person of authority to whom the letter should be shown, namely,
the “grain-reckoning scribe of the Temple of Osiris,” is not clear.^488- C D
Most of our information derives from the royal edicts (e.g., Nauri
Decree, Decree of Horemheb), Deir el-Medina texts, and state inves-
tigations (e.g., Tomb Robbery and Harem Conspiracy documents).
It is sometimes difficult to be certain whether the punishments were
in fact carried out.^489 There is not always a distinction clearly drawn
between the punishments decided upon for civil and criminal wrongs.^490
Physical punishments could be ordered for what would now be con-
sidered civil cases (e.g., false suit or failure to render payment).^491
Most penalties are the result of offenses “against the king and god”;
fewer are known for offenses against other private parties.^492 The
punishments in the Horemheb Decree tend to be mutilation, depor-
tation, or forced labor, and loss of status.^493 The Nauri and Horemheb
Decrees provide that officials who do not carry out the penalty will
not receive a proper burial, a boon also denied to their wives and
children. The condemned official will be deprived of office and set
to work as a cultivator.^494
Severe corporal punishments are characteristic of the New Kingdom
and not earlier periods.^495 However, Lorton argues that the earlier
penalties included the lack of a proper burial, thus endangering the
afterlife of the deceased. This, he maintains, would in fact be even
harsher than the purely physical penalties of the New Kingdom, so
that one cannot simply say that the later penalties are harsher than(^488) See Allam, “Implications.. .,” 3.
(^489) See Allam, “Droit pénal.. .,” 68. On punishment, also McDowell, Jurisdiction...,
223–33. On delicts considered by the qenbet, see Allam, “Quenebete.. .,” 58–59.
(^490) See Lorton, “Treatment.. .,” 46. See also Boochs, “Strafverfahren.. .,” 21;
Théodoridès, “Dénonciation.. .,” 64; Allam, “Droit.. .,” 66.
(^491) Lorton, “Legal and Social Institutions.. .,” 358. See also Allam, “Droit...,”
67.
(^492) Lorton, “Treatment.. .,” 6; and see also “Legal and Social Institutions...,”
357–58.
(^493) Lorton, “Treatment.. .,” 25.
(^494) On the possibility of convicted criminals serving sentences as agricultural work-
ers, see Katary, Land Tenure.. ., 186.
(^495) Van den Boorn, Vizier.. ., 336; Lorton, “Treatment.. .,” 25, 50.
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