A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

woman, the offspring consequently being his legal heirs. Neverthless,

the woman does not seem to have come under the legal control of

her husband upon marriage.^326 There was an awareness of the mutual

obligations of a marriage, as well as of the fundamental separation

of goods.^327 In O. Petrie 18, a man declares that his wife^328 aban-

doned him when he was ill and sold offsome of his or their joint

property. He swears an oath in court that she has no right to his

property. It was his son who nursed him, and it is he who will

inherit all upon his death. The woman must swear that she would

give up any claim to his property.^329

5.1.2 Conditions

The subject of virginity is hardly raised in Egyptian sources.^330

According to Johnson, the man gave a gift to his bride’s parents

previous to the marriage “to break the woman’s bond with her bio-

logical family.”^331 No New Kingdom marriage contracts are pre-

served. There is little information concerning a dowry.^332 An ostracon

indicates that the parents might organize a party to celebrate the

marriage,^333 but there is no evidence for any kind of religious cere-

mony.^334 Monogamy seems to have been the rule.^335 It may have

been possible for persons to live in “loose marriages” (Geschlechts-

gemeinschaft), that is, not fully valid marriage arrangements.^336 In some

itly the “wife of ” (a man) and those in which a woman said to be “with a man”;

see Janssen, Growing Up.. ., 112. See also Pestman, Marriage.. ., 51; Eyre, “Crime...,”

100–01.

(^326) Allam, “Familie (Struktur),” col. 106. See also Pestman, Marriage.. ., 53–57;
Janssen, Growing Up.. ., 111.
(^327) Allam, “Mariage.. .,” 118.
(^328) Or “sister,” as McDowell notes in “Legal Aspects.. .,” 216–17. See also Allam,
Hieratische Ostraka.. ., 234–35; Allam, “Familie.. .,” 34–35 (on O. Petrie 18).
(^329) Cf. Johnson, “Legal Status.. .,” 217. An interesting but fragmentary oath is
O. Cairo 25227, “[... took the] Oath of the Lord: ‘As Amun endures and as the
ruler endures, the wife was (only) a wife; she did not make love, and she did not
commit adultery’” (Wilson, “Oath.. .,” 136).
(^330) Johnson, “Legal Status.. .,” 216; Allam, “Mariage.. .,” 118.
(^331) Johnson, “Legal Status.. .,” 179. See also Lichtheim, AEL2, 20. Cf. further
O. Berlin 10629, Allam, Hieratische Ostraka.. ., 28–29; Allam, Verfahrensrecht.. ., 21.
On the bridal gift, see Janssen, Commodity Prices.. ., 548. See now also Toivari,
“Marriage at Deir el-Medina.”
(^332) On “dowry,” see Théodoridès, “Droit matrimonial.. .,” 47–48.
(^333) Johnson, “Legal Status.. .,” 179. See also Janssen, “Allusion.. .,” and
“Absence.. .,” 146.
(^334) See Pestman, Marriage.. ., 6.
(^335) Allam, “Familie (Struktur),” col. 106; Pestman, Marriage.. ., 3.
(^336) Allam, “Allusion.. .,” 9. This may have been the case in mixed relationships
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