A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

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4.3.2 Those who acted as witnesses to legal agreements were almost

exclusively men, many of whom were probably scribes in training.

4.3.3 There were no age restrictions and no evidence of the guardian-

ship of children in Demotic contracts, but there does appear to have

been a concept of minority, which dictated that the child needed a

guardian or caretaker.^75 Very young children were accompanied to

the notary office by an adult.^76

4.4 Slavery

4.4.1 Terminology

As in Mesopotamia, the terminology of slavery clouds the issue. The

same word for “slave,” b3k, is used of “servants” who had been ded-

icated to a local god in exchange for protection as well as those who

had status within the temple estate. B3k is also a general term of

respect in letters.^77 The term b3k, used of slaves, is not to be con-

fused with the same word used in the title string “occupation title

+ servant of god DN (b3kDN),” found in texts from the fourth cen-

tury B.C.E. to the early Roman period, or “occupation + servant

of pharaoh” (b3k pr-' 3 ), found in Early Demotic texts. There the

term signifies a status or service to the god or the pharaoh, techni-

cally a subordination to a superior and, as such, is honorific.

4.4.2 Self-sales (s§b3k) into servitude appear only in Early Demotic

texts and only in a few examples which are subject to various inter-

pretations.^78 The texts specify that the indentured party must remain

an “encumbered one” (i.e., his labor is purchased) in exchange for

payment of subsistence. The making of these debt-slavery contracts—

and in some cases that is what appears to be going on—may have

been banned by a decree of Amasis.^79

(^75) Hughes, “Cruel Father.. .,” published a Demotic “letter to the gods” which
records the petition of two minor children, ¢m-§l swkywho had been maltreated
and denied their inheritance by their father.
(^76) Pestman, “Appearance and Reality.. .,” 86.
(^77) Above, n. 72.
(^78) The so-called “Rylands group.” See Seidl, Ägyptische Rechtsgeschichte, 46–48;
Menu, “Cessions de Service.. .,” 83–86; Depauw, Companion.. ., 136–37.
(^79) Menu, “Cessions de service.. .”; Donker van Heel, Abnormal Hieratic.. ., 181.
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