married.^368 Allam believes that the man desires to guarantee his sec-
ond wife a greater share of his property; he wishes to assign to her,
“in addition to her legal one-third, the two-third share belonging to
him.”^369 He thus renders the relevant sentence so: “[And I] made
her as a daughter just like the children of my first wife who was in
my house.”^370
So, in order to make sure that his wife receives more than she
was strictly entitled to, he had to adopt her. However, he wished to
be certain that his children by his first wife give up any claim to
the two-thirds share which would normally have gone to them upon
his death. This second wife does not seem to have any children of
her own; she may have been particularly legally and economically
vulnerable in case her husband died. The document may not, then,
record an actual dispute but was perhaps intended to avoid future
conflict.5.3.2 Another possibly significant mention of adoption occurs in O.
Berlin 10627: “As for him who has no children, he adopts an orphan
instead to bring him up.”^371- P I^372
6.1 Tenure of Land
While numerous documents seem to attest to private ownership of
land, the precise nature of the conditions of ownership is not clear.^373
The king and the temples^374 had vast tracts of land. The pharaoh(^368) See Allam, “Papyrus Turin 2021,” and “Quenebete.. .,” 36.
(^369) Allam, “Papyrus Turin 2021,” 25.
(^370) Ibid., 27.
(^371) Johnson, “Legal Status.. .,” 217. See also Théodoridès, “Dénonciation...,”
21–22; Allam, “Adoption.. .,” 4; Hoverstreydt, “A Letter.. .,” 121.
(^372) See, e.g., Edgerton, “Government.. .,” 159. On ownership, see also Allam,
“Familie und Besitz.. .”; Gasse, Données.. ., 213; Théodoridès, “La notion.. .,”
778; Helck, Wirtschaftsgeschichte.. ., 235–36; Janssen, “Economic History.. .,” 159;
Eyre, “Work.. .,” 205; Gutgesell, Datierung.. ., 558–67. On the question of own-
ership by peasants, e.g., of animals, see Kruchten, Horemheb.. ., 91.
(^373) Baer, “Letters.. .,” 16. See also McDowell, “Agricultural Activity.. .,” 196;
Eyre, “Work.. .,” 203–4. On the possible legal distinction between fi ̇.tand 3 ̇.t,
see Van den Boorn, Vizier.. ., 153–54; Janssen, “Economic History.. .,” 141; Gasse,
Données.. ., 28.
(^374) E.g., P. Bologna 1086 (Nineteenth Dynasty) has been understood as suggest-
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