298 crime and punishment: Egypt Papyrus with part of the “Tale of the Eloquent Peasant” from Egypt, around 1800 b.c.e.; a major literary text of the Middle Kingdom, this is the story of crime and its punishment in a way that questions social and divine justice (© The Trustees of the British Museum) they considered tomb robbery one of the most heinous crimes Tomb robbers became so rampant and bold that they even began robbing the graves of the pharaohs during the rule of Ramses IX (ca 1131–1112 b.c.e.) Death was generally the penalty for tomb robbing One man, believed to be a grave robber from the Twenty-Fift h Dynasty (which began around 700 b.c.e.), is reported to have been buried alive Most crimes against the government resulted in execution, as did most murders, whether committed by a free citizen or a slave The death penalty was also administered for perjury, which the Egyptians viewed as irreverence toward the gods as well as a crime against society Nevertheless, some historians believe that Egypt made relatively little use of the death penalty, at least in comparison with other ancient cultures Part of the reason may be that Egyptians considered disgrace and designation as a “nonperson” to be a harsher penalty to endure than death (Sometimes brands or cuts were used as visible signs of dishonor.) Furthermore, a dead person could not serve the pharaoh or government Considering that those disgraced could regain their honor and lost rights only by performing heroic or valiant deeds, an individual punished with disgrace could ultimately prove beneficial to society In addition to death and disgrace, Egyptian law meted out a variety of other punishments, with beatings being among the most common Many punishments were barbaric by modern standards Mutilation—especially cutting off the nose, ears, hand(s), or tongue—was a common punishment for a variety of crimes For example, a woman caught in adultery had her nose cut off, not only as punishment but also to destroy her attractiveness and thus prevent her from committing the crime again or enticing a man into adultery As in most ancient cultures, women often suffered more severe penalties than men A man caught in adultery with a married woman received a beating as a penalty, usually a thousand strokes with a stick However, if a man raped a freeborn woman, he was castrated Despite the harshness of many penalties, Egypt possessed some concepts of basic human rights For example, when a pregnant woman received the death penalty, she was not executed until her child was born, because the Egyptians considered the child guilty of no crime and therefore not to be punished for the mother’s misdeed Pharaoh Bocchoris (ca 717–712 b.c.e.) suppressed the use of bondage or imprisonment for debtors The Egyptians also had some unusual concepts of certain crimes and unique penalties for dealing with them For example, parents convicted of murdering their child were not put to death, because they were considered to have given life to the child Instead, they were punished by having to hold the baby’s dead body in their arms for three consecutive days and nights, a penalty designed to evoke repentance and deter them from committing the crime again For a time the Egyptians also tried dealing with the exploding problem of common theft (excluding theft involving tombs or temples) in a unique way They set up a system in which thieves had to register with a “captain of thieves” and report all the goods that they stole, which the robbed person could then ransom for one-fourth of the value Despite this attempt to control theft and restitution, it is believed that other punishments for theft predominated throughout ancient Egypt’s history, including death, fines, and various corporal punishments While confinement was not a common form of punishment for free citizens of Egypt, prisons did exist, dating to the Middle Kingdom Twelft h and Thirteenth Dynasties (ca 1991–1640 b.c.e.) The prison population was made up mostly of servants and foreigners; for citizens penalties such as public beatings, fines, or execution predominated Some temple depictions of prisons show decorative rows of panels that contain the name of a conquered country or people, with the heads and shoulders of bound prisoners above the panels Each panel is attached to a rope, and the pharaoh is depicted as holding all of the ropes Historians believe that the Egyptian prisons were generally operated in an orderly manner and kept relatively clean The influence of Egyptian laws related to crime and punishment was wide ranging For example, the Greek Solon, who became lawgiver in Athens in 594 b.c.e., visited Egypt and is believed to have adopted some Egyptian views on crime and punishment, including the idea of applying the same punishment prescribed for a crime to someone who falsely accuses another of that crime The Greek idea of idleness as a crime may also have come from Egypt, where free citizens had to declare in writing how they made a living and could be put