from the nature of the penalty: compensationto the injured party is typical of-to use modern terminology-civil offenses, while corporal punishment, imprisonment and death, none of which benefit the injuredparty,are indicativeof crimes25). Thus, from a documentof the Ramesside period (see 5 23 below), we learn that perjurywas at least sometimes considered a crime in civil, as well as criminal, cases, and this fact affords considerable confirmationof Goedicke's restoration in the text under consideration,in addition to its probabilityas based on the context. ? 4.1. An edict of exemptionmadeby the DynastyVI king PepiI for the temple of Min at Koptos contains the following provisions: 20o) For iry-ht-nswt,see Goedicke, MDAIK 2i (1966), 61 f., with p. 62, n. 2. i) For hty-wdb, see Ibid., 55. zz2) For the reading of the suffix-pronoun,see the remarkson nb(.i) "(my) lord" 2

by Baer, ZAS 93 (1966), 6, n. (q); Lorton,JT, 23) KDAR,

I2.

24. For the text, see Ibid., 23, fig. z; Urk. I, 171, 12-172, 5.

24) PRAR, 83. For the text, see Ibid., pl. 9.

25) See Diamond, PrimitiveLaw, 62 andpassim.

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8

D. LORTON With regard to an overseer of Upper Egypt who shall execute their conscription for a bureau of the royal conscription, the land administration,the registry, or the registry of sealed documents, in order to place them in any corv&e of the royal administration, it is participation in a criminal matter (w m mdw sbit pw) 26). With regard to any (royal) representative27),noble of the cataster of Upper Egypt 28), overseer of phyles of Upper Egypt, overseer of commissions, person attached to royal property29), overseer of cpr(?), or overseer of king's people who will recruitthem, in accordancewith a commission which is brought, for a bureau of the royal conscription, the land administration,the registry, or the registry of sealed documents, in order to place them in any corvee of the royal administration,it is participationin a criminal matter. With regardto a commission for the district which is brought to an overseer of Upper Egypt in order to do things according to it, after it is brought to the magistrates,(my) majestyhas commandedthat he (i.e., a recipient of this edict) remove (from it) the name(s)of the priestsand the name(s) of these functionaries of this temple. any magistrate,royal document-scribe, overseer of land scribes, or overseer of sealed document scribes, or any functionarieswho will receive a commission or who will write orders to place the name of the overseer of priests, a priest holding a benefice30), or functionaries of the following or the daytime service of Min, or any serf of the property of the temple of Min, or these workers and builders of Min in the Koptos District in any corvee of the royal administration,it is participationin a criminal matter31).

These formulationswith sbit are particularlyinstructive, for the root sbi has a technical reference to the commission of crimes32). These provisions are duplicatedin another edict of the same king 33), except that w3 m mdwsbitpw is replacedby msddtnswtpw m3' m3' "it is what the king hates,truly,truly".Fromthe parallelism,as well as the meaning of the second expression, it can be inferred that msddtnswtpw is the 26) The renderingof w3 m suits the context here, but the precise semanticconnotations of w3i are difficultto determinewith precision. For the most recent discussion, see Fecht, Der Vorwurfan Gott in den "Mahnworten des Ipu-wer",AHAW 1972/1, 224,

Nachtrag to p.

27) For

22, n. 23. see Goedicke,

KDAR,

91,

103,

I12

ff., 133, 181, 223 f.,

Lorton,JT,.ry-tp, 5o, n. 65. For 28) wr-tm3-Sm',see Goedicke, MDAIK z21(1966), 57-6I. 29) See n. 20 above. 30) For shd, see Goedicke, op. cit., 56, and KDAR,

207, n. i. ff. the For see Urk. KDAR, text, 8; Ibid., I, 28i, 7-282, 8. 87 31) fig. 32) See Lorton, op. cit., i66. 33) KDAR, 117 ff. and fig. 9; Urk. I, 284, 14-285, I8.

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242;

TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT

9

actualformulationof a guiltyverdict34). Unfortunately, these definitions of criminalitytake the place of an elaborationof the penalties, but even this providesus with indirectevidencethat the penalties musthavebeen standard 35). in The provisions the textsjustcitedarefollowedby remarks ? 4.2. concerningthenecessityof observingthe exemptions,publicationof the decrees,and the like. Near the end of each decreeis the following provision: orfunctionary Lo, indeed,anymagistrate 36) who doesnot do thingsaccording to the wordingof this command,(he) shallbe takento the Hall of Horus,in accordancewith thesethingswhich(my)majestyhas commandedto do. (My) majesty does not allow that they 37) be pure in the pyramid Mn-c'n-Nfr-k3-Rc,

forever 38).

Goedicke 39) has pointed out that the Hall of Horus (sbw-Hr) must

have a juridicalfunction parallelto the mentioned in the edict .hwt-wr of Nefer-ir-ka-Re(see ?2 above) 40), and he interpretsthe penalty to 34) I owe this suggestion to Professor Goedicke, who also suggests that msdd is to be understood in this sense in The Prophecy of Neferty, Xh (see Helck, Die des Nfr.tj [Wiesbaden, 1970], 39) and de Buck, The Egyptian Coffin Prophereiung Texts, Vol. I (The University of Chicago OrientalInstitute Publications 34), 9c and I3d. 35) This raises a question of whether the penalties, when they are elaborated, are standard or ad hoc. The evidence, as discussed herein, suggests that they are standard,which raises the further question of why they are ever elaboratedin the decrees. We do not know whether Egyptian law codes might have contained a general provision regarding interference with tax exemptions, comparable to the provision in the Codex Hammurabi(? 6) regardingtheft of royal or divine property, or whether the penalties are simply traditional.If the latter, then it apparentlywas necessary to apply them specifically to each new case. If the former, then their inclusion in these edicts, which are addressedto the chief officials whose activities they would affect, assumes the characterof a "fair warning", similar to the notice on many modern documents that failure to comply constitutes an offense, and furthermorelends a greaterweight and solemnity to the edicts. 36) So the first decree. The second has, "any [overseer of Upper] Egypt or [magistra]te, or any messenger or functionary". 37) The second decree has, "that he be pure". 38) KDAR, 89 (for the text, see fig. 8 and Urk. I, 283, 12-14); KDAR, I19 (for the text, see Urk. I, 287, 14-17). 39) KDAR, Io9, n. 69a. 40) A system of six hwt-wr'swas an important part of the royal court system; see Gardiner, The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage (Leipzig, 1909), 51; Pirenne,

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D. LORTON

IO

be that the convicted officialswill not be allowed to perform priestly

service in the royal funeraryestablishment.It is hard to imagine, however, that anyone would seriouslyhave consideredthat such servicemight be performedby a convictedcriminal,or that such an interdictionwould sufficeas a criminalpenalty.In consideringthis passage,one shouldnote its separationfrom the mainbody of provisions,as well as the factthatthe formulation"Hallof Horus"suggests the personalpresenceof the king.It is likelythatthe criminalpenalties for the offensesindicatedin the passageare those mentionedin the and othertextswhichwill be discussedbelow, edictof Nefer-ir-ka-Re since the penalties,as alreadypointedout (5 4.1), were standard 41). The penalty in the provision under considerationmust therefore criminalsanctions,andit ought to be complementthe aforementioned one whichinvolvesa personaldecisionof the king.Thisis likely,in the Old Kingdom context, to be denial of burial rights in the royal cemetery42),and this deductionis confirmedby the edict of Demedjib-tawydiscussedbelow (5 5). parallelsto the two texts of Pepi II just discussedare ?4.3 Further to be found in a morepoorlypreservedthirdedict of the king from Koptos43). An edictof the DynastyVIII king Nefer-kau-Horfrom Koptos44) seemsto referto the removalof officials,but the text is too fragmentaryfor certaintyon this point. A decreeexemptingthe mortuarystatuesand endowmentof 55.

op. cit., Vol. I, 274; Vol. II, 118 ff., 143 ff.; Vol. II1, 52, 1oo f., 238 ?. The Egyptian

court system and proceduresare not entirely understood and need furtherinvestigation. 41) See n. 35 above.

The basic meaning of w'b is "to be pure" (see Wb.,Vol. I, 280), and it is only logical that those who committed crimes against the king, and in so doing violated the exemptions of the temples, would have been considered impure and unfit to enjoy the blessed afterlife. Interestingly, the root w'b is attested in the Ramesside period with juridicalmeaning "innocent"; see Wb., Vol. I, 282, 4; Wilson, JNES 7 (1948), 138. 43) KDAR, 137 ff. and fig. I1; Urk. I, 289-292. In regard to the last mentioned provision, this text adds, "or in any city belonging to its cataster", which seems to refer to the provincial cemeteries as administrativelyconnected with the main 42)

royalcemeteryin the Memphiteregion. 44) KDAR,

197

and fig. 24; Urk. I, 297 ff.

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TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT

II

the overseer of Upper Egypt Idy, executedin his favor by king Demedjib-tawy of Dynasty IX(?), states: With regardto any people of this entire land who will do anything harmfully and evilly to any of your statueswhich arein any temple or sanctuary,or to any of your offeringstones, mortuaryholdings, 'wooden artifacts'or endowments, (my) majesty does not allow that their or their fathers' property remain with them, that they join the 'glorious spirits' (i.e., the ritually buried dead) in the necropolis, or or that they should be among the free citizens 45). With regard to any people of this entire land who shall disturb or diminish the property of your offering endowment which has been brought to the registry or made over to your statues which are in the sanctuariesof Upper Egypt, consisting of land, bread, beer, meat, and milk, which have been made over to you through a benefice-document46), truly (my) majesty does not allow (wd) that they should be among the 'glorious spirits' [in] the necropolis, but that they should be bound and fettered as under the complaint of the king and Osiris, and of their town god. Moreover, with regard to any (royal) representative47) or magistrate who does not confiscate the property in his district of any men who will do such things until the king, the vizier or the magistrates arrive, he has [no legal cl]aim to his position or office, and he has no legal claim moreover to any of his property, and his children have no legal claim to it. The magistrateswho shall punish these things shall remain48).

? 6.

The provisions of Demedj-ib-tawy's document, though it stems from the First IntermediatePeriod, contain the most explicit statement of what has alreadybeen observed to be the Old Kingdom tradition regarding crime and its punishment. Failure to abide by the provisions of royal edicts (as it happens, these are mostly exemptions for temples, with one decree of protection for private endowments),

andfailureto takeactionagainstsuchoffenses,as well as falselitigation in the privatesphere,wereall consideredcrimes.Failureto takeaction led to the family'sloss of the hereditaryoffice.Failureto abideby the provisionsof the edicts led to a numberof complementary punish45) For cnhw used to denote free citizens in the Old Kingdom, see Junker, GiZa, Vol. XlI, 89, n. 14; Goedicke, ASAE 55 (1958), 44 ff. The clear implication is reduction to unfree status, which we should undoubtedly understand as penal servitude. 46) On the root shdin referenceto benefices, see n. 30 above. see n. 27 above. From the passage, it can be seen that the hry-tp 47) On does not have judicial authority, at least in criminal cases. .ry-tp, 48) KDAR,

214 f. For the text, see Ibid., fig. 28 and Urk. I, 304, 15-3o06, 7.

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ments: loss of acquired and inherited income, loss of office and its attendant income, loss of free status (and, perhaps, consignment in unfree status to quarrywork), and since royal permissionwas required for ritual burial in the Old Kingdom tradition, exclusion from this as well, as the moral consequenceof crime49). The applicationof these sanctionsis similarto capitalpunishmentin its original sense in Roman law-i.e., the loss of civic status and rights in the community-and can be viewed as a kind of ostracismboth in life and in death. 5 7.1. A passagefrom the Instructionsfor King Merikare,a document purportingto be of Dynasty X date50), states, "The talkeris a troublemaker.Repulsehim, slaughter[... .], blot out his name"51). The obvious restorationof "him"in the lacunais universallyfollowed; in the context of civil strife and treason in this section of the text, one can view this 49) The edicts of Pepi II seem to imply that the cemeteries of the provincial towns were administrativeadjunctsof the king's cemeteryin the Memphite region; see n. 43 above. The formulationof the decreeof Demedj-ib-tawy,however, indicates a new situation. Osiris, originally an abstractionof kingship on its deceased aspect (see Blackman,JEA 5 [1918], 163; Gardiner, MiscellaneaAcademicaBerolinensa [Berlin, 1950], Vol. 11/2, 48; Anthes,JEA 55 [1969], 46), has been abstractedinto a netherworld deity who participatesin the allowanceor denialof burialrights. The local cemeteriesare at this time perhapsadministrativelyattachedto the local temples --in any event, the town god also assumes an interest in this matter. The king no longer allows or disallows such burials, but can only make a "complaint".The text does not make clear to whom the king, Osiris and the town god are to complain, but the most likely candidateis a divine court such as that known from Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, whose existence is alreadyimplied in the Instructions for King Merikare(P. Leningradi i i6A, 53-57; on this text, see ? 7 below). 5o) In this text, Merikare'spredecessor advises him on how to be a good king, and the teachings have been traditionallyascribedto the textually attributedauthor. However, Bj6rkman, OrientaliaSuecana13 (1964), 9-33 and Goedicke, The Report aboutthe Disputeof a Man with His Ba (Baltimore, 1970), 5-8, have advanced strong reasons for viewing the text as political propagandaof Dynasty XII. 5i) P. Leningrad i i 6A, 23-24, supplemented by P. Moscow 4658. For the text of the Instructions, see Volten, Zwei altgyptischepolitischeSchriften(AnalectaAegyptiaca 4), 8. For English translationsof the text, see Gardiner,JEA I (1914), zo-36; Erman and Blackman,TheAncientEgyptians(HarperTorchbooks, New York, 1966), 75-84; Wilson, in ANET3, 414-418; Faulkner, in Simpson, Faulkner and Wente, The Literatureof Ancient Egypt (New Haven, 1972), 180-192; Lichtheim, Ancient EgyptianLiterature,Vol. I (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1973), 99-107. The word sm3 "slaughter"occurs in The Prophecy of Neferti, Xi (for the Text, see n. 34 above), where Professor Goedicke suggests privatelythat it also has a juridicalconnotation; the text is the subject of a forthcoming study by Professor Goedicke.

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as an instance of the death penalty for conspiracy directed towards regicide, i.e., high treason52). ? 7.2. In another passagefrom the same text, it is stated, "[Do not] smite, it is not beneficialto you. If you punish with beatings and with detention53), this land will function thereby. Ex[cept, .. .] the criminal (sbi) whose counsels have been discovered. The god takes care of dissidents (h3kw-ib).The god will curse54) him for the sake of a bloody punishment. It is mercy [which...] a lifetime"55). From a careful readingof the passage,it is evident that the referenceis not to criminal acts, but to criminalintent ("counsels"),and it is stated that this is not punishable by royal justice. Thus, if the criminalis discovered before he commits the actual offense, he is no real criminal.The lacuna indicated in Volten's edition is too long to restore only the second part of the compound particlewpw-r3(here rendered"except"),and on the basis of the final statement quoted, one might expect a verb with a meaning such as "spare"in the lacuna. The moral fault of the offender is taken into account, however, and as a "dissident"(h3k-ib)from the moral order,he will receivedivine punishment.Since divine jurisdiction over burialrights is alludedto in these Instructions56), the punishment should be viewed as occurring in the afterlife. In the Old Kingdom, the non-rituallyburieddeadseem to have been picturedas wearyghosts, potential plunderersof funeraryofferings. With the new divine jurisdiction, we see here a further eschatological development, namely the punishmentin the afterlifeof those whose lack of moral rectitude has incurreddivine wrath. Cf. the discussion of the Harem Conspiracy documents below, 18. Seidl, Einfiihrung,has stressed the importance in juridicalstudies of employing only legal documents. Some literary texts are quoted here, however, partly because of the scarcity of evidence (especially for the Middle Kingdom), and partly because they "round out" the evidence of the legal documents without in any way conflicting with it. 53) S3wy "detention" probably refers to the system of labor camps discussed below; see ? 0o. 54) For hwisdbwin this passage, see Kees, ZAS 63 (1928), 75 f. 55) P. Leningrad III6A, 48-50. For bibliography of the text, see n. 5I above. S6) See n. 49 above. 52)

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There is no real contradictionbetween this passage and the ? 7.3. one quoted previously, since treason is of a differentorder from other criminaloffenses. From a juxtapositionof the two passages, it is clear that only treason was punishableby death. Other crimeswere punished by beating and/or imprisonment,and the text takes pains to stress that criminalintent, while a moral fault, is not itself a crime57). ? 8. It is statedin a funerarystela of the Middle Kingdom, "Thereis no tomb for one who commits a crime against(sbiw his majesty,his .hr) corpse being thrown in the river"58). Here, denial of burial rights to criminalsis stressed59). ? 9.1. PapyrusWestcar dates from the Hyksos period, though from its classicalMiddle Egyptian grammarit is universallyrecognized as a copy of a Middle Kingdom text relating tales of magic set in the Old Kingdom. In one story from this papyrus,an adulterousaffairis ended when a crocodile of wax, fashioned by the jealous husband, comes to life and snatchesaway the guilty man. It is the king who subsequently deals with the wife: "Then [the majesty of the King of Upper and] Lower Egypt Neb-ka, justified, caused that this wife of Weba-iner 57) Sbialso occurstwicein a brokenpassage,P. Leningradi i I6A, 26-27. 58) Cairo20538 ii c 19. For the text, see Langeand Schifer,Grab-undDenksteine desMittleren Reiches seeBreasted, (Berlin,1908),Vol. II, 149.ForEnglishtranslations, ARE, Vol. I, ? ? 745-748; Erman and Blackman,op. cit., 84 f.; Wilson, op.cit., 431; Simpson,in Simpson,Faulknerand Wente, op. cit., I98 ff.; Lichtheim,op. cit., I26-129.

