comes from the time of Rameses IX (1129─ 1111 BC). Tombs were being
looted, but the governor of the necropolis, Pewre, was doing nothing to stop
the robbers. Peser, the city ruler, reported the problem and a commission of
enquiry had to be set up by the governor Pewre himself. The commission
reported that not all the tombs had been robbed, but that some had been
despoiled, or attempts to break in were evident. The tombs of lesser people
were much more badly damaged than the royal ones, often totally destroyed
and broken. A few suspects were taken into custody as a result, but the main
effect of the enquiry was that the commission had exposed the shortcomings
of Pewre and the commission members themselves. Not surprisingly, rather
than make their findings public, the commission decided that it would be a
good idea to dispose of Peser, the man who had blown the whistle. They set up
a trap with a false confession, which Peser believed; gleefully, the commission
proved that the confession was a lie, announced therefore that all of Peser’s
information was faulty, and charged Peser himself with fraud.
But the robberies continued, until the pharaoh himself set up a new
commission. These officials obtained a confession from one of the thieves, a
THE OLDEST CRIMESFigure 7. Trained monkey arresting a thief (from an Egyptian tomb painting)