P. Cairo 65739 records a trial at Thebes wherein a soldier accuses
a woman of using another lady’s property to purchase two slaves.^295
P. Berlin 9784 may be an actual sale of a female slave, conducted
before two witnesses.^296 Undisputable sale documents for slaves are
known only from the much later Twenty-fifth to Twenty-seventh
Dynasties.^297 In the New Kingdom the ownership of slaves by indi-
viduals was apparently more closely regulated than before.^298 Temples
also possessed slaves, which could be protected by royal decree.^299
Texts document court inquiries into questions of slave ownership.
In P. Bologna 1086, a scribe reports on his investigation of a “Syrian”
slave (?) previously assigned to be a cultivator of the Temple of
Thoth.^300 He came originally from the “slaves of the ships’ cargoes”
that the superintendent of fortresses had brought back. There seems
to be a dispute concerning his owner, which is being settled in the
“Great Court.”^301 In P. BM 10052, X, 14–20, there is an inquiry
also into ownership: “The scribe Djehutymose said to her: ‘How did
you acquire these slaves (b3k.w) whom you bought?’ She said ‘I
acquired them in exchange for crops from my garden.’”^302
Communities may have held slaves in common, whose labor was
then sold or hired.^3034.3.3 Creation
The aggressive foreign policy of New Kingdom pharaohs presum-
ably resulted in an abundance of war captives who were put to work
as slaves.^304 While a “citizen” might be punished by being set to
work as a “cultivator” or in the “quarry,” reduction to slavery is not
explicitly mentioned, to my knowledge. Debt slavery or voluntary
servitude is apparently not attested in the New Kingdom.^305 The
children of slaves seem to have been regarded as slaves.^306(^295) See Pestman, Marriage.. ., 151; Théodoridès, “Procès relatif.. .,” 76.
(^296) Gardiner, “Four Papyri.. .,” 32.
(^297) Bakir, Slavery.. ., 71.
(^298) Loprieno, The Egyptians.. ., 206–7.
(^299) Bakir, Slavery.. ., 80.
(^300) See Gardiner, “Ramesside Texts.. .,” 21–22 (with remarks on the term for
“cultivator,” fi ̇wty).
(^301) Bakir, Slavery.. ., 70. The translation is in Wente, Letters.. ., 125.
(^302) Bakir, Slavery.. ., 70.
(^303) Janssen, “Economic History.. .,” 172; Eyre, “Work.. .,” 210.
(^304) See Bakir, Slavery.. ., 109–16. But see Janssen, “Economic History.. .,” 172–73.
(^305) See Bakir, Slavery.. ., 119–20.
(^306) See ibid., 118. Bakir believes the offspring of a mixed marriage (free man/slave
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