59) This text is the famous "Loyalist Instruction"whose two versions have been compared and studied by Kuentz, in StudiesPresentedto F. Li. Griffth (London, 1932), 97-1IOThe text has, of course, its own "axe to grind". Nevertheless, it should be recognized that the change from royal to divine jurisdiction did not affect the denial of burial rights to those who committed offenses against the king. From one point of view, it can be stressed that such offenses were necessarily directed against the divinely sanctioned order (maat) of which the king was the guarantor. From another, perhapsanachronisticallymodern point of view, it can be noted that the range of punishmentsemployedfrom the Old Kingdom on, sincetheyremovedthe offenderfrom participationin the juridico-religiouscommunity,necessarilyprecluded a divine afterlifewhich was predicatedupon such participation.On the other hand, as the Instructions for King Merikareinform us, punishment in the afterlife might await those who have technicallynot committedcrimes (as view ed by the state) but are morally at fault. Here we see a separationof positive and divine law which is strikingly reminiscentof developments in western thought.

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be taken to the northernfield of the Residence.Then he placed fire on her [...] of/to the river"60). The passage has always been taken to mean that the woman was burnedto death and her ashes thrown into the river. Though adultery is a moral outrage which is somewhat differentfrom other kinds of crimes committed against the state or the mores of society, the apparentabsence of a death penalty for crimes other than treason casts doubt upon the traditional interpretation. Further, ignoring the magical means of the guilty man's death, it is clear that the text regardsthe killing of the man as the legal prerogative of the husband, and it thus seems unlikely that the wife would have had to be referred to royal justice for this punishment. From the wording of the expressionrdibt m "to place fire on", we need see here no more than a referenceto branding (for this punishment, see ? xI below) or, perhaps less likely, torture. The reference to the river is obscure, due to the lacuna,but perhapsthe wife was taken there so that the magical crocodile could snatch her away as well 61). 60o)P. Westcar, 4, 8-io. For the text, see Erman, Die MdrchendesPapyrusWestcar (Berlin, i890), Vol. II. For English translations,see Erman and Blackman,op. cit., 36-47; Simpson, in Simpson, Faulknerand Wente, op. cit., I6-30. 61) After the crocodile has taken the guilty man into the waters, the king is asked to come, and the crocodile emerges, displaying the man. The king says to the crocodile, "Take what is yours!"'Since the man is already dead, this is not an instance of a death penalty by royal command. Rather, it is the denial of burial rights, employing the same image of the river as resting-placeas in the text discussed in ? 8 above. Further, the passage alludes to the crocodile as a symbol of Death, for which see Zandee, Death as an Enemy(Leiden, 196o), 194; Goedicke, TheReport About the Dispute of a Man With His Ba (Baltimore, 1970), 151. Of course, it can

easily be argued that fantastic material of this sort is worthless for ascertaining juridical facts, and the need for caution must be granted. On the other hand, the plausibility of fiction lies in those elements which are authentic, and consequently juridicalreferences,unless they utterly contradictwhat is known from more reliable sources, should be taken with some seriousness. A statement from the Maxims of Ptahhotep has been cited by Goedicke,JEA 49 (1963), 89, as an instance of the death penalty for adultery: "One ends (at) death on account of (sexually knowing them" (verse 288; for the text, see Zaba, Les Maximesde Ptahbbotep [Prague, 1956]; for English translations,see Ermanand Blackman,op.cit., 54-65; Wilson, in ANET3, 412ff.; Faulkner, in Simpson, Faulkner and Wente, op. cit., 159-176; Lichtheim, op. cit., 62-76). The topic of the maxim, however, as stated in its opening clause, is "if you desire to makefriendshipendure ... ." In this context, and with the supporting evidence of Papyrus Westcar, one can best view the statement in question as

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? 9.2. In another passage from the same text, king Khufu wishes to see a magicianreplacea severedhead. He orders," 'Let therebe brought to me a prisoner (hnri)who is in the prison (hnrt),that the injury may be inflicted on him!' " The text continues, "Then Djedi (the magician) said, 'But not to a person, oh sovereign, my lord! Behold, it is not allowed 62) to do the like thereof to the noble cattle! ' " 63) The demon-

stration is eventually performed on a goose and other animals. The authormight here intend no more than to contrastthe personalhumane attitude of Djedi to the cruelty of Khufu 64). However, in light of the lack of evidence for the death penalty in cases other than treason, Djedi's statement ought better to be viewed as reflecting a general religious respect for life on the part of the Egyptians which sets them somewhat apart from their neighbors

65).

The ability of the Egyptians

to view the consequences of criminal acts against the panorama of eternity undoubtedlyhelped to sustain this attitude. 5 io. A Middle Kingdom papyrus,probably dating to the reign of Amenemhet III, contains a series of directives from the government indicatingthat fugitives are to be punishedaccordingto the appropriate laws •6), thus affording some insight into the penalties suffered by

ordinarycitizenswho committedcrimesagainstthe state.The directives, which are concerned with specific individuals who failed to perform their requiredlabor service, cite laws by topic. In Hayes' translation, they are: referringto death at the hands of the cuckolded husband. On criminalpunishments for adultery, see also ? 24. and n. 179 below. 62) N wd.tw,clearlyin the sense of Latin nefasest. Note also the use of the verb wd, but without this sense, in the decree quoted in ? 5 above. 63) P. Westcar,8, 14-17. For bibliography,see n. 6o above, and add, as containing this passage, de Buck, EgyptianReadingbook (Leiden, 1948), 79-88 (text) and Lichtheim, op. cit., 215-222 (translation). 64) So Erman and Blackman,op. cit., 42, n. 4. 65) Neither time nor the "enlightened" Greeks brought progress in this regard. Prooemium, 23 f.), the Ptolemaic kings delivered According to Celsus (De medecina, prisoners to the Alexandrian physicians for purposes of vivisection. Needless to say, the humane attitude of the earlierEgyptians did not apply to membersof other cultures encountered on the battlefield. 66) Hayes, Papyrusof theLate MiddleKingdom;for the dating, see Ibid., II.

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(I) "The law pertainingto those who desert". (2) "The law pertaining to one who deliberately deserts for six months (or more)". (3) "The law pertainingto the deliberatedesertionof [one's] labors". (4) "The law pertaining to one who flees without performing his tasks". "The law pertainingto one who flees the prison"67). (5) The papyrusindicatesthat such persons, when caught, were consigned to servitude for life in a hnrt(for mention of this institution, see also ? 9.2 above). The term, conventionally rendered "prison", seems actuallyto have been a sort of concentrationcamp for personsassigned to penal servitude on government lands and building projects68). Furthermore, the families of such persons were seized pending the recovery of the fugitive 69).In another case mentioned in the papyrus, a ship's captain who helped an escapee was deprived of his position and his name(w3n rn.f) and banished(? s.hr),and his familywas assigned to a laborcamp70). This is the earliestcertainattestationof"debaptism", a punishment undoubtedly connected with the notion of the identity of an objectand its name 71). It symbolizesas the total loss of personality the deprivation of civic status, with consequences in this and the afterlife, alreadydiscussed (see S 6 above 72). 67) Ibid., 47 f. 68) See the discussion Ibid., 36-42, especially 37 f., and 53. 69) See Ibid., 44-47. Though the families were released, one should probably not view this procedure as involving principally the concept of "hostages", as interpretedby Hayes, Ibid., 46, especiallyin view of the fact that in several instances discussed in this study, punishments fall not only upon the criminal but upon his family as well. In the case of detaining a fugitive's family until he is found, just as in the case of punishing the family of a criminal, we have examples of the kinship group being held responsible for the delict of one of its members. 70)

Ibid., 53 f.

71) This phenomenon is familiarto anyone who has read in comparativereligion or the history of religion. For an illuminating study of the psychological aspects of the phenomenon, see Jean Piaget, TheChild'sConception of the World,tr. Joan and

Andrew Tomlinson (New York, 195 1). On a more mundane level, loss of one's

name was markedby removal of documentationof the individual'sstatus and rights, as indicated in the text quoted in ? i z below. 72) "Debaptism" has been discussed by Posener, Revued'Egyptologie5 (1946),

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I8

At some time during the First IntermediatePeriod or Dynasty XII, it was decided to markoff an areaof the cemeteryat Abydos with boundarystelae and declareit "off limits". Violations of this injunction were defined as crimes by a royal stela which was later usurped by king Nefer-hotep of Dynasty XIII 73). According to the text,

? x1.

With regard, indeed, to one whom anyone will find within these stelae, namely craftsmanor priest, entirely, one shall brand him 74). And with regard to any magistratewho shall have a tomb made for himself in the holy place, he shall be reported, and the law pertaining to one attachedto the cemetery as (of) this day 75)shall be applied to him.

The mention of brandingin the firstinstanceclearlyimplies reductionto unfree status. The penaltyis not mentionedin the second case, but one may assume that it was the standard gamut of punishmentsalready discussed. ? i2. In the third year of Neb-kheperu-Re Antef, the founder of Dynasty XVII, a crime was committed by an official of the temple of Min at Koptos. The natureof the crimeis not agreedupon by scholars, but the view is favoured here that it was the harboringof an enemy in the temple 76). Since this important text has received little attention, it is translatedhere in full: Posenerregardsthe injunction"blot out his name",which appearsin a passage 51-56. from the Instruction for King Merikare discussed above (see ? 7.I), as an early instance of this punishment; however, the reference might be a more general one, to the remembranceof the man in his community. 73) The text has been inserted at this point in the chronological discussion of the evidence because of the implication that the penalties were valid at the time of the usurpation of the stela. For the text, see Randall-Maciverand Mace, El Amrah and Abydos(London, 1902), pl. 29. For English translations, see Griffith, Ibid., 93; Breasted, ARE, Vol. I, 5? 766-772. 74) Griffith,loc.cit., took this as a referenceto death by fire, but Breasted, loE.cit., pointed to the attestation of wbdin the Ramesside period in referenceto branding. 75) The meaning of iry smytmi hrwpn is uncertain. 76) This was the original interpretation of Petrie, Koptos(London, i896), Io. Sethe, Erlidwerungen, (Leipzig, 1927), 166, suggests that cult objects were stolen from the temple. Part of the problem is the ambiguity of the verb which could mean _t3i, it is "to take (in)" or "to take (out)". If a human enemy is involved, unlikely that he would have been "taken out" of the temple, since Koptos was a garrison town, and such a person would have been detained in the military establishment rather than in the temple precinct. The word hfty"enemy" occurs twice in the text (1. 5 and

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Year3, month3 of Winter,day 25, underthe majestyof the King of Upper and Lower Egypt Neb-khepetu-Re-son-of-Re-Antef-may he be given life forever! The king commands77) the royal seal-bearerand first of the registry78) of Koptos Min-em-hat,the king's son and commandantof Koptos Qi-nen7), the royalseal-bearer, stolist of Min and scribeof the templeNefer-hotep,the entirearmyof Koptos,andthe lay priesthoodso)of the templein its entirety: Behold, this commandis broughtto you to inform you with regardto of (the fact) that my majesty,l.p.h., has sent the scribeand god's seal-bearer Amun Si-Amun,andthe elderof the portalAmun-user,to performanaudit81) in the templeof Min with regardto (the fact) that the lay priesthoodof the temple of my father Min approachedmy majesty,l.p.h., saying, "An evil matterhas reachedthe point82)of happeningin this temple83). An enemy84) has been taken (in) by-away to his name8S)!-Teti son of Min-hotep". 1. 7); each time, the phonetic indicators suggest a plural */ftyw, but from the single determinative and the lack of plural strokes, one must read the word as singular. This decree was carved on a doorway of the temple erectedby SesostrisI of Dynasty XII, and it is unlikely that such an attempt at monumentalizationof the decree would have been made because of the theft of some statuettesemployed in the cult, as Sethe interprets the text. Sethe's interpretationis based on the assumption that hfty has the same referent in each of its occurrences, as well as the rendering of sbiwbhrfty ntr.f in 1. 7 as containing the verbal idiom sbi hr. For the interpretation followed here, which seems far more reasonablethan Sethe's,see Wilson, Culture,242. For the text, see Petrie, op. cit., pl. 8; Sethe, AgyptischeLesesticke,second edition (Leipzig, 1928), 98. For English translations,see Petrie, op. cit., xo; Breasted,ARE, Vol. I, ?? 775-780. 77) On the opening formula of royal decrees, see now Goedicke, JARCE 3 (1964), 34. 78) On h3ty-', see Goedicke, ZAS 86 (1961), 148 f.; Lorton,JT, 63. The individual in question was thus the chief civil authorityat Koptos. 79) This person was the chief military authority at Koptos. 80) On wnwt"lay priests, lay priesthood", see Kees, Orientalia,N. S. 17 (1948), 78. 81) The term sipty, used of official inspections (see Wb., Vol. IV, 36, 5-9), sometimes performed by the -king himself, surely refers not to sightseeing tours, but rather determinations of physical conditions and administrative regularity. The presumed derivationfrom the verb ip "to count", as well as the context here, justify the rendering by the modern term "audit". 8z) On the verb w3i, see n. z6 above. 83) The "definite article" still has the force of a demonstrativein this period; see Kroeber, 1-30. Neuiigyptirzismen, 84) On the term bfty,see Lorton,JT, i 19 ff. From the considerationsgiven therein, it is likely that this enemy was a Hyksos, possibly even the local Hyksos authority from whom Antef was attempting to wrest control in Upper Egypt. 85) The parentheticalexpressionw3n rn.frefersto the punishmentof "debaptism", and as such is undoubtedly an insertion and not part of the direct quotation. On "debaptism",see n. 72 above.

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Let him be expelled 8s) from the temple of my father Min, and let him be removed from his office of the temple, from son to son and heir to heir 87)-they being proscribedss)-while his income 89), food 90)and his pure meat are taken away 91), that his name be not recalled92), as is (customarily)done 93)to the likes of him, a criminal and enemy of his god 94).Remove his documents from the temple of Min and from the treasury, and any (other) papyrus likewise. 86) On the juridical connotations of rdi hr t3, involving dispossession from property or income, see Theodorides, RIDA3, 8 (1961), 5I, n. 49. 87) The expression m s3 n s3 m iw' n iwc "from son to son, from heir to heir" is commonly employed to indicate the indivisibility of an inheritance,according to Lacau, Une Stle juridiquede Karnak(CASAE I3), 9. According to Theodorides, it is a referenceto male prigogeniture; see Legacy,318. Either interpretationrenders its use here highly unusual. In ancient Egypt, there were regular provisions for the inheritance of an estate if an individual died intestate, though he could make other arrangements,if he so desired, by means of a document called imyt-pr,usually rendered "testament"; see Seidl, Einfiihrung,57 ff. In the context here, the most meaningful interpretationof the phrase is to see in it a reference to either kind of inheritance. 166. 88) On the interpretationas a subordinate clause, see Sethe, Erlduterungen, The construction without introductory iw is somewhat archaizing by this period; see Kroeber, op. cit., o103-I39. Pt r t3 is well attested with the literal meaning "to cast to the ground"; see Wb., Vol. I, 65, 16. As in the case of rdi r t3 "to place, cast on the ground" and the juridicalrdi t3, one should probablyobserve a distinction between this expressionandpt hr t3, .brwhich occurs here and is clearlypatterned after rdi Pr t3 in the preceding line. 89) For "income", see Wb., Vol. I, 232 f. The word is specified by the two terms which follow, df3 being the more general food provision and wcbwtthe share 'c.w from the consecrated offerings. In the text discussed by Lacau, op. cit., 1I1, ckw.s hn4t.s wcbt.sdf3w.sshould be taken in the same way; cky should not be takenin its more restrictedsense "bread",as Lacaurendersit, since the combination "breadand beer" is regularlyexpressedin Egyptian as t .hnkt. V, 603, 6 and as confirmed by the following Wb., Vol. 90) Reading df3, text in Lacau, loc. cit. (see the quotation of the passage in the previous note). There is no support for Sethe's rendering "verbriessteRechte", loc. cit.; Gardiner, EG3, ? 423, mistranslatesthe word as "title-deed(?)". 91) On the subordinateclause construction here, see Gardiner,loc.cit. 92) Sh3t is an early instance of the infinitive for the negatival complement; see Kroeber, op. cit., 172. The negative verb tm cannot form an imperative, so that it must serve here as a virtual clause of purpose, for which see Gardiner, op. cit., The clause thus indicates the desired result of the proscription of the man ? 347,4. and his family. Gardiner (Ibid., ? 424, 2) takes this as a main clause and quotes it as a unique example of passive sdm.fnegated by tm. 93) On the imperfectiveform of irrt, see Sethe, loc.cit. 94) In sbi br hfty ntr.f, sbi is taken here as a noun, and br is understood in its coordinating sense (see Wb., Vol. III, 131, 25), a usage which also occurs later in the line; for this interpretation,see Wilson, Culture,242.

