Book Review: Judgement of the Pharaoh

Tyldesley, Joyce. Judgement of the Pharaoh. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2000.

This book presents the fragmentary information that remains on justice and the court system in ancient Egypt. She starts with an explanation of the concept of Maat, order, that pervaded the Pharonic system and probably caused many sorts of legal problems to not get recorded. Although the 1st C historian Diodorus Siculus reports that the Egyptian courts had 8 scrolls that listed the laws of the land, no trace of these has been found. We are therefore only able to glean what was reported by the government in many cases, and this is skewed to preserve Maat at all costs. There is then an explanation of the role of the Vizier and the various officers, those with both judicial and police responsibilities. The punishment system, both physical torture and monetary penalties are discussed, as well as the use of forced labor as payment.
The last third of the book focuses on more specific cases, several recorded incidents of Regicide, attempted or successful, the endemic problem of tomb robbery and smaller cases from the tomb-building town of Deir el-Medina. She can find no evidence for the often claimed murder of Tutankhamen, though surveys the evidence frequently given. Some discussion is given to rape and other sex-crimes, but as those were frequently handled as civil affairs, not criminal, they appear to have been dealt with outside the court system.

The book provides a fairly good overview of the fragmentary status of Egyptian judicial documentation, and a good introduction to the cultural elements that shaped it. Some of the text, though only 10 years old, feels rather dated. One complaint would be a lack of more context around some of the textual sources and better explanation. Several sources are given in translation, but are quite elliptical and hard to follow. Others are only given in fragments, a couple of more complete texts in an appendix would have been helpful.
All in all, a good introduction to a somewhat obscure topic.

A