A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

780 

1.2.4 In another inscription issued by a very high personage, the

“Will” of Yewelot (reign of Osorkon III, ca. 787–759), also known

as the Stèle de l’apanage, the High Priest of Amun confirms that he

gives his estate to his son (to the exclusion of his other children).^22

This text is important because it precisely describes the various cat-

egories of land and prices given for them:

Against payment he purchased (the fields) from every sort of private-

person (nm ̇) to their satisfaction (and) without fraud against them. He

let the land-registers (dnyw n n3 3 ̇.t) of the Amun Temple, which are

with the grain-account scribes of the Amun Temple...be brought.

He caused that they (the scribes) demarcate the fields purchased by

him from the fields of the Amun Temple.^23

The text then recounts that the information about the former own-

ers and the prices was properly set down in writing. The will may

be a stone version of a papyrus document.^24

1.2.5 An elaborate inscription (Twenty-first Dynasty) contains a text

supposed to be a foundation document of the funerary temple of

the divinized Amenhotep, son of Hapu.^25

1.3 Administrative Orders

Of special significance is the land register (?), P. Reinhardt (tenth

century).^26 This document seems to be concerned with the assessment

of grain production in individual plots.^27 It deals in part with corvée

labor and the administration of such labor, particularly under the

aegis of the temples.^28 The abnormal hieratic T. Leiden I 431 (period

of Taharqa to Psamtik I) indicates a complex administrative structure,

mentioning town administrators, and grain taxes (for the area from

Elephantine to Dendera).^29

(^22) Breasted, Ancient Records.. ., vol. 4, 405; Kitchen, Third Intermediate Period...,
311; Edwards, “Egypt.. .,” 552–53. See also Menu, “Questions.. .,” 143, and “La
stèle dite de l’apanage.”
(^23) Allam, “Publizität.. .,” 35–36 (following his translation). See also Jansen-
Winkeln, “Zu einigen religiösen.. .,” 254–59, for partial translation and commentary.
(^24) Menu, “La stèle dite de l’apanage,” 188.
(^25) Assmann, “When Justice Fails.. .,” 156. See Wildung,Imhotep und Amenhotep,
281–82.
(^26) Vleeming, Papyrus Reinhardt. See also Haring, Divine Households.. ., 282, 333.
(^27) Vleeming, Papyrus Reinhardt, 73.
(^28) Ibid., 52–55.
(^29) ’ernÿ, “Leiden I 431...”
westbrook_f22_775-818 8/27/03 1:34 PM Page 780