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With regardto any king and any potentate95)who shallpardonhim96),he shallnot assumethe WhiteCrown,he shallnot takeup the RedCrown,he shall not sit on the Horus-throneof the living, and the Two Ladies97) shallnot be graciousto him98)as one whom they love 99). With regardto anycommandant and any mayor100)who will approachthe 95) The expressionshm-ir.f,here renderedas "potentate",is familiarfrom the Old Kingdom,when it was appliedto privatepersonsin royalservice.According to Goedicke(Die Stellung desKinigsim AltenReich[AgyptologischeAbhandlungen is his act".Here, z], 24 f.), it is a nomalizedsentencemeaningliterally"authorized it is determinedby a seatedking with flail and While Crown,which is regularly used as the royal determinative in this text. Hence,it must referto a recognized with Antef, as king, and not to a usurperof royal authoritycontemporaneous suggestedby Breasted,ARE, Vol. I, 341, n. d. The only other king who bears this epithetis Ahmose,the founderof Dyn. XVIII: shm-ir.fmittRc "empowered of act and likenessof Re" (Urk.IV, 14, 13). A comparisonof the two monarchs suggests that the epithetis relatedto the usurpationof Hyksos power by these kings, Antef in UpperEgypt and Ahmosein LowerEgypt. In the case of a king, the only source of "empowering"is divine--thus the juxtapositionof shm-ir.f with mitt Rc in the Ahmose occurrence-andone may thus see the use of this expressionunderthesemonarchsas a meansof claimingdivinelegitimationof their usurpationof royalauthorityheldby the Hyksos.The very slimevidenceemployed by somescholarsin arguingfor Hyksospowerin UpperEgyptduringDynastyXVII has been discussedbrieflyby Lorton,JT, 53, n. 90, and 183, no. 2. The use of a double designationfor the king, followed in each caseby nb "any",is awkward, but it is probablyconditionedby the doublereferenceto tsw nb h3ty-'nb in the couldhavebeenavoidedby writing*nswtshm-ir.fnb, followingline;theawkwardness omittingthe firstnb. 96) Nty r htpn.f. 97) These are tutelary goddesses of kingship.

98) IHtpn.f; the juxtapositionof the two occurrencesof the expressionin this

sentence can only be deliberate.

99) In contrastto the officialsagainstwhom legal action is threatenedin the

stipulation which follows, the king cannot be so prosecuted, which accounts for the fact that the present stipulation assumes the tone of a curse. It cannot be interpreted to mean that the Individualwill not assume the kingship, for this would be paradoxical-if he does not do so to begin with, he will not be in a position to pardon the offender. Thus, the curse must be that the individual will not continue

to exerciseroyalauthority;this is supportedby the imperfectiveform in the last whichcanbe renderedliterallyas "asonewhomtheykeeploving". phrase,mmrrw.sn,

The curse might have a very specific religious reference,since the ritual assumption of kingship was reenactedevery year; see now Goyon, Confirmation dupouvoirroyal au NouvelAn (Biblioth que d'Etude 52). Breasted,ARE, Vol. I, ? 774, has suggested that this statement is directed against contemporarypetty rulers; however, there

is no evidencefor such rulers,and it is difficultto understandhow Antef would have recognizedtheirlegitimacyor theirlegal authorityat Koptos. For a similar curse directed against future kings, see ? 16 below.

ioo) The juxtapositionof tswand b3tyw-'in texts of the Ramessideperiodhas

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Lord, l.p.h., to pardon him, then 101) his people, his goods and his fields shall be given to the divine endowment of my father Min lord of Koptos, and no man of his relatives, the family of his father or his mother, shall be appointed to this office 102),and this office 103) shall be caused to be given to the royal seal-bearer and overseer of the administrative district Min-em-hat104): its income, its food and its pure meat shall be given to him, confirmed in his possession in writing in the temple of my father Min lord of Koptos, from son to son and heir to heir 105). been discussed by Gardiner, Ancient EgyptianOnomastica(London, 1947), Vol. I, 31*; he sees in it a distinction between the "headmen" of villages and the mayors of towns. The militaryconnotations of tsw (see WIb.,Vol. V, 402), however, suggest in the presentcontext a distinctionbetween establishedmilitaryand civilian authority in the garrison-town of Koptos. The meanings which Gardiner has observed for the Ramesside period might stem from the establishment of military settlements during the New Kingdom. 10 i) The use of the auxiliary commonly translated "then" (see Gardiner, this clause is awkward. Sethe, Erlduterungen, EG3, 5 477), at the beginning of C'., 167, interprets 'hc as an Old Perfective modifying the preceding "him", but there is no suitable meaning of the verb to justify such an interpretation.The auxiliarymight be an interpolationfrom the officialwording of verdicts and punishmentsin procesverbaux in this period; see 5 13 below. Ioz) For ini r "to appoint to", see Faulkner,A ConciseDictionaryof MiddleEgyptian (Oxford, I962), 22. io3) Grammaticallyand logically, t3 i3t "this office" must refer to the position of commandant or mayor, and not to the office of Teti mentioned earlier in the inscription. Apparently,the disposition of Teti's office was not yet decidedwhen this document was written. For the grammaticalconstruction, a forerunner of the 140-170, with full referencesto literature Conjunctive, see Kroeber, NeuiigyptiZismen, on the subject. 10o4)This cannot be the Min-em-hat mentioned in the address of the decree, since he is alreadymayorand is not designatedby the title "overseerof the administrative district".Since a specificindividualis named, this last clausedealing with transfer of office can only be concerned with the forseeable future, which is not the case with the preceding clause, or with the preceding curse regarding persons of royal status. oy5)Though the text is quoted here for its importance with regard to the treatment of criminals, it would be appropriateto accompany a fresh translation and commentary by a few words devoted to its historical implications. As already stated, Antef had seized royal power in Upper Egypt, and the crime in question was the harboring of a fugitive who was, in all likelihood, Antef's Hyksos rival. It is particularlynoteworthy that while Teti is clearly indicated as a temple official (his specific position is not mentioned), it was the lay priests who exposed the incident. When this observation is combined with the fact that the king responded to the situation in part by conducting an audit in the temple (clearly designed to uncover any furtherirregularities),and with the fact that the incident was considered sufficientlyimportantthat a copy of the decreewas inscribedon a door of the temple, the conclusion is inescapable that the temple officials as a group-and not just

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The penalties applied to Teti are essentiallythose sufferedby the ship's captain who harboreda fugitive during Dynasty XII (see ? io above): debaptism (expressed by the same phrase, w3 n rn.f), removal from his

office and its income, proscriptionof his family so that his descendants could not hold his office, and removal of documentationpertaining to him from the temple. In view of all these penalties, it is likely that Teti was assigned to a labor camp, though this is not specifically mentioned. The penalties just related are standard,for the text states that they are "as (customarily)done to the likes of him, a criminaland enemy of his god"

106).

Attempts on the part of officials to renew his

case '07)-the equivalenthere of the right to appeal, as known in civil cases, since Teti would have no ability to initiate legal proceedings once deprived of civic rights-are forbidden and made punishableby loss of office and income to the official and his family on both the mother's and the father'sside. 13. PapyrusMook, a very fragmentarytext datableto the reign of 1 Thutmosis IV of Dynasty XVIII, is apparentlythe proces-verbalof a demanded hearing by a soldier named Mery to determine whether a land-holding of his was subjectto taxation.The text relatesthe verdict and punishment: " 'The one in the right is [the overseer] of seal(ings) Sebek-hotep, the one in the wrong the soldier Mery'. Then he was beaten with ioo strokes"108). Despite the poor preservation of the text, it would appearthat Sebek-hotephad, in his officialcapacity, Teti-were suspected of disloyalty. We thus have in this text evidence of political and administrative maneuvers designed to assert and consolidate Antef's power. io6) The insertion of this phrase affords strong confirmationof the observation made in discussing the Old Kingdom materialsthat the penalties mentioned in the decrees must have been standard. 107) Perhaps the commandantand mayor are mentionedbecausethose individuals then in power were suspected as potential agitators, but more likely, from the generalization "any commandant and any mayor", they were the specific officials with the legal competence to perform such a function. sh loo. If the construction with the auxiliarywas the standard Io8) 'hc.n.j means of introducing the statementof punishmentin a procts-verbal in this period, .w then this formulation can account for the difficult construction in the decree of Neb-kheperu-ReAntef; see n. 10i above. The text discussedhere has been published and discussed by Spiegelberg,ZAS 63 (1928), 105-115.

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D. LORTON

notifiedMerythathe was subjectto paymentof the dues in question, and the latter demandedof him that the matterbe referredto the locallycompetenttribunalto determinewhetherthe land-holdingwas or was not freefromdues.It is not knownwhatdocumentationMery citedin supportof his claim,but the text makesreferenceto the kings AhmoseandThutmosisIII. Thereis no indicationthatthisis an appeal froma previousdecisionthatMerywas in fact subjectto payment109), nor is there indicationthat Mery actuallyfailed to renderthe dues. strokesis likely to have been for false Thus, the punishmentof 00oo an OldKingdomtextalreadydiscussed which we from know litigation, (see 5 3 above)to havebeenconsidereda crime.The text in factomits mentionof it, but it can be assumedthat Mery,havingbeenfoundin the wrong,was obligedto pay the dues.This is the firstreferencein a legaltextto beatingasa punishment110), andassuchit formsatransition to the system of punishmentrecordedin the following textsll). ?14. ThefamousDecreeof Horemhabis concernedwiththreemain topics: a rectificationof administrativeabuses commited against of the citizens,a reorganizationof the courts,and a reorganization has The decree been in a administration. palace lamentably preserved in three and instances have both crime and fragmentarystate, only punishmentsurvived112). A personwho confiscatesthe vesselof some1o9) Seidl, Einfiibrung,38, interprets this text as indicating that loss of appeal from a previously lost case was subjectto punishmentby beating. This interpretation is followed by Th6odorid's, RIDA3 14 (1967), 127. i io) Summary beatings were dealt out for non-payment of taxes in the Old Kingdom, as many tomb reliefs attest, but this was an "on-the-spot" action and not the result of a judicial proceeding. Special mention should be made of the beating scene in the tomb of Mereruka(see Duell, The Mastabaof Mereruka,Vol. II [The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications 39], pls. 36 ff.), since Capart,ZAS 36 (1898), 125 f., erroneouslyidentifiedthe act depicted as decapitation. For beatings as a form of summary punishment under the same circumstances in the Ramessideperiod, see P. Anastasi V, i6, 5-7 (Gardiner,Late-EgyptianMiscellanies[BibliothecaAegyptiaca7], 64, I6-65, 1; for an English translation,see Caminos,

Late-Egyptian Miscellanies[ London, 1954], 247).

ii i) The amount of the material preserved increases greatly with the New Kingdom, and good English translations are available in many cases, so that the discussions from this point will be of a more summarynature. i iz) The abuses are referred to as d3t, bt3w and 'wn, all of which seem to be non-technicalterms for "crime"in this context.

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one who is attemptingto pay taxes,as well as a personwho interferes with deliveriesto the haremor for the divineofferings,will bepunished by the severing of his nose and deportationto the borderfortress at Sile, where he presumablywould have performedforced labor in unfreestatus.The seizureof a hide by a militarymanwas punished by Ioo blows and five open wounds113). 5 15. The best preservedof the New Kingdomroyaldecreesdealing with crimeandpunishmentis thatinscribedby the DynastyXIX king Seti I on a rock face below the Third Cataractat Nauri. This is a decree of exemptionfor the Nubian propertyand personnelof a foundation for Osiris of Abydos 114). The text deals at length with the punishment of infringementsupon the foundation and its exemptions. In the vast majorityof cases,both crimeand punishmenthave survived. To simplify discussion, the provisions are grouped here by punishment 115).According to the text, two hundredblows, five open wounds, and replacementof the work-dayslost was the penaltyfor requisitioning free personnel or slaves, here apparentlycultivators, by civil administrators (11.42-47) 116). The same penalty was exacted for detention of a boat belonging to the foundation or any of its agents (11. 47-50). Encroachment upon the boundaries of the foundation's fields was punished by cutting off the offender'snose and ears and setting him as a cultivator on foundationland (11. o0-z2)117). The same punishment I13) Pfliiger,JNES 5 (1946), 263, suggeststhat the woundsare to be caused by the beating,not inflictedin additionto it. For the text, see Urk.IV, 2140-2162, andthe importantstudyby Helck,ZAS 8o (i95 5), 109-I36.ForEnglishtranslations, see Breasted,ARE, Vol.-III, ?55o-67;Maspero,in Davis, TheTombs of Harmbabi and Toutdnkhamanou(London, 1912), 45-57; Pfliiger, JNES 5 (1946), 260-268. I14) Edgerton, JNES total, but Gardiner, JEA

6 (1947), 219-230, argued that this exemption was not 38 (1952), 24-33, has persuasively rebutted his arguments

and demonstratedthat it was.

ii 5) For the text, see Griffith,JEA

13 (I927), pls. 38-43; Sander-Hansen, Histori-

scheInschriftender i9. Dynastie(BibliothecaAegyptiaca 4), 13-24; Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions,Vol. I, fasc. 2, 45-58. For an English translation, see Griffith, op. cit., 193-206. 116) The text includes the Viceroy of Kush as an official who might commit this crime and thus be subject to the penalty. Gardiner,JEA 38 ('95 2), 27 f., has

declined to take this seriously, but there is no reason why one should not do so. I17) The term ihwty"cultivator" precludes a reference to slavery (on the term,

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D. LORTON

was inflictedon personscaughtin the act of stealingan animalbelonging to the foundation118), with the additionalprovision that the person's family would also become serfs (11. 71-74) 19). Interference with fishing and fowling was punishable by one hundred blows and five open wounds (11.52- 3), as was driving a herdsmanfrom his pasturage (11.80-82). The punishmentfor being caughtin the act of stealinggoods belonging to the foundation 20) was one hundred blows, restoration of the goods, and payment of an additional penalty12) at the rate of one hundredto one (11.53-55). The same punishmentwas inflicted for the requisitioning of a herdsman and confiscation of one or more animals in his charge (11.66-71). One hundred blows, restoration of the goods, and the rendering of an additional penalty at the rate of eighty to one was the punishment for confiscation of luxury items being conveyed by boat (11.89-93). Confiscationof goods or crewmen from a boat was punished by restorationof the goods or work-days at the rate of x (numberlost) to one (1l.94-97). The selling of an animal belonging to the foundation or entering it on a list other than the offering-listof Osiris, was punished by "causing him to fall, he being placedupon the wood" (s.hr.f /diwhrtp-ht/)-by which we areto understand a form of capital punishment, namely impalement •22)-and see Gardiner, The WilbourPapyrtus, Vol. II [Oxford, 1948], 82 and 87 f.). However, in order to be comprehensible as a punishment, the term must carry here the connotation of an unfree status, most likely that of a serf; see n. I 19 below. ii 8) The construction gmt.f hbr3twtcan only be interpreted as referring to the thief's being caught in the act (i.e., fur manmfestus). I 9) From the juxtaposition of the term ibwty applied to the offender and the collective ndt "serfs" in reference to his family, it appears that the former is the singular of the latter. 20zo)On the specific nature of the crime, see n. I18 above. 2zi) On the 3lwt "penalty"in cases of theft, see Cern), JEA 23 (1937), 186-189. i22) That the expression refers specifically to death by impalement is proved by the unusually explicit determinative which appears in a text from the fourth year of Merneptahat Amada in Nubia; see Youssef, ASAE 58 (1964), 274, line 5. This confirms the reading hr tp-ht "on the end of a pole", as opposed to br-tp ht "upon a pole", as also suggested by the lexical variant hr tmni"on a stake" and the orthographic variant hr dph; on all these matters, see now Lurje, Altgvypt. Recht, 146, n. 31. For tp in compounds with the meaning "end of", see Wb.,Vol. V, 265, C. It would appear that the crime here was regarded as far more serious than merely being caught in the act of stealing an animal (11.71-74) or other goods (11.53-55)

