Hermopolis Code

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The Hermopolis Codex is a collection of legal principles from Ptolemaic Egypt . The code dates from the 3rd century BC.

discovery

The Code was Hermopolis during an excavation campaign in 1938/39 Hermopolis found. The campaign was related to systematic excavations carried out by Cairo University and led by the Egyptian archaeologist Sami Gabra .

The reconstruction turned out to be extremely difficult. The find itself consisted of a papyrus written on both sides that had been kept in a broken pot at the foot of a ruin . The papyrus, for its part, was badly damaged by mud and salt, and the ink was so faded in several places that it was barely recognizable.

The papyrus

The papyrus is written in demotic language . One side of the papyrus contains a mathematical text that was published in 1972 by Richard Parker under the title Demotic Mathematical Papyri .

The other side contains the legal texts known as the Hermopolis Code .

Edition of the Code

The publication of the found legal text became a life's work of the Egyptologist Girgis Mattha , but he was never to see its completion. Mattha gave a first report on the found text in 1941. He was then to work on the translation of the often only fragmentary legal text into English until his death in 1967. After Mattha's death, the unfinished manuscript of the transmission was edited by the American Egyptologist George R. Hughes , to whom it is thanks that an English translation appeared in 1975 under the title The Demotic Legal Code of Hermopolis West .

Content of the Code

The legal clauses laid down in the code mainly concern private property and show a detailed set of rules about the various forms of property in ancient Egypt, and it also contains a number of matrimonial provisions for the maintenance of wives. The code also contains provisions on individual forms of action.

The order of the individual legal clauses can no longer be exactly reconstructed. The found text passages also split into two large fragments, the connection between which is difficult to reconstruct. If, in the following, an attempt is made to briefly reproduce the main topics dealt with by the Code, this does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the systematic context in the original presentation; What is followed is the division into columns made in the English edition , which, however, has the spatial arrangement and not the internal subject matter of the text as its subject.

  • The text sequence, referred to by Mattha and Hughes as the "first column", contains a large number of highly differentiated regulations on lease law , which is seen in close relation to lending . In accordance with the social conditions, the primary area of ​​application of this legal relationship is agriculture . Disputes arising from the use of the loaned items, the return of the leased property, the statute of limitations and the illegal use of the leased land are dealt with . From a procedural point of view, there are rules that would be understood as rules on the burden of proof in the system of today's civil proceedings.
  • The second column also deals with the legal relationship between lessor and lessee. The regulations initially obviously concern the effects of force majeure and poor harvests. Further regulations deal with the problem of double leasing, whereby the solution is apparently seen in an obligation to later fulfill the lease promise. This is a clear distinction from the Roman legal culture, which in such constellations would have tended to access the law on damages. Regulations of procedural law are attached. Differentiating between whether the defendant is present or absent, two process forms are submitted. The written form of the procedure should be emphasized here. Finally, there are regulations on the leasing of houses or property in contrast to the previously discussed land lease .
  • The third column first deals with statute of limitations, then individual modifications of the lease law. Finally, there are procedural regulations.
  • The fourth column contains regulations on the giving of money and the legal relationships resulting therefrom, using the example of a loan that the lessor grants the lessee. Here, too, the text places emphasis on the rules of evidence. Payments should therefore primarily have to be proven by receipts . The text then turns to the question of alimentation and the legal consequences of failure to receive alimentation.
  • The fifth column deals with the Institut der Alimentation as a comprehensive form of the exchange contract and contains essential procedural regulations. Here the evidence is also regulated by the oath of the litigating parties.
  • The content of the sixth column regulates the essential principles of real estate law.
  • The seventh column deals again with questions of contract law; a lawsuit after a theft can also be found here.
  • The eighth column turns to rights in the event of property damage and destruction as well as questions of inheritance law.
  • The ninth column deals exclusively with problems of inheritance law , including a dedicated regulation of the compulsory portion right .
  • The tenth column is only so rudimentary that it is hardly possible to draw any conclusions about the regulatory content of the text passages there.

literature

  • K. Donker van Heel (Ed.): The legal manual of Hermopolis (P. Mattha). Text and translation (= Uitgaven vanwege de Stichting "Het Leids Papyrologische Instituut". Volume 11). Papyrologisch Instituut, Leiden, 1990, ISBN 90-73482-01-1 .
  • Stefan Grunert (Ed.): The Hermopolis Codex and selected private legal documents from Ptolemaic Egypt (= Universal Library. Volume 909.) Reclam, Leipzig 1982.
  • Girgis Mattha: The Demotic Legal Code of Hermopolis West (= Bibliothèque d'étude. Volume 45, ISSN  0259-3823 ). Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 1975.
  • Richard A. Parker : Demotic Mathematical Papyri (= Brown Egyptological Studies. Volume 7). Brown University Press et al., Providence RI et al. 1972, ISBN 0-87057-132-X .
  • Erwin Seidl : The statute of limitations as a social aid in the Hermopolis law book. In: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History . Romance Department. Volume 91, 1974, pp. 360-363.