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angelfireeast24's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
lisa_setepenre's review
5.0
In Judgement of the Pharaoh, Joyce Tyldesley focuses on crime, punishment and the law in Ancient Egypt. It's a topic that seems to be rarely discussed in depth, and with this book, Tyldesley (typically) does not disappoint.
While the evidence is fragmentary, Tyldesley is successful in creating an image of the Egyptian legal system – though the laws themselves are more difficult to discover. While Diodorus Siculus recalls eight scrolls containing the laws, these have not survived (and from what Tyldesley writes, there is no mention or depiction of these scrolls from dynastic Egypt). So Tyldesley draws on what evidence has survived (court proceedings, the "Negative Confession", the Instruction of Ankhsheshonq) to provide an idea of the laws and morals of the land.
This is a great resource on Ancient Egyptian society, and another excellent book from Joyce Tyldesley. I'm glad that I have my own copy now.
While the evidence is fragmentary, Tyldesley is successful in creating an image of the Egyptian legal system – though the laws themselves are more difficult to discover. While Diodorus Siculus recalls eight scrolls containing the laws, these have not survived (and from what Tyldesley writes, there is no mention or depiction of these scrolls from dynastic Egypt). So Tyldesley draws on what evidence has survived (court proceedings, the "Negative Confession", the Instruction of Ankhsheshonq) to provide an idea of the laws and morals of the land.
This is a great resource on Ancient Egyptian society, and another excellent book from Joyce Tyldesley. I'm glad that I have my own copy now.
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