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What was the punishment for Ancient Egyptians if they were caught robbing tombs?
Well, it rather depended on who was doing the robbing.
Pharaohs robbed the graves of their long-dead ancestors for treasure in much the same way the Vikings robbed the Bronze Age barrows of the Boyne in Ireland. Caches of sarcophagi and mummies desecrated by Pharaohs of the New Kingdom were found in the late 19th century.
The burial of the Old Kingdom builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, Khufu’s mother’s tomb was robbed just years after she was interred. Her son reburied her sarcophagus not knowing her body was missing. It had probably been removed so that the jewellery she was buried with could be removed.
No doubt there was a thriving black market for trinkets flitched from unguarded graves. Every self-respecting Egyptian wanted a good burial and a charm or two to help them reach the Afterlife. The tomb-robbery papyri suggest that most of the thieves were petty criminals, individuals of low or modest status as, for example, stonemasons, coppersmiths, and doorkeepers, lured by the prospect of instant riches. The audacity of the thieves of Thebes suggests that they had inside help in robbing tombs and funerary temples. Poorly paid officials and guards could be easily bribed. Most thieves were tradesmen who could melt down gold and silver or refashion an item to make it ‘new’ again. In an economy that ran on metal by weight and barter, it was easy to cut jewellry up and redeem its value for something else.
The sage Ipu-wer reflected upon the national distress which Egypt endured for nearly two centuries following the collapse of the Old Kingdom in these words:
Behold, the land turns round as does a potter’s wheel. The robber is a possessor of riches. [The wealthy man?] has become a plunderer. (2.8-9)
In acknowledgment of the evil done in those days by kings and princes who took advantage of the turmoil to pillage the tombs of their ancestors, a subdued king in that troubled time advised his son, Do not despoil the monument of another, but quarry stone in Tura. Do not build your tomb out of the ruins, (using) what had been made for what is to be made. As tombs were plundered and pillaged, mortuary cults and the endowments designed to perpetuate them were discontinued as the mortuary priests who administered them and made the funerary offerings abandoned their offices. It is at this time that the pyramid of Khufu was likely first violated when thieves found a way through the outer limestone casing and located the entrance. The entrance may have been sealed a number of times before rulers of the seventh-sixth century BCE fitted it with a door.
The scale of robbery suggests that the chances of being caught were pretty low. However, if caught the robber would be ‘taught a lesson.’
The Nauri Decree of Seti I specifies many punishments for various forms of theft, such as beating, the opening of wounds, forced labour, and amputation of the nose and ears. Take, for instance, the punishment for taking an animal belonging to the god’s estate, “punishment shall be done to him by cutting off his nose (and) his ears, he being put as a cultivator in the Foundation, *…+ and putting his wife (and) his children as serfs of (the) steward of this estate.” So, the whole family got punished. Officials caught cheating could get a beating of 200 lashes and 5 piercings.
The only crimes which we know for certain to have been punishable by death are high treason and stealing from the royal tombs, presumably because these were crimes against the pharaoh himself. Murderers would, most likely, also be executed, although there are no extant legal texts which involve murder. Death sentences are also mentioned occasionally in crimes that were committed against temples. It is, however, quite unsure whether capital punishments were consistently imposed in these cases. Other potential capital offenses are often listed in the literary sources, such as adultery within the Westcar Papyrus.
Find me on Facebook Find me on Quora Find me on Linkedin Academia.comSources:
Law and Order in Ancient Egypt, J.A Van Loon, Leiden University.
Robbing Pharaoh: Royal Tombs and the Underground Economy, Special Lecture to accompany exhibit of artifacts from Tutankhamun’s tomb at Dynamic Earth,. Sudbury, Ontario. August 2015; SSEA Symposium on Crime and Punishment in Ancient Egypt, Toronto, Nov. 1998 Sally Katary
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