3.3.3 Oaths
The promissory and assertory oaths were an important component
of legal procedure throughout Egyptian history.^160
A promissory oath may be taken in a legal setting before wit-
nesses.^161 In the house sale (?) transaction of Tjenti, the seller, Tjenti,
gives a kind of warranty: “The scribe Tjenti said: ‘I give justice, and
you will be satisfied with it so that the entire content of this house
may become transferred. You have fulfilled this payment with goods
in kind.’ Sealed with the professional seal, in the presence of the
council of the pyramid called Horizon of Khufu and in the pres-
ence of many witnesses,” who are then listed by name.^162 It has been
suggested that on the basis of the predominance of priests in the
witness section, the oath was taken in a temple.^163 In P. Berlin 9010,
three witnesses take an oath regarding the authenticity or existence
of a document.^164- P S
4.1 Citizenship
4.1.1 While terms, in part quite archaic, such as ̇nmmt, “the sun-
people,”^165 r¢y.t, “commoners,”^166 and p'.t, “nobility,”^167 suggest a
differentiation of status,^168 the legal implications of these designations
are still quite unclear. There exists no word in the Old Kingdom
generally translated “citizen,” and the issue of “citizenship” is not
raised in Old Kingdom texts.^169 The Old Kingdom decrees occa-(^160) See Menu, “serment.. .”; Lurje, Studien.. ., 132–53; Coulon, “Véracité...”;
Wilson, “Oath...”
(^161) Wilson, “Oath.. .,” 140.
(^162) Translation after Théodoridès, “L’acte.. .,” 727, and see also 743–44; Wilson,
“Oath.. .,” 141; Seidl, Einführung.. ., 24; Malinine, “Notes juridiques.. .,” 100.
(^163) Seidl, Einführung.. ., 51.
(^164) Green, “A Means of Discouraging Perjury...”
(^165) This is of quite uncertain meaning, see Lorton, “Legal and Social Institutions...,”
351.
(^166) Loprieno, Egyptians.. ., 191.
(^167) As Lorten notes, it is the “hereditary elite that comprised the civil adminis-
tration, the priesthoods, and (beginning in the New Kingdom), the upper echelons
of the military” (“Legal and Social Institutions...,” 351).
(^168) See Helck, Wirtschaftsgeschichte.. ., 98–103, on population and class in the Old
Kingdom; Théodoridès, “Les Égyptiens.. .” On the legal status of rm∆, “man,” in
the Inscription of Metjen, see Goedicke, Rechtsinschriften.. ., 7–8.
(^169) Goedicke, Königliche Dokumente.. ., 218–19, takes 'n ̇.w, “living-ones,” to denote
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