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seizureof the offender'swife,childrenandpropertyfor the foundation; the recipientof the animalhad to repayit and renderan additional penaltyatthe rateof onehundredto one (11.74-80).Twocomplementary punishmentsare prescribedfor officialswho do not prosecutethese crimes: on the one hand, Osiris shall see to it that they and their wivesand childrenwillnot receiveritualburial123), and on theother, hand, he shall receiveone hundredblows, be deprivedof his office, and be set to work as a cultivator(11.113-118). In these stipulations, the personsmostlikelyto committhe crimesarelisted,andit is essential to note that the punishmentsare determinedsolely by the crime, and not by the social statusor administrative rank of the criminal. ? x6. An inscriptionof SetiI in favorof the templeat WadiMiyah omits mention of criminalpenaltiesinflictedduring life and states for royaltyandcommoners.Thosewho only the religiousconsequences Seti's text is not a decree,so that it is not uphold provisions(the surprisingthat legal sanctionsare not mentioned,but this sectionof the text presupposessuch a decree)will enjoy a blessed afterlife, whilethosewho violatethemwill endureeternaltortureandflames124). ? 17. In a decreeof exemptionof Ramessidedate, probablyfrom Dynasty XIX, one instanceof crime and punishmentis preserved: [ ...] who will removeany goods [ .. .] any[ .. .], the law shallbe applied to him causingby him to fall,he beingplaceduponthe wood, besidethetemple fromwhichhe shall(have)take(n)anygoods or anypeople. from the foundation; the effective differencemust lie in the alienationof the animal to a third party whether a private individual or another deity. Lurje, op. cit., 159, regards the crime as the theft of cult objects, but this does not suit the case involving the theft of workmen's chisels which were state property; see ? 24.9 below. x23) The formulation makes it clear that this was not under royal jurisdiction. For this type of curse, see the examples collected by Moller, SPA W, 1910, 941-948, and Gardiner,JEA 16 (1930), 224 f. 124) For the text, see Lepsius, Denkmaleraus Ag•ptenundNubien,Abt. III (Berlin, Chrestomathie (Vienna, 1873),pl. 9c; Golknischeff, 185i), p. I4oc; Reinisch, A~gyptische RdeT 13 (i89o), pl. 2. For English translations, see Birch, Recordsof the Past, First Series,Vol. VIII (London,1876),71 ff.; Breasted,ARE, Vol. III, ?S165, 175-180, 190-194; Gunn and Gardiner,JEA 4 (1917), 246 ff. On curse formulas, see the preceding note; for the cursingof future kings, see also the decree of Neb-kheperu-Re Antef, discussed in ? 12 above,

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D. LORTON

Froma comparisonof this provisionwith thoseof the Nauridecree,it is likely that the crimewas not being caughtin the act of stealing, but rathertheft and alienationof the stolen propertyto a thirdparty (se

n.122)125)

? 18. The haremconspiracyagainstRamessesIII of DynastyXX occurredand was investigatedandprosecutedat the end of the king's reign126). From the summaryof the proceedingsand punishments suppliedby theJudicialPapyrusof Turin127),we learnthattheprincipal conspiratorswereforcedto commitsuicide,while anothergroupwas executed,and a third sufferedmutilationby the cutting off of their noses and ears.One groupof six personsapparentlykilledthemselves beforethey couldbe executed.Both complicityin the plot andsimple failureto reportit broughtdeath by enforcedsuicideor execution. The descriptionof the suicidesis somewhatcircumspect:"he died for himselfon his own" (iw.f mwtn.f (hr)ds.f). The executions,however, are referredto even more gingerly:"they causedhis punishmentto overtake him"128). In the fragmentarydocument now known as 125) For the text, see Brunner, MDAIK

8 (1938), 161-164. Three further decrees,

similarto the Nauri Decree, would yield substantialinformation on the punishment of criminals were they better preserved. A single provision has survived from a decree of Seti II of Dynasty XIX at Thebes: a priest who gives a bribe to the hm-ntr priest will be deprived of his office and set to work as a cultivator. For the text, see Helck, ZAS 81 (1956), 84 ff. The Elephantine Decree, apparentlydating to the Dynasty XX king Ramesses III, mentions restitution in the case of requisitioning or theft of animals (1. 5), but the text breaks off at the point where furtherpenalties might have been mentioned, and no more has survived. For the text, see de Rouge, copiiesen Egypte(Paris, 1878), 256 f.; de Morgan, Catalogue Inscriptions hiiroglyphiques des monuments de l'Egypte antique,Vol. I (Vienna, 1894), 118; J quier, et inscriptions For Sphinxi6 (1912), 3-6. English translations,see Breasted,ARE, Vol. IV, 5? 8 5 f.; Griffith, JEA

13 (1927),

207

f. The Armant Decree, of Ramesside date, apparently

contained similarmaterial,but it has been preservedin very poor condition. For the text, see Mond and Myers, The Templesof Armant (Egypt Exploration Society, Memoir no. 43), 161 and pl. 102, no. 7. I26) On this point, see de Buck, JEA

23 (1937),

152 f. and 163. The king did

not long survive the conspiracy, but examination of his mummy has shown that he died of natural causes and not as a result of the attempt on his life; see Harris and Weeks, X-Raying the Pharaohs (New York, 1973), 163.

127) For English translations,see Breasted,ARE, Vol. IV, 5?416-453; de Buck,

op. cit., 15 2-I64; Wilson, in ANET3,

i28) De Buck's translation,

214 ft.

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PapyrusRollin and PapyrusLee129),which dealswith the sameproceedingsat greaterlength,the crimesarecalledbt3w'3wn mwt"great offensesof death(i.e., worthyof death"30), bwt'3w n p3 t3 "great abominationsof the land",andbwtntrnbntrtnbmikd.f "theabomination of every god and every goddess,entirely".Comparisonof this last expressionwith the Old Kingdomverdictformula"it is what the kinghates"(see?4.I above)suggeststhatalthoughtheinvestigation was carriedout by a commissionof civil administrators, the verdict was in the divine jurisdiction.There is confirmationfor this. The MiddleKingdomBrooklynpapyrus(see ? io above)and the decree of Neb-kheperu-ReAntef (see ? I2 above) containdirectiveswhich can be takenas the sentencingof the offenders131). In PapyrusLee, it is said, "One appliedto him the greatpunishment(sb3yt)of death whichthe godssaid,'Do it to him'" 132). The strongfeelingof taboo in the matterof takinga life, even at divine command,which these papyriexpressso clearly,was so greatthatthe king facedthe afterlife 129) For the text, see Goedicke, JEA 49 (1963), pls. io-ii. For English translations, see Breasted, ARE, Vol. IV, 5?454 ff.; Goedicke, op. cit., 71-92. I30) This is Goedicke's interpretation of the expression, op. cit., 89, note ac. 131) On the details of Egyptian legal proceedings, see Spiegelberg, Studienund MaterialienZumRechtswesen desPharaonenreiches (Hanover, I892); Peet, TombRobberies, 15-27. While there is much in this regard that remainsuncertain,it would appear that the sifting of evidence and determining on which side the preponderanceof evidence lay, on the one hand, and the sentencing, on the other hand, were two separate processes, the latter being in the competence of a higher authority (including, in appropriatecases, the king); see Capart,"Esquisse", 308; Erman and Lebenim Altertum(Tiibingen, I923), I 7; Th6odoridas, Ranke, Agyptenundaegyptisches in Legacy, 3"1ff. On the-Old Kingdom "trial" as constituting a "separating of complaints" (wd'-mdw),see Goedicke, MIO 8 (1961), 355f. For a late account of the first stage of the proceedings, see Diodorus Siculus, Libraryof History, i. 75. The use of chc.n "then" to introduce the account of a punishment in P. Mook of Dynasty XVIII (see n. io8 above) lends itself to the interpretationjust mentioned, since it leaves open the possibility that the sentencing stemmed from an authority other than the examining body. 132) From the use of the relative form i.dd, which has past meaning, ratherthan the Present Relative construction, it can be inferredthat this is an indication of the sentence and not a general ethical prescription,as it is taken by Spiegelberg,op. cit., 67; Capart, op. cit., 309; and Goedicke, op. cit., 89, n. 5. The reference to divine writings in P. Lee, 2,5 follows a short lacuna, but it appearsin context to refer in some way to the suicide of one of the conspirators,not to a divine verdict or law code.

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denying all knowledge of the specifics, as stated in the introduction to the Judicial Papyrusof Turin: ... they caused to die by their own hands those whom they caused (so) to die, though [I] do not know [wh]o, [and they] also punished [the] others, though I do not know who ....

As for all this that has been done, it is they

who have done it. May (the responsibilityfor) all that they have done fall upon

their(own) heads,while I am consecratedand exemptedfor ever, while I am amongthe just kingswho arebeforeAmen-rec,King of the Gods, andbefore Osiris,Rulerof Eternity"1').

Ramesses III could not have made such statementsif the sentencing had been in his own jurisdiction! Posener ~34)has pointed to the punishmentof "debaptism"in these proceedings,in this case involving the changing or deformation of the criminals'names. Thus, to give two examples, Msd-sw-R' "Re hates him" replaces Mr-sw-R' "Re loves him", and, perhaps,P3-b3k-'Imn"the servantof Amun" becomes P3-b3k-k3mn"the blind servant". The form which "debaptism"takes here is perhaps to be connected with the divine jurisdiction; cf. the name Msd-sw-R' "Re hates him" and the Old Kingdom verdict formulation msdt nswtpw "it is what the king hates" (see ? 4.I above). 5 19.1. In the papyri recordingthe investigations of tomb robberies in the reigns of Ramesses IX-XI of Dynasty XX 135), the robbers arecalledit3w"thieves"136), 4t3whyw '3w "thieves,greatoffenders"137), 133) The translationand interpretationare de Buck's. It seems ludicrousat firstsight thatsuchan introductionwould be followedby the summaryof punishments,by individual,whichin fact ensues.However,whilethe papyruswas buried with the king to assurethe gods that justicewas done as a resultof royalactions, it is to be assumedthat the text (even thoughformulatedin the firstperson)was composedby a scribeandthusneednot havebeenseenby the king. The imperative sm3 "slaughter"in the Instructionsfor King Merikare(see ? 7.I above) suggests that capitalpunishmentwas underroyaljurisdictionat an earlierperiod,and we know otherwise(see ? i9.z below)thatthe samewas truein the Ramessideperiod. in thiscasemostlikelystemsfromthepersonalsuperstiThus,the divinejurisdiction tion of the king at the end of his life. 134)

Revued'Egyptologie 5 (1946), 5 I-56.

I35) For the publicationsand translationsof these documents,see especially

Peet, Mayer Papyri; Peet, Tomb-Robberies; Capart, Gardiner and van de Walle, JEA z22 (936), 169-193 and pls. io-i6; and Capartand Gardiner,Le PapyrusLiopold II ... et le PapyrusAmherst(New York, 1939). I36) Passim. Vol. I, 87, where hryw 137) P. BM ioo68, recto, I, xo; see Peet, Tomb-Robberies,

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and n3 hriw ' yt n it3w "the greatoffenders,namely(nfor m) thieves" 138). The term sbi "criminal"is not applied to the tomb robbers in these documents, possibly becausebrwis used; see n. 137. ? 19.2. The penalty for tomb robberywas death, as can be deduced from three statements in the texts: (I) A man who admits violating tombs, but not at Thebes, states, "Oh, let them kill me for the tombs of Gebelein! They are the ones I was in!" 139) (2) Another suspect, protesting his innocence, states, "I saw the punishment which was done to the thieves in the time of Kha-em-Waset.Truly, why am I going to seek death deliberately?"140) (3) Another suspect, who also claims to be innocent, says, "1 do not know the tombs! It is my men the West and went to the royal tomb. Oh, let them kill me for my men! That is my 'thieving'! "141) The reason for the death penalty apparentlyis that the thieves, as would be expected, sold their loot; this is clearlyindicateda numberof times 142). It is most likely the fact that these were capital cases which led to their being tried in the is rendered *"criminals".In texts of Dynasty XVIII dealing with foreign relations, Wr(w)"fallen one/one who should fall" is applied to militaryopponents; see Lorton, JT, 165, n. 14. Its subsequent applications,e.g., to Akhnaton, and here to thieves, require further investigation. In view of the militaryusage, it is likely that the use in reference to the tomb robbers has to do with the infliction of the death penalty; in this connection, it should be noted that shr,the causativeof the verb hr, is employed in the phrase describing death by impalement as the punishment for this crime (see ? 19.3 below, and also ? 15 above). This being the case, br(w)could be a technical term for "capital offender". Vol. I, 142, where hriwis rendered 138) BM oo0052, ,2; see Peet, Tomb-Robberies, *"enemies". It is also possible that the n is genitival, and that the expression is to be rendered "the great thieving offenders". 139) BM oo002, 8,5; see Peet, op. cit., 50o.For the particleinn, see Erman NdG2

?688.

, 8, 19-20; see Peet, op. tit., 151. 140) BM 1005oo 141) BM Ioo5z, II, 1-Iz; see Peet, op. cit., 153. For the particle inn, see n. 139 above. In P. Mayer A, 3, B, i, Peet originallyread *n3n it3w i.diwmwt.w(?)hr tp-ht

"the thieves who were caused to die upon the end of the wood"; see MayerPapyri, plates, p. 13. Later, however, he read simply... i.dit hr tp-ht "who were placed on the end of the wood", which better suits the traces;see Tomb-Robberies, Vol. II, pl. 24. Vol. I, 90); 142) E.g., P. BM ioo68, recto, 4, I-2 (see Peet, Tomb-Robberies, P. BM oo003, recto (see ibid., 1o4-lo9), where it is apparentlythe recipients of the stolen goods who are indicated, and Turin Necropolis Journal of Year 17, recto, B, 3-7 (Botti and Peet, Ii Giornaledella Necropolidi Tebe[Turin, I928], 24 f.).

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Great Assembly at Thebes, rather than in the local judicialbody of the workmen's village at Deir el-Medina143). The death penalty is statedto have been fixedby the king 144); thus, it is likely that the referral of the death sentences in the Harem Conspiracyto divine jurisdiction (see ? 18 and n. 131 above) stemmed from the personal superstition of

RamessesIII at the end of his life and should not be regardedas the regularpracticein capitalcases145).Since alienation of stolen property to a third party is involved in the tomb robberies, the crime is to be regarded as identical to that specified in the Nauri Decree, 11.74-80 (see ? 15 above), which merited the same penalty. ?19.3. The tomb robbery papyri supply important information regarding penalties for perjury. Each suspect or witness interrogated was sworn in, and in his oath against perjury, he acknowledged the penalty for false testimony 146). This formal oath is unfortunately not

always quoted in full. In some cases in which it is only summarily indicated, however, the information is supplied by the quoting of further oaths sworn by the individual during or at the close of his testimony; these oaths are sporadic and seem to represent emotional outbursts 147), but their contents are of a kind with the required initial

oaths. The typicaloath taken by a suspectedtomb robberat his interro143) This is a point which has troubled Allam; see Verfahrensrecht,31 and 42.

A person and a crime are called "worthy of death" in two of the cases known from the Deir el-Medina records, but this is not to be taken literally; see n. 179 below. On the law-court of Deir el-Medina, see, in addition to Allam's study cited here, the lengthy treatment by Th6odorides, RIDA3 I6 (1969), 103-188. 144) See P. Amherst, 4, 2-3; Peet, Tomb-Robberies,Vol. 1, 49. 145) This is not dissimilarto Diocletian's deathbed decision to be baptisedin the

Christianfaith. In the Instructions for King Merikare(see ? 7.1 above), the use of the imperative sm3 "slaughter" renders it clear that at this earlier time, the death penalty fell within royal jurisdiction. 146) The forms taken by these and other oaths are discussed at length by Wilson,

JNES 7 (1948), 129-156. On the swearing in, see also the early discussions by Capart,

"Esquisse" and Spiegelberg, Studien,71-81. Lurje has pointed out that the acknowledgement of penalties in judicial oaths is a point of contrast between Egyptian court procedure and that of contemporary Near Eastern cultures; see Altigypt. Recht, 144. 147) The testimony was taken with the aid of torture, a situation conducive to

outbursts and expostulations.

