to “distance himself ” from his three daughters, that is, to support
them.^363 A man may represent or speak for his accused daughter in
O. Gardiner 4.^3645.3 Adoption
5.3.1 In the Adoption Papyrus (a text comprising several individ-
ual documents), a woman declares that her husband, having pre-
pared “a writing for her,” “made me a daughter of his” and his sole
heir. The second document is a joint statement by the husband and
wife that they have together bought a slave girl who has given birth
to one boy and two girls. The wife then speaks (?), declaring that
she has brought up and adopted the children. The wife makes the
three children “free persons of the land of the pharaoh” (see 4.4.5.1
above). The wife also adopts her younger brother as a son, and he
marries the eldest of the two girls. On her death, the woman’s estate
is to be divided among all four adopted children.^365
The reason for the arrangement seems to be the wife’s childless-
ness. In other Near Eastern lands, a childless wife may procure a
surrogate mother who is a slave girl, subordinate to the first wife.^366
The document may be designed then to formalize the children of
this slave woman as rightful heirs, with a more powerful claim to
the property than the brothers of the husband. The actual occasion
for this document may have been the marriage of the woman’s
brother to the eldest daughter of the slave woman.^367 The first sec-
tion (or document) of the Adoption Papyrus seems to enable the
husband to avoid divorcing his childless wife, while ensuring direct
issue by means of a slave girl.
Allam also interprets P. Turin 2021 as a similar adoption docu-
ment rather than as a marriage settlement or will of a man twice(^363) Ibid., 311; Allam, Verfahrensrecht.. ., 34, and “Mariage.. .,” 131.
(^364) Allam, Hieratische Ostraka.. ., 151–52, and Verfahrensrecht.. ., 83.
(^365) Johnson, “Legal Status.. .,” 183 (translation). See also Allam, “Adoption...”;
Theodorides, “Le Papyrus des adoptions,” Maat, 603–66; Cruz-Uribe, “Adoption
Papyrus.. .”; McDowell, “Legal Aspects.. .,” 217.
(^366) Eyre, “Adoption.. .,” 209–11. For a discussion of possible “semitic” features
(e.g., the phrase “tomorrow and after tomorrow” = the future) of this papyrus, see
Théodoridès, “Adoption.. .,” 617.
(^367) This would explain why a gap of 18 years exists between the first memo-
randum of adoption and the second. The finished document may come from the
family archive of this younger brother (Eyre, “Adoption.. .,” 212–13).
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