Mayer Papyri

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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 meanwhile. This witness had been a child at the time of the crime; still, he was beaten when he was being examined, as was a woman witness.

While the ancient Egyptian judicial system was quite brutal, 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.

[edit] 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. Eric Peet, The Mayer Papyri A & B; Nos. M. 11162 and M. 11186, 1920