The legal system in ancient Egypt & Stela of The magistrate Kaherset at NMEC by Kyrllos Eskandar.

 

The legal system in ancient Egypt

&

Stela of  The magistrate Kaherset at NMEC


Judge kaherset:

At our new Museum “the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization” in Fustat, Egypt

We have four thousands years old wooden stela

Belongs to an ancient Egyptian judge, his name is Kaherset and lived during the 5th dynasty “old kingdom”.

This funerary stela found in his tomb in Saqqara, shows him with members of his family. 


When I heard that he was a judge, I instantly asked myself

 what was his responsibilities in ancient Egypt? How were the courts in ancient Egypt?

What were the rules? And based on what?

Have they had a legal system?

How were their verdicts looked like?!

Let’s answer these questions:


The legal system in ancient Egypt

Our ancestors in ancient Egypt were familiar with the legal system that any country has today, the principles of the rules of the ancient Egyptian kings based on the values of Maat (justice).

They believed that Maat instituted at the beginning by the gods in order to help each one to live at peace with oneself, one’s community, and the gods, all one had to do was live life of consideration, mindfulness, and balance in accordance with Maat.

They usually represented Maat as a goddess with feather upon her head, there are a lot of scenes shown kings and queens accompanied by goddess Maat.



And other kings their coronation names included the name of Maat, for instance king Amenhotep the third his coronation name is “NB MAAT RA” which means “ god Ra is the lord of justice”.

The law in ancient Egypt functioned just as it does in any country today; there was a set of agreed-upon rules which had been formulated by experts in the field and police officer who enforced those rules and brought transgressors to justice.

At the top of judicial hierarchy was the king and beneath him was his vizier, the vizier heard cases in courts by himself and also appointed magistrates.

The legal system in ancient Egypt developed from era to another one, at the beginning  the courts were regionally in individual districts and presided by the governors, but later on during the old kingdom these local courts became more bureaucratic and were firmly consolidated under the vizier (though at this time, judges were often priests who used to counsel the cases with gods rather than weighing the evidences and listening to testimonies).

 During the new kingdom the professional judges were installed to preside over courts for first time, this period also saw the creation of the first professional police force which enforced the law, took suspects into custody, and testified in courts.

 There were three levels of courts;

The SERU: group of elders in a rural community.

The KENBET: court on the regional & national level.

The DJADJAT: the imperial court.

In Egyptian courts, a person who had been charged was guilty until proven innocent.

If the crime was serious such as rape, murder, theft in large scale, or tomb robbing. The penalty was death or disfigurement.

The penalty of rape crimes was usually castration or amputation of the criminal’s penis.

The penalty of murder crimes was execution in unpleasant way, usually burned the criminal to death or fed him to crocodiles.

Thieves usually suffered amputation of the nose, hands, or feet.


by Kyrllos Eskandar

Tourist guide & Egyptologist

facebook page: Kyrllos Eskandar-Egypt Tourguide

youtube channel: Egypt Mayor of guidance

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