Mayer Papyri

The Mayer Papyri ^[1] are Ancient Egyptian documents that contain records of court proceedings held in the first year of the reign of Ramesses X. A panel consisting of the vizier of the South and three high officials cross-examined suspects charged with tomb robbery at Deir el-Bahri (cf. also the Abbott Papyrus and the Amherst Papyrus). The interrogation of both suspects and witnesses was preceded by a bastinado and an oath in the name of the king was administered.

The confessions of the six suspects were corroborated by the testimony of the chief of police of the Theban Necropolis and other witnesses, among them the son of one of the thieves who had died in the meantime. This witness had been a child at the time of the crime; still, he was beaten when he was being examined, as was a female witness.

While the ancient Egyptian judicial system was quite brutal and biased against the accused, a verdict of guilty was not a foregone conclusion: The Mayer Papyri record the discharge of five men who had been found to be innocent.

References

• J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Four, 1906 Chicago
• James Baikie, 1925, Egyptian Papyri and Papyrus-Hunting, Kessinger Publishing 2003, p. 110
• T. E. Peet, The Mayer Papyri A & B; Nos. M. 11162 and M. 11186, 1920

1. ^ Breasted op. cit. §§ 544-556

External links

• The Mayer Papyri, accessed April 22, 2007
• The Great Tomb Robberies of the Twentieth Egyptian Dynasty, Being a Critical Study, with Translations and Commentaries, of the Papyri in Which These Are Recorded by T. Eric Peet, accessed April 23, 2007