for investigating an accusation were sometimes identifi ed
as “offi cials of the Place of Examination.” Th e only criminal
hearings that are described in detail are the Great Tomb Rob-
bery investigations of the late Twentieth Dynasty (ca. 1196–
1070 b.c.e.). Th e robberies were a series of assaults by various
gangs of thieves on the tombs and temples of western Th ebes.
Th e vizier seems personally to have been involved in most
criminal investigations and probably in all cases involving
individuals of the offi cial class.
In a legal proceeding the plaintiff was required to bring
suit. Th e tribunal then ordered the defendant to appear in
court if a point of law seemed to be involved in the dispute.
Usually the judge ruled on the grounds of the documents and
the testimony of each party. Egyptian offi cials asserted that
they always acted according to “what His Majesty loves” or to
“what the king favors.” According to an Egyptian inscription,
an ideal judge is “a man of justice before the Two Lands...
who causes two men to go out content with the utterance of
his mouth.”
According to the Teachings of Ptahhotep, an instruc-
tional text from the Old Kingdom (2575–2134 b.c.e.), who-
ever transgressed the laws was punished. Reporting crime
and criminal behavior was every offi cial’s duty. Failure to do
so was itself a crime and was punished almost as heavily as
the original off ense. Punishments included property restric-
tions, imprisonment, beatings, tortures, and even mutilation.
Incarceration with hard labor is well documented, most no-
tably in the Middle Kingdom records of the Great Prison at
Th ebes. Th is and other prisons were not only places of con-
fi nement but also workhouses or labor camps. Moreover, they
served as places of detention for criminals awaiting harsher
penalties.
For state offi cials the most serious punishments were loss
of property, offi ce, status, and even political and social iden-
tity, whereby an esteemed offi cial was reduced to the status of
a laborer in the fi elds. Th e death penalty or severe mutilation
of the face, nose, and ears was reserved for crimes against po-
litical or religious authorities. Such capital off enses and rebel-
lions lay outside the formal executive competence even of the
vizier and required referral to the king himself.
THE MIDDLE EAST
BY JAMES A. CORRICK
Th e ancient Near East produced the fi rst known written laws,
in the form of decrees handed down by kings. Typically, they
were fi rst read to the populace and then inscribed on clay tab-
lets. Later, all the royal edicts of a particular ruler would be
engraved on a stone pillar, called a stela. Th e laws carved on
the stelae were oft en organized in no particular order, with
criminal and civil laws, covering a variety of legal issues, be-
ing mixed indiscriminately. Crimes such as murder, thievery,
and assault were addressed, as were civil issues, including
inheritance, land ownership, and divorce. Some codes also
specifi ed wages and prices and regulated the sale and treat-
ment of slaves. Each king’s legal code oft en superseded the
laws of his predecessors. Th is practice did not mean, however,
that older laws were necessarily discarded. Instead, laws from
earlier codes were frequently brought forward and copied
word for word by the new king.
In addition to these written legal codes, a large body of
unwritten laws may also have existed. Th ese unwritten laws
would have been passed down orally through the centuries.
Some would eventually have been incorporated into the writ-
ten legal record. It is remarkable that in the thousands of legal
texts—records of judgments in cases of divorce, land sales,
slave sales, and so on—the law code of Hammurabi is never
referred to.
From the beginning much of ancient Near Eastern law
was what would later be called lex talionis, or the law of equiv-
alent retaliation. Oft en described as a “tooth for a tooth” or
an “eye for any eye,” lex talionis required the punishment to
mirror the crime. Th us a man who broke another’s arm had
his own arm broken. If he caused the death of someone else’s
child, he had to give up the life of one of his own children.
However, it was not unusual for a fi ne to be substituted for the
punishment. Ancient Near Eastern law did not apply equally
to all. Aristocrats normally paid higher fi nes than com-
moners, while commoners were more likely to receive harsh
punishment, such as fl ogging, or to be executed for capital
crimes.
Th e earliest known legal code was that of the Mesopo-
tamian king Urukagina (or Uruinimgina), who ruled the
Sumerian city of Lagash beginning in 2351 b.c.e. Concerned
with rectifying social injustice, Urukagina forbade several
practices in the collection of taxes. Th us, for example, a priest
or palace offi cial could not take wood or fruit in tax payments
from a poverty-stricken widow. Law codes also survive from
the early second millennium b.c.e., such as the laws of Esh-
nunna (modern-day Tell Asmar, Iraq) and the law code of the
Mesopotamian ruler Lipit-Ishtar (r. ca. 1934–ca. 1924 b.c.e.).
Th e most famous code from the ancient Near East was
that of Hammurabi (r. 1792–1750 b.c.e.). At capital of Baby-
lon, Hammurabi erected a polished black stela that stood 8
feet tall. In the 12th century b.c.e., Shutruk-Nahhunte, king
of Elam, took the stela as booty back to his capital Susa, in
southwestern Iran. On one side of the stela was a relief show-
ing the king conferring with Shamash, the god of justice; on
the other was the code. As was traditional with such legal
codes, the divine inspiration of Hammurabi’s laws was made
clear by a prologue in which the king explained how the gods
of his city required justice and order and that the laws set
down below were an attempt to meet these divine needs. Like
Urukagina, the Babylonian king set himself up as a protector
of the weak. Th us he sought justice by preventing the exploi-
tation and victimization of the powerless and the destruction
of the lawbreaker.
Th e prologue was followed by the laws themselves. In 51
columns of cuneiform characters containing 282 laws, Ham-
murabi covered commercial and real estate dealings; personal624 laws and legal codes: The Middle East