Crime in Egypt

[Tammpwn]

What was crime like in ancient Egypt? How is crime like now? (I was curious about that this morning, lol)  

[Rennie`]

I know they stole, to be honest, what time in History does anybody know that nobody stole? Lol. Punishment was death.

I'm not sure about anything else though, I suppose murder, treason, etc.  

[Dark_Lady_Jade]

Crime is worse now than it was back then. Just think. Today there's more people and more ways to committ crime.  

[Rennie`]

Dark_Lady_Jade

Crime is worse now than it was back then. Just think. Today there's more people and more ways to committ crime.

And we have lighter punishments, like imprisonment for 2 months ... yeah that's going to make somebody change their ways.

In those days punishment consisted of humiliation, death etc.  

[sopdet]

in Deir el Medina many crimes are revealed by papyrus...the crime more widespread was the theft..many things never change in history... eek  

[Dark_Lady_Jade]

Rennie`

Dark_Lady_Jade

Crime is worse now than it was back then. Just think. Today there's more people and more ways to committ crime.

And we have lighter punishments, like imprisonment for 2 months ... yeah that's going to make somebody change their ways.

In those days punishment consisted of humiliation, death etc.

Or the offenders had to work off their debt, which I don't think was such a bad thing.  

[Kurapika_is_the_best]

when somebody threw any kind of rubbish in the Nile, he/she was killed!  

[WebenBanu]

One way to see what sort of crime or bad behavior went on in an ancient civilization is to look at thier laws and writings on morality. In ancient Egypt, we have the Declarations of Purity (Negative Confessions) and the Wisdom Literature as good sources for this sort of thing. Basically, if there's a law against it or a papyrus complaining about it or advising against it, you can be sure that somebody's doing it- why would they bother otherwise?

Adultery was a big deal, we can see from the prevalence of its' mention in Wisdom Literature, and several versions of the Declarations contain multiple references to it. Stealing, and inappropriately diverting goods away from the temples before they had been offered was another (the goods were naturally distributed after they'd been offered, but some folks didn't want to wait for their share). As for punishment, I don't know much about that- I'm sure that there were some, and they were probably a lot more harsh than what we have today.

I think adultery was likely punishable by death, though. In a society like Egypt where the entire economy was maintained through inheritances of possessions, land, and even trades; a child born of an illicit union could upset the whole balance. It would leave the child without a future, and throw the family and surrounding community into chaos- so infidelity was very firmly discouraged. Unfortunately, it's a great deal easier to tell when a woman is unfaithful than a man- as the pregnancy can be a dead give-away. So I suspect this taboo was more easily enforced on women than on men. neutral  

[Rennie`]

WebenBanu - Alot of crimes were punished by death, I know stealing and treason was.  

[The heart of reality]

I'm suprised no one mentioned tomb robbers.
They would loot the tombs, obviously. That's why it's a huge deal to archeologists. When King Tutankhamen's tomb was found, Howard Carter was able to tell it had been looted and re-sealed. Seti I was also looted. His sarcophogus was gold-covered wood, and the gld was stripped away by ancient tomb robbers. It was re-painted white by priests.

 

[xslvrnitesx]

i'm pretty sure someone has already said this (cough rennie cough) but the most common crime was to simply raid a tomb. if they were caught, punishment was death. but like, 80% didn't get caught though: kinda explains all the empty tombs  

[WebenBanu]

The ironic thing is that at one point in history, Egypt was having a really hard time economically and so the government began moving kings into mass graves and reassimilating their grave goods to the national treasury. Can you believe that!? Those must have been really tough times! But at least the mummies were saved.  

[Mido zidane]

WebenBanu

The ironic thing is that at one point in history, Egypt was having a really hard time economically and so the government began moving kings into mass graves and reassimilating their grave goods to the national treasury. Can you believe that!? Those must have been really tough times! But at least the mummies were saved.

Did u really believe that egypt was in a hard time economicall its only because thanks to 'some' people in egypt that steal its money egypt is now suffering of lack of money  

[Isis-Egypto]

There is an interesting book I read called Year Of The Hyenas by Brad Geagley. It's about the plot by Southern Egyptian concubines to kill Ramses III and make the Southern prince the Crown Prince of Egypt. It also follows the life of the investigator and it's just an overall interesting and thrilling book which portrays Ancient Egypt in all her glory and shame.

If you read that it might give you some ideas. Especially the dismemberment for treason, the sending away of people to be slaves in a foreign land, and some magical aspects of their religion.  

[WebenBanu]

Mido zidane

WebenBanu

The ironic thing is that at one point in history, Egypt was having a really hard time economically and so the government began moving kings into mass graves and reassimilating their grave goods to the national treasury. Can you believe that!? Those must have been really tough times! But at least the mummies were saved.

Did u really believe that egypt was in a hard time economicall its only because thanks to 'some' people in egypt that steal its money egypt is now suffering of lack of money

Just to clarify, I'm talking about ancient Egypt- not modern Egypt.^_^