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gation was: "If I speak falsehood, may be mutilatedand sent to Kush" 148); there are in all eight such oaths 149). However, other

punishmentsare invoked in the oaths. Three suspectedrobbersmention being mutilated and impaled 50). Two men who were apparently suspected robbers mention only impalement 5l); here, the absence of mutilation might be simply an omission. One cannot, of course, suppose that the choice of penalty was at the discretionof the suspect, and so a more reasonableexplanationmust be sought for the observed discrepancy in the penalties mentioned. Statistically,being mutilated and sent to Kush seems by the greater frequency of its occurrence to have been the punishment for perjury on the part of suspected tomb robbers. Impalement, on the other hand, was the penalty for the crime itself, and it might be argued that in the cases where this punishment is invoked, it is the punishmentfor the crime; in such a case, one would have to assume that the tomb robbers were also mutilated. However, this is logically inconsistent,for in an oath against perjury, it is the penalty for perjury which ought to be invoked. As will emerge from the discussion which follows, being mutilated and impaled were the penalties regularlyinvoked by persons interrogated as witnesses, and in point of fact, in P. BM oo0052,the mentions of mutilation and impalementare confined to the latter part of the document (see notes 15o and 5III, in contrast to n. 149), where there is a good deal of material dealing with the interrogation of witnesses. The simplest explanationof the discrepancy,therefore,is mere scribal confusion 152). This is confirmedby the fact that the brewer Nes-Pre, 148) P. BM 10052, 3, 22-23; Peet, Tomb-Robberies,Vol. I, 146. 149) The remainder are: P. BM oo005, 5, 4-5 (Ibid, 147); P. BM 1oo005, 5, 26-27 (Ibid., 148); P. BM oo0052,7, 9-Io (Ibid., 15o); P. BM Ioo5z, 8, 17-18 (Ibid., P. BM 1oo0 2, 9, 1-2 (Ibid.); P. BM 1oo0052,11, -z (Ibid., 152; suspect?); P. BM 15*); IooS z, )I, 9-10 (Ibid., 153); P. BM 1oo52, II, 23 (Ibid.; suspect?). 15o) P. BM oo005, io, 2 (Ibid., 151); P. BM Ioo5z, 1I, 14-15 (Ibid., 153); P. BM 100oo2, 14, 23-24 (Ibid., 156). P. BM I0oo0 , 15, 17 (Ibid., 157); P. Mayer A, 8, 13-14 (Peet, MayerPapyri, 14). 15i) 152) Lurje (Altagpt. Recht, 156 f.) recognizes the problem of the two penalties

for accused tomb robbers mentioned in the oaths and suggests that the penalties were chosen according to their degree of guilt, as in the Harem Conspiracy,but this is not demonstrablefrom the evidence. Further,the Harem Conspiracydocu-

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who in P. MayerA invokesthe penaltyof impalement 153),in P. BM invokes the mutilated and sent to Kush154). of 10052 penalties being It might seem strangethatsuchscribalerrorscould occurin administrativedocumentsrecordingevents of such importance,but such a phenomenonin factoccurselsewhere.In therecordsof theinvestigation of the HaremConspiracyagainstRamessesIII (see ? i8 above), the is describedin P. Rollinas one of thosewho conspiratorPa-bak-kamen killedhimselfl55), whilein the JudicialPapyrusof Turinhe is said to have been executed156). What is especiallyunusualabout the oaths againstperjurytakenby the tomb robberysuspectsis that, although the penaltyfor tomb robberywas death,their oaths againstperjury mention penal servitude!This contradictionis difficultto resolve. It is possiblethat in such instancesthe guilty partysuffereda period of penalservitudepriorto his execution.At the sametime, a reading of the documentsshowsthatfalsestatementswereoften retracted,and full confessionsmade,underrepeatedtorture,so that the punishment for perjurywas probablyseldominflicted. 5 19.4. Withregardto witnessesin the tombrobberyinvestigations, in five casesthey invoke thepenaltyof mutilationandimpalement 157). One witness mentions only impalement58). Here, the penalty for perjuryon the partof a witnessis the sameas thatfor commissionof ments are vague in their wording, and we can scarcely be certain that different penalties were meted out for the sameoffense, and indeed, it seems logical to assume that the specific offensescommitted in connection with the conspiracywere different. See n. Ix1. I53) P. BM ioo52, II, 1-2; see n. 149. It should be noted that the occasions 154) mentioned in the two papyri are not the same, the interrogation mentioned in P. Mayer A being a second examination which took place a year later than that recorded in P. BM Ioo5z. Still, the discrepancyin the case of the same individual is striking, since the offense was the same in both instances. See Goedicke, JEA 49 (1963), 72. 155) See de Buck,JEA 23 (1937), 154. x56) Vol. I, 149); P. BM ioo52, 8, 157) P. BM 00oo52,7, 2-3 (Peet, Tomb-Robberies, 25-26 (Ibid., 1II; witness?); P. BM oo0052,10, I2 (Ibid., Is2); P. BM ooz0052, 10, 17 (Ibid.); P. BM 10052, Ir, I9 (Ibid., 153). 158) P. BM 00oo52,i4, 4-5 (Ibid., 155). This man's part in the whole affairis not clear, however; it is possible that he was a suspected robber.

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the crime itself 159). One witness invokes the penalty of being sent to Kush 160), but this anomaly is likely to be a scribal error. ? i9.5. Two suspected recipients of stolen goods invoke in their oaths the punishment of mutilation and impalement 161). ? 19.6 A slave whose role is not entirely clear, but who appears

to have been asked to do something which would have made him an accomplice in an attempt at briberyto secure silence about a gang of tomb robbers, asks the question, "Am I, who came (from) Syria, one to be sent to Kush?" 182) The man was alreadya slave, of course, but it could be that penal servitudein unfree status in Kush was the regular punishmentfor briberyin a criminalcase. ? 19.7. A special case should be mentioned here. A man confessed to tomb robbery,but his confession was proved to be false. According to the text, "He took an oath on pain of being beaten, of his nose and his ears , and of impalement,saying, 'I do not know any place here in the places except this tomb which is open and this house which I pointed out to you' "'63). This is an oath against perjury,

but it involves the retractionof a previous confession. ? 19.8 The leader of a gang of tomb robbers reveals the names of his men and gives an oath, "As Amun lives and as the Ruler lives, if there be found (any) man who was with me whom I have concealed,let his punishment be done to " 164). Since the man undoubtedly knew that he would be executed (we have no reason to think that he 159) It is not always certain from the texts whether a specific individual was a suspect or a witness, but there are some means of determination.One, of course, is the content of the individual'sstatement,where recorded.Another,whererecorded, is the question put to the individual by the interrogator.Finally, wives and slaves seem never to have been suspects. The statementbwpwy.fhn,which appearsin some of the terser entries, is rendered*"He would not confess" by Peet, which suggests that the individual was a suspect. However, the verb hn(n)means specifically "to bow, assent" (see Wb., Vol. II, 494 f.), and one can safely conclude no more that that the individual did not "consent" to give information. I6o) P. BM oo0052,4, 2 (Peet, op. cit., I47). i61) P. BM iooS 2, Ii, zo (Ibid., 15 3); P. BM oo002, 2, 8 ([bid., 155). I6z) P. BM ioo5z, I2, 8 (Ibid., I54). 163) P. Abbot, 5, 6-8 (Ibid., 40). 164) P. BM 0oo52, z, 15-16 (Ibid., 144).

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would have been granted immunity for turning state's evidence), the invocation of the punishmentis hyperbolic;it should be mentionedthat this oath is an outburst and not an instance of formal swearing in. The slave who might have been an accomplicein bribery (see 1i9.6) declaresin an outburst (but not an oath), "If they accuse me, may you inflict on me any punishmentyou desire!"165) A suspectedtomb robber declares (but not as part of an oath), "If truth is found (i.e., in the accusation made against me), may you inflict on me any evil punishment" 6le). It has alreadybeen mentioned (see ? 19.3 above) that the penalties for perjury are unlikely to have been often inflicted, since repeated interrogation under torture usually elicited the truth. The outbursts just mentioned confirm an impression that, while there might have been a regular scheme of punishments for perjury in criminal cases, to which the persons interrogated conformed in their oaths, the drastic punishments invoked were nevertheless in certain respects "exaggerations"intended for their sobering effect on those interrogated. of the documents dealing with the tomb robberies also S20o. One records the investigation of thefts from Theban mortuary temples. Three oaths invoking punishment are recorded. Each occurs at the end of a confession, and is thus to be viewed as an informal outburst, affirmingthe truth of the confession and declaring that it will not be retracted.One suspected robber invokes the penalty of being sent to the "garrisonof Kush" 167). Another mentionsimpalement 16s).A man whose status is not clear, because of lucunae in the text, mentions the penalty of being sent to the "garrison of Kush" 169). This is insufficientevidence to determine a pattern170). 165) P. BM 10oo52,12, 11 (Ibid., 154). I66) P. BM 10052, 15, 2-3 (Ibid., I56). 167) P. BM 100oo3,verso, 2, I8 (Ibid., 117). 168) P. BM 10053, verso, 3, 5 (Ibid., i18). verso, 4, 6 (Ibid., I19). 169) P. BM 1005oo3, 170) P. MayerA, i, I8 (Peet, MayerPapyri,II); P. MayerA, i, 22 (Ibid.);P. Mayer Vol. I, 171); P. BM A, 2, 1-2 (Ibid.); P. BM 10403, I, Io-ii (Peet, Tomb-Robberies, 10403, 3, iO-ii (Ibid., 172; robber?); P. BM 10403, 3, 24-25 (Ibid., 172 f.; a female, but an accessory to a robbery).

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z21. Two of the tomb robbery documents deal with thefts from portable shrines. Where the oaths of those interrogatedare explicitly recorded, mutilation is mentioned in the formal oaths administeredto suspected robbersat the beginning of their testimony,while no penalty is mentioned

in the oaths administered to witnesses 171). One

suspected robber, who swears in his formal oath not to tell lies on pain of mutilation,invokes impalementin an oath at the end of his testimony (i.e., an outburst)172). Despite this last anomaly,the pattern with regard to suspected portable shrine robbers seems clear. It is unfortunatethat the penaltiesinvoked by the witnessesarenot recorded, since we may feel sure that penalties were in fact mentioned in their oaths. 22. P. Lansing, which is datableto late Dynasty XX 173),has this ? to say about a soldier who deserts: "He has fled, and he has gone out among the deserters,while all his people are detainedin prison"174). This is a school text concernedat this point to stress the attractiveness of the scribalprofession by contrastingit to the hardshipsof a soldier's career. Despite the bias of the text, the authenticityof the procedure of imprisoning the deserter'sfamily can be establishedby comparing this passage with the Middle Kingdom papyrus discussed above

(see? 0o).

As is already clear, the penalties for perjury acknowledged their oaths by persons giving testimony vary accordingto the delict in question and whether the individualis a suspect or a witness. The inscription of Mes, perhapsdating to late in the reign of RamessesII, records a lawsuit concerning an inheritance,a civil case in which there were criminal aspects, since there was a question of falsification of government records. It is thus likely, especiallywhen comparisonis

? 23. in

171) P. Mayer A, 2, 18 (Peet, Mayer Papyri, i1); P. Mayer A, 3, P. BM 10403, 2, 4-5 (Peet, Tomb-Robberies, Vol. I, 172).

2-3

(Ibid.).

172)

173) See Gardiner, Late-EgyptianMiscellanies(BibliothecaAegyptiaca 7), XVIII.

174) P. Lansing, io, 7; see Ibid., o9, 5-6. For English translations of the text, see Blackman and Peet, JEA i1 (1925), 284-298; Caminos, Late-Egyptian Miscellanies (London, 1954), 371-428. The root ith occurs at a much earlier date in connection with imprisonmentin the Instructionsfor King Merikare(see 7.2 above). ?

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madewiththe penaltiesinvokedin purelycivilcases(see5 25.3 below), that the punishmentsmentionedin the text stem from the criminal aspectsof the case.Wherethe detailsarerecorded,the malewitnesses invoke as theirpenaltyfor perjurythe cuttingoff of the nose and ears and being sent to Kush175), while a womanacknowledgesthat she will be sent "to the rearof the house",that is, be madea domestic slave17). Whileno mentionis madeof mutilationin the case of the woman,andwhilesheis not to sufferthe rigorsof life in the far south, she is neverthelessto sharewith the menthe loss of free status. 5 24.1. By far our greatestsourceof knowledgeconcerningdetails of Egyptianlaw is the wealthof ostracaandpapyrifromthe villageof necropolisworkersat Deir el-Medina,most of which datefrom DynastiesXIX and XX 177). From P. Deir el-Medina27, it appearsthat adulterycouldbe punishedas a crime.An adulterer,in swearingto the court that he will not continueto "speak"with anotherman'swife, invokesuponhimselfthe punishmentof the cuttingoff of his nose and ears and being sent to Kush. On a later occasion,swearingnot to "go to" the placewherethiswomanis, he invokesthe penaltyof being sent to the mountain(i.e., quarry)of Elephantine 178).The amazing aspect of this case is that the man apparentlywas never punished, despiterepeatedadulterousacts and courthearings!One might think thatbriberywas involved,but it seemsmorelikelythatthe adulterer's good fortunestemmedfromthe factthatthe wrongedhusband(who is the "I" in this first-personaccount)took no action againsthis wife, 175) Lines Nz x (for translation, see Gardiner, The Inscriptionsof Mes: A Contributionto the Studyof EgyptianJudicialProcedure [Untersuchungen zur Geschichteund AltertumskundeAegyptens 4/3], 9), Nz8 (see Ibid.),and N3o f. (see Ibid., xo). 176) Line N35 (see Ibid.).For comment on the oath, see Ibid., 22, n. 67. 177) For translations and commentary on the corpus, see now Allam, Ostraka undPapyri, with a detailed bibliography of each of the texts; for ease of reference, this will be the only source quoted here. For photographs and transcriptions of previously unpublished texts, see Allam, HieratischeOstraka und Papyri: TranskriptionenausdemNachlassvonJ. Cerny(Tiibingen, 1973). What can be learned about Egyptian law from these texts has been most recently discussed by Allam, Verfahrensrecht. 178) P. Deir el-Medina 27, verso, 2-4 and 8-io; see Allam, OstrakaundPapyri, 301,

no. 272.

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for the text makesno mentionof suchaction,andin factthe repetitions of the offenseprove that no actionwas taken.This point mighteven have nullifiedthe obligationof the courtto see to it thatthe adulterer was punishedfor breakinghis previousoaths179). 5 24.2. Pa-neb,the notoriousforemanof the Deir el-Medinanecropolis workers during the reigns of Seti II and Siptahof Dynasty XIX 180), was guiltyof grossmalfeasance, includingthe embezzlement of stones from the royaltomb underconstructionfor use in his own tomb, and of other misconduct,such as adulterywith wives of the workers.However,by such meansas politicalinfluence(or bribery) 179) As discussed above (see ? 9.i), the jealous husband apparently had the right to kill the offending couple. One presumes that divorce was also possible in such cases. The present text demonstratesthat adultery,though viewed as a crime, was not punished by death when prosecutedin the courts. This refutes the attempt by Kornfeld (RevueBiblique57 [1950o], 105 ff.) to argue, on the basis of certain religious and literary texts, that adultery was punished by death. The relevant passages from the Maxims of Ptahhotep and PapyrusWestcarwhich he quotes have alreadybeen discussed (see ? 9.I and n. 61 above). In the Tale of the Two Brothers, the trial and apparentexecution of the unfaithful wife involved matters, including the murder of her husband (one of the brothers), other than adultery(P. D'Orbiney 9, 9 and 19, 5; for the text, see Gardiner,Late-EgyptianStories[Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca I], 9-30; for English translations, see Erman and Blackman, The Ancient Egyptians[New York, 1966], 1 o-x6i1;Wilson, in ANET3, 23 if.; Wente,in Faulkner, Wente, and Simpson, The Literatureof Ancient Egypt [New Haven and London, 1972], 92-107). In a passage from the Maxims of Ani, it is stated of adulterywith another man's wife, " 'A transgressionworthy of death (bt3 C3(n) mwt),' after one hears (of) it, after she has not kept it secret (lit., "swallowed it") with her leaping tongue (lit., "mouth")" (P. Boulaq 4, 3, 16; for the text, see Suys, La Sagessed'Ani [ Analecta OrientaliaI i] ;-forEnglish translations,see Budge, TheTeaching of Amen-emapt [London, 1924], 235-250; Ermanand Blackman,op.cit., 234-242; Wilson, op.cit., 420 f.). Here, bt3 c3 (n) mwtis clearly intended to representthe shocked reaction of peop le who hear the scandaloustale. While the expressionis used literallyin Papyrus Lee in referenceto the Harem Conspiracy(see ? 8 above), one also finds the expression 13i(t) mwt, which has approximatelythe same sense, applied to a woman who has committed a petty theft (Ostracon Nash i, verso, 3; see Allam, Ostrakaund Papyri, 2I4, no. 217), while bt3 '3 n mwtis once used in referenceto a false litigation which was punished by blows and wounds, not death (see ? 24.4 below). It appears, then, that such expressions were used colloquially of any criminaloffense, whether punishable by death or not, so that the passage in the Maxims of Ani cannot be used as evidence for the death penalty in cases of adultery. I25 f. I80) On the chronology of the foreman, see Cern', Community,

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and intimidation, he was able to escape punishment. His character and undoubted guilt was known to the authorities, even if the guilt could not be established in a court of law. At one point-it is not clearfrom the text whetherthe situationwas juridical-he took an oath, saying, "If the vizier hears my name again,181) shall be removed from

office and set as a quarryman" 182). Loss of office for

misconduct is a standard punishment from the Old Kingdom on. One has the impression in this case that Pa-neb would not lose his freedom, but ratherreturn to the status of an ordinaryworker in the community, since "quarryman"is the standard term at Deir _rty members of the community who specialized el-Medina for the free in hewing out the rock-cut tombs of the kings 183). 5 24-3. A man who had access to a family tomb which was not his (the subterraneanshaft connected with that of his own tomb), and of whom it was thought that he might alreadyhave stolen goods from the tomb, was made to swear in court that if he should commit such thefts he would be subject to the cutting off of his nose and ears and impalement 184). This penalty is already familiar from cases of theft in

which the property is alienated to a third party (see ?? 15 and 19.2 above), and one would expect that the purpose of such a theft would be to sell the burialgoods. In a second, relatedcase, a man who had taken possession of a tomb by force and was proved in court not to be the legal owner, was made to swear, "If I enter this tomb-chamber, shall receive ioo blows and 50 open wounds" 185). Though this man had alreadyremoved a mummy of the plaintiff'sfamily from the tomb, I8i) Deleting .i and reading mtw sdm t3ty, with Wilson, JNES 7 (1948), 147,

no. 109.

182) P. Salt 124, verso, I, 6-7; see Allam, Ostraka und Papyri, 283, no. 266. A broken passage in the same text (recto, I, 7; see Ibid., 281) could be taken to refer to the cutting off of a thief's hand, but this would be unparalleled,and Allam, Ibid., 284, n. 15, notes that such an interpretationis highly uncertain. 183) See Cerny, Community, 251-255. 184) P. Berlin 10496, verso, I-4; see Allam, Ostraka und Papyri, 278, no. 265.

