James G. Keenan - Böcker

The study of ancient law has blossomed in recent years. In English alone there have been dozens of studies devoted to classical Greek and Roman law, to the Roman legal codes, and to the legal traditions of the ancient Near East among many other topics. Legal documents written on papyrus began to be published in some abundance by the end of the nineteenth century; but even after substantial publication history, legal papyri have not received due attention from legal historians. This book blends the two usually distinct juristic scholarly traditions, classical and Egyptological, into a coherent presentation of the legal documents from Egypt from the Ptolemaic to the late Byzantine periods, all translated and accompanied by expert commentary. The volume will serve as an introduction to the rich legal sources from Egypt in the later phases of its ancient history as well as a tool to compare legal documents from other cultures.

This volume makes available the letters, petitions, and such accounts as bear on land and taxation at Kerkeosiris in the numerous and extensive papyri briefly treated in the Descriptions at the back of Tebtunis Papyri I.

This volume publishes the most complete documentary codex from 6th-century Egypt. Known to the scholarly world since 1905 and frequently cited since then, it now appears for the first time in full edition. The codex details money taxes paid by landowners at the village of Temseu Skordon and the hamlet Topos Demeou in the Hermopolite Nome. The language is Greek but with extensive Coptic influence. The text is especially important for its bearing on nomenclature, language, taxation and gold-to-copper monetary conversions.