A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

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will not be heard in the “hall of writings.”^260 There then follow four

witnesses attesting to the statement of the seller.

7.1.3 Donker van Heel remarks that an abnormal hieratic sale “should

contain a statement by the declaring party that he (or she) has

received a specific amount of money in return for the object of sale.”^261

The amounts of money are often said to be of the “silver of the

treasury of X temple,” for example, “the silver of the treasury of

(the deity) Heryshef.”^262

7.1.4 In the sale document P. Louvre 3168 (dated 675), a woman

conducts a transaction concerning thread. She sells both the thread

and is reimbursed for the cost of weaving.^263

7.1.5 P. Louvre 3228c seems to be a contract drawn up following

a court case.^264 The subject of the suit was a slave (either Egyptian

or foreign). He is probably a prisoner of war. This slave seems to

have been the subject of three distinct and successive transactions.^265

He may have been mortgaged at some point.^266

7.1.6 A man may swear that he will not rescind the document

recording a sale of a slave.^267

7.2 Loan

7.2.1 Explicitly formulated loan agreements with interest are first

really well attested in the Third Intermediate period. The oldest

Egyptian debt note (“Schuldschein”) is P. Berlin 3048 from the

Twenty-second Dynasty.^268 It is a relatively straightforward document

in which a man promises to pay back with 100 percent interest a

(^260) Ibid., 37.
(^261) “Land Leases.. .,” 342.
(^262) Vleeming, “Sale of a Slave.. .,” 14.
(^263) Menu, “Business.. .,” 202. See also Seidl, Ägyptische Rechtsgeschichte.. ., 24.
(^264) On P. Louvre E 3228 c, d, e, and f, see Menu, “Cessions de services.. .,” 73.
(^265) Malinine, “Jugement.. .,” 171.
(^266) Ibid., 174.
(^267) Malinine, Choix.. ., 45: “I will not be able to withdraw the legal document
which is above” (bn fiw=y r¢st
ˆ
3 t3 hr ntfi- ̇ry). Note also the expression st
ˆ
3 p3 m≈,
“to withdraw a document” (13).
(^268) Möller, “Schuldschein.. .” See also Menu, “Questions.. .,” 141. On loans,
see now Menu, “Modalités...”
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