Egyptian Scholars, Priests and Temples between Autonomy and State Authority

Bibliographic Data

ID21242624
AuthorsBrian Muhs (University of Chicago, corresponding author), Brian Paul Muhs (University of Chicago, Oriental Institute , 1155 E. 58th Street, 60637-1540 , Chicago , IL , USA)
Year2021
Volume8
Issue1-2
Pages203-222
Publication date2021-06-25
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Ancient Near Eastern History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2328-9554 • E-ISSN: 2328-9562
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/janeh-2020-0018
OpenAlexW3129231916
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited13

Egyptian temples and priests reshaped the Egyptian legal system throughout the first millennium BCE, as a result of both temple autonomy and state authority. In the early Third Intermediate Period (c. 1069–850 BCE), royal enforcement of laws diminished, and temples filled this vacuum by extending the use of judicial oracles, both to resolve disputes, and to document transactions. In the late Third Intermediate Period (c. 850–664 BCE), the temples decreased the use of judicial oracles, and introduced temple notary contracts to document transactions. Temples thereby established that written documentation took precedence over verbal witnesses, and they also developed systems of legal procedures employing these temple notary contracts. In doing so, the temples encouraged individuals to invest in private property. In the Saite and Persian Periods (664–332 BCE), resurgent royal and later imperial authorities brought uniformity to the forms of temple notary contracts, and to the system of legal procedures employing them. The temples may have produced codes of laws and legal procedures at this time, if they had not done so already in the late Third Intermediate Period. Priests also introduced the practice of antiquarian legal scholarship, to establish ancient legal precedents. Finally, in the Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BCE), the royal authorities continued to regulate temple courts and temple notaries. Nonetheless, they accepted at least some claims based on antiquarian legal scholarship by priests

Ancient history · Art · Autonomy · Documentation · Enforcement · Political science · Scholarship · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law

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