The mention of the crime itself has not survived, but it can easily be inferred from context. 185) P. Berlin 10496, verso,

-2iz; see Ibid.

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there is no record of punishmentfor his having done so. This suggests that the plaintiff's claim to the tomb was less than entirely clear18s), or that the defendanthad a fair case, though not so strong as that of the plaintiff. It is noteworthy that the penalty acknowledged in the defendant's oath is criminal,not civil: either trespass upon the tomb of a private person was consideredan offense against the community, or, more likely, such a furthertrespasswould be consideredan offense against the state, since a court of law had specificallyestablishedthat the man had no right to enter the tomb. Such a violation of the court's decision would therefore constitute an offense against the legal system s87).In a broken passage from another text, a man swears that if he trespasses upon a tomb, he will receive one hundred blows s18). ? 24.4. Another abuse against the legal system was false litigation, which was already subject to criminalpenalties in the Old Kingdom (see 5 3 above). In the Deir el-Medina material, the basic penalty for false legal action was one hundred blows

189).

One text, containing

records of a number of cases, includes an oath invoking one hundred blows and five wounds for false litigation, and an assignment of the same(?) penalty in another case to two men, apparentlyopponents in a civil case in which both were judged to be in the wrong 190). The 186) So Blackman,JEA 12 (1926), I81; this lack of clarity was in fact the issue at stake in the earliercase. 187) Requiring the man to swear an oath of this sort had the same force as a modern court injunction, but here, the action must have followed upon a decision as to the ownership of the tomb. 188) P. Deir el-Medina 26, part A, recto, 6; see Allam, OstrakaundPapyri, 297, no. 271. The number ioo is indicated in Allam's translation,but it does not appear in the transcription in Allam, HieratischeOstraka und Papyri: Transkriptionen aus demNachlassvonJ. Cern (Tiibingen, 1973), 92. A furtherpenalty involving the loss of something might be mentioned, but this is not certain. 189) So Ostracon Gardiner 104 (see Allam, OstrakaundPapyri, 171, no. 168); P. Deir el-Medina 27, recto, 8-9 (see Ibid., 301, no. 272). The latter case is interesting,

in that the plaintiff was in the right (he charged a man with adulterywhich was a criminal offense, as discussed in ? 24.1 above), but a false judgment was rendered. That the punishment for false litigation was one hundred blows, to which other penalties were attached in certain cases, has been recognized by Lurje, Altdgypt. Recht, 161 ff. 190) P. Deir el-Medina 26, part, B, recto, 4-5, and verso, 7-8; see Ibid., 299,

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numberof blows has been lost in the secondcase, but it is likely to have been one hundred,since this numberis fairlystandardat Deir el-Medina.Similarly,in situationswhich resultedin the division of property,whethersales, inheritances,or the like, the sharerswere requiredto declare-eitherat the time of divisionor on the occasion of litigationas to the legalownershipof the property--theiragreement to the division and to swearoaths invoking upon themselvesthe penaltiesof one hundredblows andloss of the shareif they attempted any futurelitigationin the matter191). It seemslikelythat the receiver of the forfeitedsharein sucha casewas the fellow recipient(or recipients) againstwhom the litigationwas initiated,in which case this additionalpenaltywas civil in nature. ? 24.5. In a libelcase,the guiltypartiesreceivedone hundredblows, and they werefurtherrequiredto swearan oath invokingthe cutting off of theirnoses andearsif they repeatedthe offense192). ? 24.6. For reasonswhich are unclearto us, a man was required to swearin court that if he divorcedhis wife, he would receiveone hundred blows and lose his share of their commonly-acquired property193); the text affordsno backgroundinformation,and thus we do not know the legal reasonfor the man'sbeing in the wrong. ? 24-7. When persons did not make a contractedpayment,the standardpracticeseemsto have been that they were takento court, wheretheywererequiredto promiseunderoaththattheywouldrender paymentby a fixeddate,invokinguponthemselvesthe penaltiesof one no. 271. Though only a beating is administered, the offense is called bt3 C3n mwt

"offenseworthy of death", on which see n. 179 above.

Thus, Ostracon BM 5625, verso, io (see Ibid., 47, no. 2i); Ostracon Florence 5 (see Ibid., 147, no. 143); P. Ashmolean Museum 1945.97, recto, col. 5, 12 (see Ibid., 270, no. 262); P. Cairo 58092, verso, 15 (see Ibid., 291, no. 268); P. Turin 2070, verso, col. II, 9 (see Ibid., 328, no. 281). In P. Ashmolean Museum 1945.97, 191)

2620,

the word iht, which has the general meaning "property", is used; however, its parallelismwith pf (psit) "share" in the other documents renders the connotation clear; cf. the same use of iht in reference to "share"in P. Turin 2ozi (=271)+P. Geneva D409, recto, 2, ii (see Ibid., 321, no. 280). 192) Ostracon Cairo 25556, 7-9; see Ibid., 62, no. 30. 193) Ostracon Bodleian Library 253, verso, 3; see Ibid., 40, no. 18.

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hundred blows and double paymentfor failureto comply 94). In three cases, the oaths mention only double payment 195), while one text

mentions only one hundred blows 196); it is possible that special circumstancesled to these exceptions,but it is also possiblethat nothing more than scribal error is involved. As already stated, these oaths arise from complaints regarding non-payment of a debt. Thus, in addition to the civil penalty of double payment, there is a criminal punishment, since the court has alreadypassed on the complainant's right to the payment,and failureto pay would thereforebe a frustration of the legal process '97). In an unusual combination of two oaths, a man states that he is to receive one hundredblows as a gm nfhm(lit., "one found (to be) a thief") if he does not make a payment,and in his 194) Thus, Ostracon Ashmolean Museum 1933.81o, recto, 5-6 (see Ibid., 18, no. 2); Ostracon Berlin lo655, recto (see Ibid., 31, no. io); Ostracon Chicago 12073, recto, 7-8 (see Ibid., 74, no. 40); Ostracon Deir el-Medina 433, 6-9 (see Ibid., 123, no. 109); Ostracon Deir el-Medina 564, 2-7 (see Ibid., 133, no. 124); Ostracon Gardiner io6, recto, z-verso, 2 (see Ibid., 174, no. 170); Ostracon IFAO 388, recto, 5-6 and verso, 4-6 (see Ibid., 195, no. 195); Ostracon Michaelides, 2, 2-5 (see Ibid., 205, no. 207); Ostracon Petrie 9 + Ostracon Deir el-Medina, Inv. 424, recto, 5-verso, 2 (see Ibid., 229, no. 229; here, the value of the payment has been lost,

but it can safely be assumedto have been double). In one case, we have not an oath, but a record of the penalty: the man receives one hundred blows, and his payment is units of silver for goods amounting originally to 2 units of silver (Ostracon 4? Cairo 25572; see Ibid., 63 f., no. 31); in this text, it is not stated that a fixed date

is involved, but this can easily be inferredfrom the texts alreadyquoted. In a couple of the texts just cited, it is not stated that the oath was taken in court, but this can safely be assumed. In Ostracon Deir el-Medina 133, when a man has appealed to the statue of Amenophis I for the third time regarding the correct amount of a payment, he is required to take an oath against further litigation, invoking the penalties of one hundred blows and double payment; this is something of a matter of false litigation, but the penalty seems actually to be borrowed from the law concerning payment by a fixed date, which is not surprising, considering that payment has alreadybeen deferredthrough three appeals.On the penalty of double payment, see also Allam, Verfabrensrecht, 69; Lurje,Altiigypt.Recht,164 f. 195) Ostracon Deir el-Medina 61, 3-5 (see Allam, OstrakaundPapyri,85, no. 51); Ostracon Gardiner 137, recto, 4-9 (see Tbid., 179, no. 178); Ostracon Petrie 67, 2-5 (see Ibid., 244, no. 245). 196) Ostracon Petrie 60o, recto, 3-verso, 2 (see Ibid., 241 f., no. 242). 197) I thus cannot agree with Allam's suggestion (Verfahrensrecht, Ioo, n. 138)

that the beatings were intended to coerce the debtor, though they might well have had this effect.

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second oath, that he is a gm-n.hm if he does not make the paymentby a fixeddate xs). ? 24.8. In the three preserved instances in which the seller of an ass invokes a penalty under oath if a third party establishes a legal claim to the animal, the penalty differs in each case; the penalties invoked in one text-one hundredblows and double payment199)-include a criminal punishment (for the remaining two texts, see ? 25.3 below). ? 24.9. In a case involving the theft of three chisels which were royal property, the witnesses against the suspected thief swore that their testimony was true and invoked upon themselves the penalties of one hundred blows and loss of their own chisels for perjury200); these penalties are far more mild than those invoked by the witnesses in the tomb-robberycases (see ? 19.4 above), and the reasonmight stem from the comparativelysmall worth of the stolen objects in this case. When asked if they can swear that the chisels were royal property and not the suspect's, they did so, invoking upon themselves the punishments of reduction to forced labor and confiscationof their houses if this was not true 201). The penaltyinvoked by the suspect in his oath is mostly lost, but the traceswhich remainsuggest that it was impalement; if so, then the penaltywas preciselythatsufferedby those who committed far more serious thefts involving alienation of state property to third parties(see ??i 5and 19.2 above)202). 198) Ostracon Turin 9754 (see Allam, Ostraka und Papyri, 25 2, no. 255). 199) Ostracon Gardiner 196, 2-4 (see Ibid., 188, no. 188). Ostracon Nash 2, recto, 13-14 (see Ibid, 217 f., no. zI8). 200) zoi) Ostracon Nash 2, verso, 6-9 (see Ibid., 218). The text seems to state literally

that they will be thrown into the fire, but such a penalty would fall entirely outside the bounds of the patterns of criminal punishment established by a study of the entire corpus. For the interpretationof the penalty as involving forced labor, see Brunner, apudAllam, Ibid., 219, n. 16. The combination of this penalty with loss of their houses suggests reduction to unfree status. Ostracon Nash 2, verso, 14-15 (see Ibid., z18). There is no indication, 202) however, that the property was alienated, and there is also some difficultyin that a capital case would probably not have fallen in the jurisdiction of the local court (see ? 19.2 above).

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? 24.IO. Two unusual cases should be mentionedhere. In one text,

a man judged to be in the wrong is sentencedto one hundredblows, ten

brands(the hieraticis unclearat this point, so that the punishment is uncertain),and forced stonecuttinglaboruntil pardoned(htpn. f; cf. the sameexpressionin ? 12 above)by the vizier203). Thiswouldbe our only evidencefor enforcedlaborfor a temporary period,as opposed to loss of free statusand enforcedlabor for life, and it is thus unfortunatethat the text does not informus of the natureof the man's wrongdoing(sincethe textspeaksof one partybeingfoundin the right and the other in the wrong, this seemsto be a civil suit). Sincethe penalty does not fit the clear patternestablishedon the basis of a multitudeof othertexts,it seemspreferable to regardthisas an unusual disagreeable case-perhaps the man in the wrong was a particularly him do some to and the it to force court wise manual character, thought labor (the manwas a draughtsman) to "teachhim a lesson".Another text is interestingin that, insteadof invokingthe penaltiesfor false litigation,a womanwho adoptssome slavechildrenand makesthem her heirs takesan oath in which she invokesupon thirdpartieswho contest their legal rights the curse of being sodomized,along with their wives, by a donkey204). ? 25.1. As alreadypointed out, civil and criminalpenaltiescould be meted out in combinationfor the same offense.Thus, failureto renderpaymentby a fixeddate,as agreedin court,waspunishedby one hundredblowsanddoublepayment,whilefalselitigationby a sharerin resultedin one hundredblows propertyagainsthis fellow beneficiaries and loss of his share.Thereis an isolatedinstancein an oath of one hundredblowsandloss of commonly-acquired propertyif a manshould divorce his wife (this must be a specialcase arisingfrom unusual and one-also in an oath-of one hundredblows and circumstances), doublepaymentif a thirdpartyestablishesa legalclaimto an asswhich 203) Ostracon Berlin 12654, recto, 9-11 (see Ibid., 36, no. 15). P. Ashmolean Museum 1945.96, verso, 1-7 (see Ibid., 259 f., no. 261). This

204)

text dates to the reign of Ramesses XI, i.e., to the end of Dynasty XX, and the curse form is attested in the following dynasties; for examples, see Spiegelberg, RdeT 25 (1903), I90-I98; Janssen,JEA

54 (1968), 167.

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has been sold. In a relativelysmall numberof instances,we have evidencefromthe New Kingdomof purelycivil penalties205). ? 2z.2. From DynastyXVIII, a papyruscontainstwo casesof the rentalof daysof serviceby a slave.In the firstcase,datedto the reign of AmenophisIII, the inabilityof the slaveto workled to a compensation in the form of an equivalentnumberof work days.In the second case, datedto the reignof AmenophisIV, the sellerof the workdays While the distinction between civil and criminal law has been maintained 205) to this point as a convenience,since the Egyptian materialswhich have survived arein the overwhelming majority of cases concerned with criminal punishments, it will be useful at this point to defend, very briefly, the employment of this distinction in a treatmentof the law of ancient Egypt, and that of the ancientNear East as a whole. Seidl has denied the validity of such a distinction in Egyptian law, pointing out that an important Dynasty XVIII text known as The Duties of the Vizier mixes material having to do with what we would call civil and criminal law (Einfiihrung, 41). Similarly, Yaron argues for the Old Babylonian period that "there is little likelihood that any distinction of this kind ever occurred to the ancient legislator" (TheLaws of Eshnunna[Jerusalem, 1969], 171). It is to be granted that a distinction between civil and criminal delicts did not constitute, in the ancient Near East, as it does for us, a fundamentalintellectualcriterionwhich affectedthe organization of juridicaltexts such as The Duties of the Vizier and the Asiatic law codes (for remark on the organization of the codes and the conceptual bases of their specific penalties, see e.g., Yaron, op. dit., I71 f.; N6rr, ZeitschriftderSavigny-Stiftung Romanistische Abteilung 75 [I958], I-3I). However, this in fur Rechtsgeschichte, no way means that these ancient peoples were not cognizant of a distinction between wrongs committed against an individual and wrongs committed against the state or society, and the types of penalties involved show that in fact they were. This point has gained increased scholarly acceptance in recent years; see Diamond, PrimitiveLaw, passim, and Iraq 19 (1957), 15 - 155 ; Finkelstein,Journalof Cuneiform Studies15 (1961), 98; Haase, RIDA3 Io (1963), 55-6I; Allam, Verfahrensrecht, 40 ff. We have very little information as to the courts which heard various types of cases and their jurisdictions; Allam, loc. cit., points out that the village court of Deir el-Medina heard both civil and criminal cases. It is perhaps worth pointing out that even if civil and criminalcases fell within differentjurisdictions,this fact, while it might provide a clue to the modern scholar as to the nature of the delict, would not have been a determining factor to the ancients of the type of offense involved: it would have been, of course, as it is now,the natureof the offensewhich determined the jurisdictionof the case, and not the reverse. From what we know of the history of law among peoples both ancient and modern (see the two works by Diamond cited earlier in this note), it is likely that civil law was temporally prior in Egypt to criminal law, though the surviving evidence does not allow us to trace this development. A few criminal punishments appear among the penalties discussed in this paragraph,but the texts seem best grouped on the basis of their evidence for civil penalties.

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swears to compensate the buyer by means of an equivalent in goods

of the rentalpriceif the slaveis unableto work206). In two texts

from the reign of AmenophisIII, if the slavesare unableto perform their purchasedwork days,the sellerswearsto rendercompensation "dayfor day"-we do not knowwhetherin work daysof anotherslave, or in goods207). In a fourthpapyrus,datedto thereignof AmenophisIV, a man purchasestwo cows and two calves,giving a femaleslave as payment; in connectionwith a subsequentlawsuit, the purchaser declaresthatif a thirdpartyraisesa validlegalclaim(i.e.,to the slave), exact compensation will be rendered208). ? 25.3. Limitedevidencefor civil penaltiesin the Ramessideperiod is providedby materialfromDeir el-Medinaandelsewhere.Fromtwo texts, we learnthat theft froma privatepersonwas considereda civil wrong, and that the guilty partywas requiredto returnthe stolen object,andin addition,to paya penaltyof two or threetimesits value (we do not know by what standardthe penaltywas fixed at double or treble value for variousobjects)209); these should be contrasted with the muchhigherpenaltiesof eightyand one hundredtimes the value in cases of stealingfrom the state (see ? I5 above)210). In the firstof thesecases,a slave-woman stoleobjectsbelongingto a charioteer, and in the second,a necropolisworkmanstole objectsbelongingto his foreman.We haveno evidencefor theftby a personof higherrank (or free status)froma personof lowerrank(or unfreestatus),but the fact that the penaltieswere the same for the slave-womanand the free man suggeststhat Egyptianlaw did not recognizethe respective statusof the two partiesinvolvedas a criterionfor fixingthe penalty, zo6) P. Berlin 9784, recto, 8-io and 25-27; for the text, see Gardiner,ZAS 43 (1906), 28-35. 207) P. Gurob II, 1, 8 and P. Gurob II, 2, 18-i9; for the texts, see Ibid., 35-38.

