Crime and Punishment in Ancient Egypt: The History and Legacy of the Egyptians’ Concepts of Justice

In ancient Egypt, the underpinning concept in law, in theory, was that rich and poor citizens should be treated equally, but this was an aspiration that was rarely fulfilled in practice. At the same time, the types of treatment delivered to those deemed guilty could also be harsh - common punishments included confiscation of property, slavery, beatings, and mutilation. During both the Old Kingdom (c. 2700 BCE – 2200 BCE) and Middle Kingdom (c. 2030 BCE – 1650 BCE), crime was dealt with by local officials using their own private police forces. However, during the New Kingdom (c. 1539 BCE – 1075 BCE) a centralized police force emerged, consisting of Nubian tribesmen under an Egyptian supervisor, who were armed with staffs and used specially trained dogs.

In extreme cases, the death penalty was invoked, sometimes with the additional punishment of ensuring that the convicted were refused a burial or were buried but without full rituals. Based on the Egyptians’ religious beliefs, both situations resulted in the guilty being denied entry to the afterlife.

Perhaps not surprisingly, not all laws related directly to criminal activity. Civil disputes were common, and suits by a plaintiff against a defendant provide another major source about the Egyptian legal system, as do the copies of the many legal transactions and contracts that date from the 7th century BCE onwards when the popular form of the written language (Demotic) started to become more widely used. Indeed, it is often difficult to distinguish between civil and criminal cases in the available records. Following the introduction of writing, however, written deeds or contracts quickly replaced traditional oral agreements, and many of these extant documents reveal considerable detail about the laws of ancient Egypt.