The second text is not dated by a royal name, but its year-date33 is the same as that of the first, and the principalsare identical. 20o8) P. Berlin 9785, 16-17; for the text, see Ibid., 38-43.

209) P. Leiden 352 and Ostracon Chicago, provisional no. i io. For the texts, see Cerny,JEA 23 (1937), 186-189. 21o) The payment of a penalty to the state is of course a criminal punishment.

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as was the case in the Asiatic systems211). In a curious case of trial by divine judgment, the guilty party received two beatings, one specified as consisting of one hundredblows, and was requiredto swear an oath invoking the penalty of being thrown to the crocodile if he retracted his confession; these are both criminal penalties, and the second undoubtedly refers not to a method of execution, but rather to loss of rights to a ritual burial (cf. ??8 and 9.' above). The aggrieved party was requiredto declareunder oath that he would not take the penalty (i.e., the paymentexactedin additionto returnof the stolenproperty212)). Cerny213) takes this oath to indicatethat the injuredparty could forego the additionalpenalty at his discretion, but the text states clearly that it was the god who requiredthis forfeiture; on the whole, the oaths which both parties were forced to swear suggest, as Spiegelberg214) has recognized, that the persons who administeredthese proceedings did not have full confidencein what they had done. The nature of the trial rendersit difficultto assess the legal basis for the criminalpunishment in this instance of theft from a private person. In another civil case, a woman was accused of having used another woman's property to purchasea slave. She denied this under oath, invoking upon herself This point has been missed by Lurje, Altdgypt. Recht, I54f. Allam, Ver211) fahrensrecht,oz2,argues for such a distinction, but one of the texts which he cites (Ostracon Gardiner 53; see Allam, Ostraka und Papyri, 158, no. 155) mentions only

the infliction of a punishment (sb3yt,which Allam assumes to be a corporal punishment) without specifying either its nature or that of the offense. One might surmise from the context that a beating was inflicted because of repeated failure by the defendant to render payment upon court judgment, i.e., an offense against the legal system. In the other text cited (Ostracon Chicago 12073; see Ibid., 73 f., no. 40),

after similar repeatedlitigation, the man in the wrong swears to pay by a fixed date, invoking upon himselfthe penaltiesof one hundredblows and double payment.There is reallyno discrepancyhere, and if the treatmentof the two defendantsdiffersslightly in that the defendantin the latter case is given another chance, it should be pointed out that this is the fourth hearing on the matter, while in the former case it is the fifth. 21z) P. BM 10335, verso, 6-7, 15-17, and zo-21; for the text, see Blackman,JEA I (1925), 249-255. For the oath of the aggrieved party as referring to the penalty, see Cerny,JEA z23 (1937), 188 f. 213) Op. cit., 189.

z 14) Einflibrung, 39.

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one hundred blows and loss of the slave; the former punishment undoubtedly was for perjury, while the latter probably representsa restitution of value to the injuredparty. The witnesses, in their oaths against perjury,invoked forfeiture of slaves of their own; we do not know whether the slaves would have been given to the state or to the victim of their perjury, i.e., whether their offense was considered criminal or civil. This penalty for perjuryby witnesses in a civil case should be compared with those mentioned in I19.4above. In a case involving payment of a debt, a man swore that he would pay double what was owed if he did not render payment215); the text does not mention a fixed deadlinefor payment,and thus no criminalpunishment is stated (cf. ? 24.7 above). In a case involving an ass incapable of working-we do not know whether it was purchasedor rented--it was replacedby the defendantwith anotherass 216); this canbe compared with the rental cases from Dynasty XVIII discussed in ? 25.2 above. In two instancesfrom Deir el-Medinaof the sale of an ass, in the first, the seller swears to replace the ass if a third party establishesa legal claim to it 217), while in the second, the sellerswears to makedouble restorationif he or a thirdpartylater establishesa legalclaim218). We do not know the reason for this variation, or why, in a third case, a criminal punishment of one hundred blows was added to the civil penalty (see ?24.8 above). In a case which does not fall easily into patterns already established, a man who purchaseda wash-basin on credit from his fatherswore an oath in which he invoked upon himself, as the penalty for non-payment,the loss of the object and the payment of "court costs" to two of his brothers who were witnesses and who had had documents drawn up 219). zx5) Ostracon Cairo z 5553, recto, 4-5 ; see Allam, OstrakaundPapyri,58, no. z8. 216) Ostracon Deir el-Medina73, recto, 3-4, see Ibid., 88, no. 56. 217) Ostracon Deir el-Medina 62, 5-6; see Ibid., 86, no. 52.

218) Ostracon Turin 6672, 4-5; see Ibid., 249, no. z52z.

219) P. Ashmolean Museum 1945.95; see Ibid., z56 f., no. 26o. For the interpretation of the latter penalty, see Wilson, JNES 7 (1948), 145, no. 95. For the legal complications of this case, which go beyond the scope of this discussion, see Cern',JEA

31 (I945), 52 f.

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Remarks Concluding ? 26.i. On the whole, a comparisonof the New Kingdom material with that of the earlier periods suggests that there were changes in the law. The Old Kingdom traditionsknew one set of punishmentsfor infringement upon temple immunities, loss of civic status in life and in death (i.e., loss of the right to a ritual burial and enjoyment of a blessed afterlife), and quite possibly assignment to labor in unfree status (see ? 2 and 4-6); this probably holds true for the succeeding periods as well. By contrast,the Nauri Decree and anotherdocumentof Dynasty XIX recorda complex set of punishmentsfor various offenses, including beatings, mutilations, and impalement,as well as reduction to unfree status (see ?? 15 and 17). The Decree of Horemhab reveals a similar situation, though it refers to crimes other than violation of temple immunities (see ? 14); this document can be compared to the Antef decree of Dynasty XVII, in which a serious crime is punished by means familiarfrom the Old Kingdom. The earliestexplicit attestation of beating as a penaltyin a juridicaltext is P. Mook, from the reign of Thutmosis IV, in which a man who wrongfully initiates a judicial proceeding is punished by one hundred blows (see ? i3; this punishmentis well-attestedfor false litigation in the Ramessideperiod, for which see ? 24-4). The punishmentsmentionedin the New Kingdom texts are particularlyreminiscent of the Middle Assyrian law code, in which beatings with a specifiednumber of blows, cutting off of the ears and nose (and also the lips and pulling out of the hair), as well as forced labor for the state (though never for more than forty days), are frequently invoked 220), and one might well wonder whether the observed changes in Egyptian law were due to the close contact with West Asian culture which was an inevitable result of the establishment of an Egyptian hegemony in that area in the New Kingdom 221). zzo) See Driver and Miles, The Assyrian Laws (Oxford, 1935), 376-453. The Hittite Laws mention mutilation of the nose and ears in only one case, that of a slave who sets fire to a house; see Neufeld, TheHittite Laws(London, 195 30 (5 99). i1), 221) It would be pressing the evidence too hard to point out that Assyria opened diplomatic relations with Egypt in the reign of Thutmosis III (see Urk. IV, 668,

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Cautionmustbe advised,however,in the proposingof sucha hypothesis. We can make a direct comparison between the earlier and later sets of punishments in only one case, namely the violation of temple immunities. If the spirit of a later age saw fit to construct a more

elaborateschemeof specificdelictsand punishmentsin this specific area, this does not mean that the earlierage did not employ the same punishments in other cases; our evidence from the pre-Ramesside

canbeadduced: periodis quiterestricted.Furtherspecificconsiderations (I) The Instructions for King Merikare mention beatings and detention as means of punishment (see ? 7.2). While this is not a juridicaltext, there is every reason to suppose that it reflectsjuridical realities, and it can thus be inferredthat beatings were used as a form

of criminalpunishmentby the MiddleKingdom. for KingMerikare (2) Boththe Instructionis (see?7.x) andtheHarem documents(see? 18)indicatethathightreasonwaspunished Conspiracy death. The only formof deathpenaltythatwe knowof wasimpaleby ment.It does not necessarilyfollowthatthiswasthe methodof execution employedin such cases before the Ramessideperiod,but this neverthelessremainsa possibility. (3) The CoffinTexts of the MiddleKingdommentionnetherworld demonswho cut offthe nosesandlips of individualswho do not know theirnames222). This, of course,is the realmof the fantastic,and the mutilatedmembersarenot quitethe sameas thoseattestedin juridical contextsof the New Kingdom.However,the very mentionof such mutilationsprecludesan absolutedenialof theiruse as criminalpunishmentsbeforethe New Kingdom. From all these points, it is clearthat the positingof an earlierand a later set of criminalpunishments is not entirelycertain,and thus that 6-15), while P. Mook dates to the subsequent reign of Thutmosis IV; a direct influence from that distant land is highly improbable. z22) See de Buck, TheEgyptianCoffinTexts, Vol. V (The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications 73), I82b-f. For general referencesto mutilation of the deceased, see Zandee, Death as an Enemy(Studies in the History of Religions [Supplements to Numen] 5), 147-158.

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an Asiaticinfluenceon the punishmentsemployedin the New Kingdom must remainspeculative. ? z6.2. The apparent difference between punishments before and those during the New Kingdom has been noted by Wilson, who sees the later punishmentsas harsherand attributesthe change to the fact that "pharaohwas no longer respected and feared as he had been in the more sacred state of earlier times", which led to "a repressive authoritarianism" 223). As alreadypointed out, it is not entirely certain that the punishmentsin questionwere introducedin the New Kingdom. However, in so far as there was a differencein the punishments for infringementson temple immunities,one can inquire whether the later system would have been considered harsher by the Egyptians themselves. First of all, we should not view the evidence with the prejudice of modern humane attitudes. In prescientific societies, lacking the benefits of modern medicine, pain and deformity are very much a part of everyday life, and their infliction is not as shocking as it is to us. Secondly, one should consider the implications of the forms of punishment for both the family and the individual. The

criminal'sfamilywas reducedto servilestatusin only a few instances; however,in a society such as that of ancientEgypt, in which office very often passedfrom fatherto son, the removalof an individual from office must have had a devastatingeffect on the criminal's the Egyptianstook seriously,as did an earlier family224). Similarly, age in the West, their prospectsof Eternity.In the older systemof punishments,loss of burialrights was regular.In the Nauri Decree, Culture,241 f. It could be argued that the Antef decree of Dynasty XVII (see 2iz), with its emphasison the fact that Teti's office is not to be inherited, is evidence that upon a man's removal from office, the office was normally assumed by his legal heir. This seems improbable, however, particularlyin a society in which the notion of kinship group had some force, since the group, and not just the individual, was tainted by guilt; on this last point, cf. the remarks of Th6odorides, RIDA3 20 (i973), 79. It is more likely that the author of the text chose to stress what was normally the case, both for greater effect, and to guard against the possibility that the office might eventually be acquiredby some descendantof Teti after being for some time in the hands of another family (it should not be forgotten that a copy of the decree was carved on a door of the temple, where it could not fail to attractnotice). 223) 224)

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however, where the details are quite explicit, beatings are never (with the exception of the offense mentioned in 11.x13-Ix8, namely failure to enforce the decree, which is obviously a special case) coupled with loss of office or civic status in any way. From the Egyptian point of view, then, the later punishmentsare in at least some respects more "humane" than the earlier. APPENDIX: CODIFIED LAW IN ANCIENT EGYPT

? 27. The data reviewedin the foregoingstudy concerningthe treatmentof criminalsfromthe Old throughthe New Kingdoms,thoughlimitedin quantityand scope, revealsthe outlinesof a regularandrationalsystemof criminalpunishments. The availableinformationregardingcivil penaltiesis quitescanty,and the oppor-

tunity to include it here has been taken. In view of the desirabilityof both more

informationand the opportunityfor comparisons,it is unfortunatethat no law codes have survived, as they have from ancient Babylonia, Assyria, Hatti, and

Israel.It seemspossible,however,to infersomefactsaboutcodifiedlaw in Egypt. ? 28.I. Lurje225) has suggestedthatwrittenlaw in ancientEgyptprobablytook the form of conditionalsentences("Wennirgendjemandin bezug auf jemanden dieses tut, dann wird er mit folgenderStrafebelegt."),and that the wordingof survivingdocumentsmust thereforereflectthe languageof the codes. This point can be carriedeven further:the stipulationsin the preserveddocumentsof the Old in theirwording;however, Kingdomandlaterperiodsshowa historicaldevelopment the formulationsconformto a single basic pattern,and it is difficultto imagine any sourcefor this persistenttraditionin legal documentsotherthancodifiedlaw. The Demotic Law Code of Hermopolis,with its conditionalsentences,provides some confirmation for this inference,thoughtherearespecialproblemswith regard to its evidencewhichwill be treatedbelow.It is suggestedherethattheformulations of anygivenperiodreflectthe wordingof provisionsin contemporary codifiedlaw. ? 28.2. The basic patternof the stipulationsin the documentsstudiedhere is as follows: Stipulation ir "with regardto" + noun + adjectivalform with futurereference.

Injunction verbalformwithfuturereference

The followingis typicalfor the royaldecreesof the Old Kingdom: "With nbnt(y)wbrshit-ntr (a) ir ? nbn(y) sptit.t(y).f(y) hbm-ntr .. ., m3'.kswr hbwt-wr

regard to any man of the district who takes (lit., "will take") any royal mortuary priest(s) who are on a field of the god..., you shall send him to court" (see ? 2). Noteworthy are the sdm.ty.fyform (a form which, though conjugated,serves as a future active participle)in the conditionalelementof the sentence,andthe prospective sdm.f in the apodosis. The royal decrees are addressedto specific individuals; one 225)

Altdgypt. Recht,x66 f.

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would imagine that in a law code, the formulation would be an impersonal *dy.tw.f226).It is important to note that these stipulations are not genuine conditional sentences. In the example cited, dy.k is the real verbal element, while the conditional element actually consists of an "anticipatory emphasis" of the direct object sw 227). The construction of the sentence is such, however,that conceptually the first element expressesa condition 22s). ? 28.3. The two provisions contained in the stela dated by its publishers to the First IntermediatePeriod or early Dynasty XII, and which was later usurped by king Neferhotep of Dynasty XIII, are formulated as follows: (b) ir r.f nty tw nbr gmt.f .. . r.t(w) wbd.t(w).f"With regard,indeed, to one whom anyone will find..., one shall brand him". (c) irgrt srnbrdi.t(y).f (y) ir.t(w)n.f h3t ... smi.tw.fwd(w)p3 hphr.firyz(m)tmihrwpn "And with regard to any magistratewho shall have a tomb made for himself..., he shall be reported, and this law pertainingto one attachedto the cemetery as (of) this day shall be appliedto him" (see ? i ). In (c), one finds in the conditionalelement a sdm.t.fy form, as in the Old Kingdom texts. In the apodosis (it is convenient to use this term, even though these arenot grammaticallyconditional sentences), a prospective sdm.f form construed with .tw and a passive sdm.f with prospective meaning are used side by side; the juxtaposition is probably the result of a stylistic desire for variety. The appearanceof the term hp is important; the idiom wdip hpbhr.f,literally,"this law shall be placed under him", however, was soon replacedby another expression(see below). The content of the hp has been rendered here as a genitive (see the next example), but the expected n(y) of the indirect genitive is missing. The words are, rather, in apposition to hp, undoubtedly extractedfrom the law in question to serve here as a kind of title. In (b), the use of the relative pronoun ntyfollowed by r + infinitive to express future time points to later usages (see below). The employment in the apodosis of a form with br, used in general statements or prescriptions229), is unique in the legal texts discussed here, and it probablyrepresentsan intrusionof the vernacularwhich anticipates 226) In the second element of the sentence, one can also find n wd.nhm(.i) "my majesty does not allow that.. ." (see ? 5) or a statement such as w3 m mdwsbit pw "it is participationin a criminalmatter"(see ? 4.I). These are secondaryformulations which are not found in later documents, and they need not be of concern here. On anticipatory emphasis in Egyptian, see Gardiner EG3, ?? 146-149. 228) There is a single instance,in a private text, of a genuine conditional sentence:

227)

ir it.f sn k3t nbt... n rdi.n(.i)shm.f... "If he takes (sdm.fform) them any work..., I do not allow that he be authorized....." (see Goedicke, PRAR, 145; for the text, see [hid., pl. is, and Urk. I, 162, 16-17. The conjunction ir "if" is the same word as the preposition ir "with regard to". From its very uniqueness, the example is atypical; secondly, it is less a separateprovision than an addition or subparagraphto the stipulation which precedes (note that the subject is .f "he", referringto a person previously identified). It is possible that such additional statements took the form of genuine conditional sentences in texts of this period, including codified law, as a regularpractice,but this is of course speculative. 229) On constructionswith hr, see Gardiner, EG3, ? 239.

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JJ

one of the constructions found in the apodosis of provisions in the Demotic Law Code of Hermopolis. ? 28.4. We do not possess any full formulationsof the type under discussion here from the Middle Kingdom. However, P. Brooklyn 35.1446containsuseful evidence; the following formulationis typical for this document: (d) ... m 3wyr irt bp r.f n tiw n w3w3[r] 3bd 6"... being an order to apply the law to him of one who desertsdeliberatelyfor 6 months" (see ? io). Here, the idiom i hp r has replacedthe wdip3 hpbhrof the precedingexample230). A reference to the subject matter of the law is expressedby means of the indirect genitive, ratherthan by apposition. As we know from later examples,a specification of the punishmentwould have been introducedby the prepositionmwith instrumental meaning. By using exx. (b) and (c), it is possible to make a fair guess at how the law in question would have been formulated:*ir s nb tLty.fyn w3w3r 3bd6ir(y).tw hp r.f m ..., or *ir nty nb r tI n w3w3r 3bd 6 ir(y).tw hp r.fm .... It is also possible, on the basis of (c), that the apodosis was formulatedwith the passive sdm.f. *ir(w) r.f hp m; the formulation with .tw, however, is characteristicof the later examples. ? 28.5. The stipulations of the decree of king Neb-kheperu-ReAntef of Dynasty XVII are formulated as follows: (e) ir nswtnbshm-ir(w).f nb n-y r btp n.f nn Isp.f Hdt. . . "With regardto any king and any potentate who will pardonhim, he shall not assumethe White Crown ...." (f) ir tsw nb h3ty-' nb nty r spr n nb... chbrdi(w) rmit.fht.f 3bt.f r btp-ntr... hnc tm rdt in.tw s nb n h3w.f... "With regard to any commandantand any mayorwho will approachthe Lord..., his people, his goods and his fields shall be given to the divine endowment ... and no man of his relatives... shallbe allowed to be appointed

... " (see? z).

The use of the relative constructionntyr + infinitivein both stipulationsconfirms the transition from the employment of the sdm.t.fy form alreadyseen in example(b). Example (e) employs in its apodosis nnsdm.f.,the negation of futureaction in Middle Egyptian, and (f) the passive sdm.f.It is interestingthat the passivesdm.fis used here, for examples (b) and (c) both employ constructions with the impersonal pronoun .tw ((c) also contains an instance of passive sdm.f), while impersonalconstructions are also characteristicof the later examples. The passive sdm.f with prospective meaning is continued by bn' + infinitive 231). On the basis of the limited evidence at our disposal, it is difficult to determine whether the .tw of the earlier text is a vulgarism, or whether the Antef Decree employs an archaism,or whether the two constructions were equally correct in texts of this genre. The last possibility could well be the correct one, both on the basis of example(c) and from the fact that both are frequent in the written Middle Egyptian of Dynasty XVIII. The absence of iri hp r.ffm in (f) is not easy to account for. Since the apodosis of (e) is reallya curse, one would not expect the expression to occur there; stylistic considerations of parallelismmight have occasioned its omission in (f) as well. S2z8.6. The following, though it is the only provision which has survived with no lacunae, appearstypical for the Decree of Horemhab: 230)

On the rendering of the expression, see now Hayes, Papyrusof the Late

Middle Kingdom,47. 231) For the construction, see n. 103 above.

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56

D. LORTON

(g) hr ir cnhnb n mic nty iw.tw r sdm r-dd sw br int r nhmdbrw J3c m p3 hrw ir.tw hp r.f m hw(t).f m sh loo wbn-sd; bhn ddp3 dbr"And with regard to any soldier 232) (about whom) it shall be heard, 'He goes and takes hides', starting from this day, one shall apply the law to him by beating him with ioo blows and 5 open wounds, together with taking the hide.. ." (see ? 14). The conditional element, construed with nty as in (e) and (f), contains the future relative construction employed when the antecedent is definite and the subject of the relative clause (here, .tw) differs from the antecedent. The apodosis has the prospective sdm.f and the idiom iri hp r.f m, as well as hnc+ infinitive continuing the prospectivesdm.f,as in (f). ? 28.7. The Nauri Decree of Seti I employs virtually the same constructions as the Decree of Horemhab, as shown by the following example: (h) ir rmtnbntyiw.twr gmt.f Prit3t ht nbtn t3 hwt ... ir. tw hp r.f (m) .wt.f....mIdp3 nkt n t3 hwt... "With regard to any person who will be found stealing any property of the foundation..., the law shall be applied to him (by) beating him ... and taking the goods of the foundation.. ." (see 5 15). The only significant difference between (g) and (h) is the substitution of m-c for hn' introducing the continuation of the prospective sdm.f in the apodosis 233); hn', however, is also used for this purpose in this text (e.g., line 46). The omission of the preposition m in ir.tw hp r.f (m) is an instance of a frequent phenomenon in Late Egyptian, though it is written out elsewherein this text (e.g., line 51). ? 28.8. It is clear from this survey that all the examples are indeed formulated according to the same pattern, with grammaticalvariations resulting from changes of usage in the course of the history of the language, as well as the introduction of a phrase containing the word hp in example (c). The decrees of Horemhaband Seti I are so much like miniaturelaw codes directedto specialcircumstancesthat one would expect more general contemporary codified law to be formulated in precisely the same manner, and from the identity of the basic pattern, this inference can easily be extended to the earlierexamples as well. ?28.9. It is interesting, then, to compare these formulations with those of the only surviving exampleof codifiedlaw from Egypt, the Demotic Law Code of Hermopolis 234):

protasis: in n3 + noun subject + infinitive (i.e., in-n3 + Praesens I) iw + suffix pronoun + infinitive (i.e., Circumstantial;negated by tm) iw.f bpr ("If it should happen that.. .") ConditionalII (i.ir) to emphasizean adverbialadjunct wn + noun subject + Conjunctive (e.g., wn shn ntw.w ir=f

"there is (let us

suppose) a lease and it is made") subsidiaryconditions are introduced by the Conjunctive, or, more commonly, the Circumstantialis employed 232) For 'nhn ml' "soldier", see Schulman, Military Rank, Title andOrganization in theEgyptianNew Kingdom(MiinchnerAgyptologische Studien 6), 33 f. 233) On the substitution, see Gardiner,JEA 14 (i928), 95, no. (34). 234) I owe the information which follows to the kindness of Professor Hughes, who has preparedthe text for publication under the title TheDemoticLegal Codeof Hermopolis West (Bibliothtque d'Etude 45).

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apodosis:

FutureIII (iw.f(r)ir)

Consuetudinis (e.g., br di.wsk3.f) Praesens II to emphasizean adverbialadjunct At first glance, there is no comparisonat all between the older texts and the Demotic code. The constructions differ, and we see genuine conditional sentences in the later text. On the other hand, if one omits the Second Tenses from consideration, since they representpeculiaritiesof the laterstages of the language,there are grounds for comparison of the constructions in the apodoses. The Future III is simply the replacement, in the later stages of the language, of the prospective sdm.f, while the Consuetudinis has its forbear in the construction employed in example (b) above. There is even a very slim ground for comparison of the protases, since the Nauri Decree of Seti I (line I 12) has one exampleof the Conjunctiveused to continue a construction (now lost) in the conditional element of a sentence. ? 28.10. The matter can be carriedfurther, however, for there is evidence that, while the royal decrees of the New Kingdom were composed in a formal language which adhered to old patterns and retainedin part old constructions, private legal documents, more susceptible to influence from the vernacular, employed verbal constructions in the protases of their stipulations.In the Old Kingdom, stipulations in private documents were formulated on the pattern of the royal decrees (cf. (a) above): (i) ir shn(w)-hmnb dt ln.t(y).f(y)

(i)ht r sn.nw.f . . .nbm -c.fJ

3bt rmt (i)ht nb ...

"With regard to any mortuarypriest of the mortuaryfoundation who will litigate against his colleague..., all the field(s), people and goods.., shall be taken from him" 235). By contrast, a document from the reign of Thutmosis III of Dynasty XVIII, in confirming a man's manumissionof a slave and the freedman'smarriage to his sister, concludes with the stipulation: r t3(y).i sntn(n)_d3.tw t3 r.f in rmtnbtr-hh"If he [.. .], (j) i ir.f[ ...] ir ir.f hsb-wnwt (or) if he makes a reckoning of service against my sister, opposition shall never be made againsthim by anyone" 236). A second privatelegal documentfrom the reign of Thutmosis III also employs ir + sdm.f in the protases (and the negative imperative in the apodoses) of its two stipulations,one of which is given here: (k) ir iw s3.i nb s3t.i nbt ... r m[d]t [Phrt]3 imyt-pr... m rd(w)sdm.twn.sn... "If any son or any daughter of mine ... comes to complainabout the testament..., do not allow that one listen fo them... " 237). 235) See Goedicke, PRAR, 45; for the text, see Ibid., pl.

and Urk. I. 13, 3-6.

(For an exceptional formulation with a verbal clause, see n. 5, 228 above). Here, the man instructs the guild of mortuarypriests to take internal action in the event of such litigation, and the documentedstipulationpresumablywould defeatthe litigant's case in court; we can probablyassumethat a criminalpunishmentfor false litigation would have followed. In the text discussedin 5 3, the guild is authorizedto institute a criminal complaint (a sort of counter-suit?)againstthe litigant. These undoubtedly are alternative courses of action to achieve the same end. 236) For the text, see de Linage, BIFAO 38 (I939), 217-234 and pls. 24-25. 237) Urk. IV, o1070o,1-4; for a translation of the text, see Th6odorides, RIDA3 17 (1970), 148-161.

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D. LORTON

J8

? 28.11. Another legal context in which a condition was combined with an injunction was the oath, all our examples of which are formulated with verbal clauses in both elements of the sentence. It is to be expected that oaths would be cast in a form reflective of vernacularusage. At that point in time when stipulations in private legal documents were formulated with genuine conditional sentences, oaths were also formulatedin this manner, as demonstratedby the Dynasty XVIII papyri discussedin 2z5.2. One oath is a sort of hybrid with regardto its conditional element: p3 4 n ibwn mniwMsi ir Imm.f m (I) ir g3b n.i imy M3ct-nfr(t)rdi(w).n.ir s[4wnw] dw3 -s3 dw3... ir(w) g3b hrg3b ... "With regard to the equivalent belonging to me, Maat-nefret,which 238) I gave as the [price] of the 4 cattle, if it should be equivalent for equivalent shall be rendered. .. ." The remain-

hot 239)in future...,

ing oaths in these papyri conform to the purely verbal pattern,e.g.: (m) ir Imn3 n brwir(w)brwbrhrw"If the days are hot, day for day shall be rendered (i.e., made good)". In the Ramessideperiod, judicialoaths are commonly formulatedwith the Conjunctive in the protasis, as in the following example: (n) mtw.ipn' r mdwm.imCnin hr io o n sh ... "If I reverse(myself) to complain about (it) again,

shall receive Ioo blows..."

240).

To the examples quoted thus far of oaths and stipulations from private legal documents should be added a stipulation from a private legal document which combinesinn"if" with a iw.fr sdmform in the apodosis; unlike the previous examples, however, the protasis does not describe an instance of wrongdoing: (o) inn wn m-di.i 3hwtm sht inn wn m-di.iht nb n p3 t3 inn wn m-di.ilwtiw iw.w (r) pLw np3y.i 4 hrdw... "If I have fields in the country, or if I have any propertyat all, or if I have merchandise(?), they shall be apportionedto my 4 children.. ." 241). S2z8. I z. The preceding examplesshow that in the New Kingdom, the formulation of stipulations as illustrated by (a)-(h), itself subject to change under the influence of changes in the language but adhering through conservatism to the pattern of a non-verbal conditional element, was being supplanted in private legal documents and judicial oaths by genuine conditional sentences; the examples quoted contain 238) The relative form agrees with the masculine noun g3b "equivalent" but refers to the slave woman Maat-nefret. Th6odorides, RIDA3 I5 (1968), 67 f., takes it as referringconceptuallyas well as grammaticallyto g3b, but this is unlikely, for it is either the day or the slave, not the abstract"equivalent",which would have been "hot". 239) The referent of the masculine pronoun is not explicit in this text, but from the other papyri in the group it can be concluded that it is the brw "(work)-day" of the slave. The expression is an idiom for the slave's inability to work; see Theodorides, loc. cit. 240)

P. Ashmolean Museum 1945.97, recto, 5, 12z; see Allam, Ostraka und Papyri,

270, no. 262. 241)

Adoption Papyrus, verso, 7-9; for the text, see Gardiner, JEA

23-29 and pls. 5-7.

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26 (1940),

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59

instances of most of the constructions (except the Second Tenses) found in the Demotic Law Code of Hermopolis. This developmentis, of course, a result of the influence of the vernacular,and examples(i)-(o) supply a relativelycomplete illustration of the transition from the older patternto the usages attested in the Demotic Law Code. ? 28.13. These observations lend confirmation to a point made earlier, that Egyptian law codes were not influencedby those of westernAsia. That the Egyptians could use genuine conditional sentences with verbal protases in prescriptions is attested not only by the unique Old Kingdom example cited in n. 228 above, but also by certain wisdom tests, e.g., the Maxims of Ptahhotep and the maxims in P. Chester Beatty IV, verso, i,13-2,5

242).

Similarly, the Egyptians version of the

treaty between Ramesses II and Hattusilis III, which rendersan Akkadianversion, employs ir + sdm.f in translatingthe lumma-clausesof the original, and one would expect that an influence of the Asiatic codes on Egyptian legislation would have similarly extended to matters of form. However, the surviving texts show that the stipulations of royal legislation, at least through Dynasty XIX, were formulated on the older pattern,with non-verbalconditional elements, while the ultimate shift to conditional sentences as we find them in the Demotic Law Code was an internal development, resulting from the influence of the vernacular upon the written language. ? 29.1. It is clear from the texts that an individual stipulationof a law code was called a hp. The term is not clearlyattestedearlierthan the Middle Kingdom: texts containing the term which supposedly stem from an earlier period, such as the Maxims of Ptahhotepand the Admonitionsof an Egyptian Sage, are not known from copies prior to the Middle Kingdom, and there is thus the possibility of the substitution of words or the insertion of new material. This does not necessarily mean, however, that neither codified law nor the term hp existed in the Old Kingdom 243). As already pointed out (see ? 1.2), the Unification and the consequent development

of the Egyptian economy must have createda need for both legal consistency and laws to cover new situations that, in a literate culture, would be expected to lead to written law. Further, Diodorus Siculus ascribes such written law to Menes and to an Old Kingdom monarch (see ? 1.2); while the attribution of any important aspect of Egyptian culture to the half-legendaryfounder of the historical Egyptian state must be viewed with some care, Diodorus and his sources were nevertheless closer than we to ancient records and traditions, and the ascription of written law to twokings prior to the Middle Kingdom seems as though it ought to be grounded in some genuine historical record or recollection. Finally, there are so few nonreligious texts of any length from the Old Kingdom that the lack of attestation of the noun hp in the preservedrecordscould be accidental244). 242) Gardiner, HieraticPapyriin theBritishMuseum,third series (London, 1935), Vol. II, pl. I8; for an English translation,see Ibid.,Vol. I, 38. 243) Th6odorides, who believes that there were law codes in the Old Kingdom, suggests, following Pirenne, that the term wd was used for an individual law; see RIDA3

14 (1967), 127-134. Lurje, who declines to assign the meaning "law" to

wd, nevertheless agrees that the stipulationsof royal decreeswere a kind of written law in the Old Kingdom; see Altdigypt.Recht,129 f. 244) Theodorides,

n. 82, quoting Otto, points to the terms shp and o0. cit., 129,

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60o

? 29.2. The term hp refers to a legal provision which is written. This is clear not only from its book-roll determinative,but also from the referencein the Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage to the "tearingup" of the laws (see below). By implication or by etymology-we have no grounds for deciding which-the term also carries the connotation that the legal provision is right and that it expresses the legal right of the state (in a criminalcase) or an individual(in a civil case). From this connotation

developed such meanings as "(an individual'slegal) right" in Demotic and "judgment" in Coptic 245);these later usages do not fall within the scope of this discussion. ?29.3.

Otto

246)

and Lurje

247)

insist, rightly, that hp "law" and wd "decree" are

not synonyms. However, there is a relationship between the two which needs to be clarified.As a single, written legal stipulation, a hp is clearlynot an wd.However, an wdcan contain a hp, for we must certainlyrecognize as hpwthe stipulationsof the royal decrees-when the latter contain in their apodoses expressions meaning "the law (hp) shall be applied to him by," what "law" (hp) could be meant, if not the stipulation containing the expression? Indeed, from a consideration of the royal decrees which we possess, we would probablynot be wrong in surmisingthat a new collection of laws promulgated by a king would have taken the form of a royal decree, wd or wd-nswt. ? 30.1. While any royal decree, or any judicial decision-not to mention private testaments and contracts-had the force of law and thus created law, not every w4d contained hpw, and thus wvdcannot be an Egyptian term for "law code". In fact, the Egyptians seem to have used for this concept only the pluralhpw;this is confirmed by two passages in which an abstractterm for "law code" would have been apropos, but which have the plural hpw: "Lo, the laws (hpw)of the chamber are thrown out, men walk on them in the streets, beggars tear them up in the alleys" 248). One must certainly picture here papyri containing collections of hpw. "I have given them (i.e., the judges) oral instructions, and law(s) in [their]

nhp as indicating an early existence of the root in verbal formations. However, the first is attested in the New Kingdom Book of the Dead (see Wb., Vol. IV, 207, 14), while the second, attested in the Pyramid Texts, is of uncertainmeaning. Professor Goedicke suggests privately that tp-n(_y)-