In this episode, you will learn about how Ancient Egypt governed through the Law of Ma’at - or natural order of things that was how society was balanced and the moral ideas that was the foundation of all law. With the Law of Ma’at, it instilled in the society the need for truth, acting justly, and acting fairly to all people. We’ll talk about the importance of Ma’at, how it influenced everything and how that influenced the policing and corrections at that time.

Mentioned This Episode:

Website: Law of Ma'at

Website: Map of Ancient Egypt

_________________________

Website: LCC Public Service Careers

From the watchmen of ancient cities, to the rise of modern police forces, and from medieval dungeons to today's correctional institutions, our systems of law enforcement and punishment have shaped societies for centuries. Welcome to Silver & Blue: Tracing the History of Policing and Corrections, the podcast where we will uncover the beginning to the present of policing and corrections. Each episode will explore how justice was enforced, how punishment evolved, and what these legacies mean for us today. Let's step back in time and see how order and disorder came to be.

Welcome back to Silver and Blue, the podcast where we explore the origins of policing, law and justice from the earliest civilizations all the way to today's modern Systems. I'm Tammy McDiarmid and I'm your host.

In our first episode, we traveled to Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers where humans first wrote down laws and experimented with the earliest forms of policing. Today, we're heading southwest to another ancient giant, Egypt.

A civilization shaped not by unpredictable rivers, but by one extraordinarily predictable one. The Nile. A land where justice wasn't carved into stone tablets, but woven into the cosmic fabric of the universe.

Where maintaining order wasn't just a civic duty, it was considered a sacred one. In this episode, we'll explore how ancient Egyptian society was organized. What law meant in a world governed by the concept of maat.

How officials enforced order across a kingdom stretching hundreds of miles. The roles of courts, judges and scribes, crime and punishment, from theft to treason.

And how Egyptian ideas of justice still echoes today's legal philosophies. So let's step back into the land of pharaohs, temples and eternal principles and discover what justice meant along the banks of the Nile.

What do you think of when you envision Egypt of this time? I see only what has been presented in movies like the Mummy or Raiders of the Lost Ark, or even photos of Google or other social media.

But the reality is even more extraordinary. So let's see why. Mesopotamia's rivers flooded violently and unpredictably, but the Nile.

The Nile had a rhythm and regularity that you could compare to a heartbeat. And it stretched over 700 miles long.

Every year, without fail, the flood waters rose, deposited rich silt and receded, leaving behind fertile black soil that was known to the native population as kemet. This allowed everything about Egyptian life to grow and prosper. Things like stable agriculture.

Knowing the cycle of the Nile allowed for the planning of crops and what crops would be good for each season. Long lasting institutions. These are buildings that are still seen today. A centralized, hierarchical government.

Like the pyramid at Giza, the Step pyramid at Djoser, Valley of the Kings, the Great Sphinx, the Obelisk of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III temples and priesthood. Like the temple at Karnak, the Temple of Philae. And if any of you have watched the mummy movies, these are all featured and are amazing to see.

I would recommend searching them if you haven't had a chance to see them. With this also came the use of hieroglyphs, the pictograph system of writing and communication that allowed for record keeping and documentation.

With this, an administrative machine that emerged to manage a kingdom 700 miles long. To make sure that order would be the norm and not chaos, there needed to be a rule and a way to govern.

But unlike Mesopotamia, Egypt did not begin with long written law codes. Instead, Egypt began with what was to them something deeper and arguably more powerful. Mentioned at the start of the show, Maat. So what is Maat?

Maat was the core idea behind Egyptian justice, believed to be the natural order that was established at creation. With this idea, the core of justice lay with the principle of truth, balance, harmony and cosmic order.

So I'm talking about thousands year old ideal that seems to have no connection to today, right? Well, not really. As we will see, the foundations of MAAT were a moral idea, a philosophy that would guide rules and decisions.

And for ancient Egypt, it was the foundation of all law. To Egyptians, maintaining Maat was not just desirable, it was necessary for the universe to function.

This meant that all people were meant to be truthful, act justly and treat others fairly. Political order, social stability and even the raising of the sun were understood to depend on it.

Remember in our last episode that Mesopotamia left a stone carving with detailed legal codes? Think Hammurabi. Well, Egypt did not leave behind detailed legal codes. So how did we know how Egyptian law was carried out?

Better yet, how were we able to find out about it?

Well, it wasn't until hieroglyphs were finally deciphered in the 19th century that a peek into how ancient Egypt went about administering law justice and running such an expansive country. It wasn't until hieroglyphics were finally deciphered in the 19th century that a peek into the how ancient Egypt went about in mystery.

It wasn't until hieroglyphs were finally deciphered in the 19th century that a peek into ancient Egypt went about administering law, justice and running Such an expansive country. What was uncovered shows that nothing was written down like Hammurabi did, but shows that Egyptian law was based on precedent.

That means what happened before and was established continues. Egyptian law was preserved in court records, decrees and administrative texts. Hieroglyphs showed that officials were exceptional record keepers.

And Egyptian law understood through Maat rather than codified statutes. When it came to making decisions, the judges were expected to rule based on custom.

So what had been established over generations, social norms, what society had determined to be expectations for people to abide by prior cases. This goes back to the principle of precedent.

And we'll talk a lot more about that as we creep closer to modern day, since this concept is still heavily relied on in today's global justice system. Royal decrees.

Remembering that the rulers at the time were a central figure that was given a title of royal significance, what he or she said was followed by all. And these decrees were sent down from the top to govern the masses.

And the judges were then also ruled based on ethical principles that were tied to Mott. But the absence of a rigid written down, or in this case, chiseled or inked on papyrus code does not mean that Egypt lacked structure.

The leader in ancient Egypt was the pharaoh. And the pharaoh wasn't just a king. And if you have seen any movie that was based about Egypt, pharaohs don't look like our vision of a king.

But that was the point. He was the earthly guardian of Maat. His job wasn't simply to rule.

It was to maintain cosmic balance in society through good governance, fair rulings and care for the vulnerable. So when it came down to it, Egypt's legal system was highly bureaucratic. Not too different from the way things are today.

So when we get done breaking it down, we will revisit things and you can decide. So let's break it down. First up was in the handling of all affairs. And this was done by the vizier.

This was considered the chief justice or the pharaoh's right hand guy. He was the highest official under the pharaoh.

And this meant he oversaw national administration, which if you think about it, had to have been a hefty job with 700 miles of territory to officiate over. He looked over taxation, public works. Now tell me, can you imagine trying to make sure the roads, construction, maintenance, etc.

All over 700 miles of Egypt? I don't. He oversaw courts and legal disputes and he also oversaw the state archives.

And if this hadn't been done, can you imagine what we would never know the place that the vizier held Court was the hall of Maat. And this is where he heard his cases and issued judgments. Under the vizier came the regional governors. These were called nomarchs.

With Egypt being as mammoth as it was, they divided it into districts called nomis. Each district or nome had a governor who handled local disputes. Tax duties. Think tax collector, maintaining order.

You know that those people who won't get along all the time. That's like any society. And overseeing scribes and officials. This was to ensure accurate records were kept with these nomarchs.

Think state government in Egyptian clothing. At the bottom, so to speak, were the village elders and the local courts.

This was considered the lowest level, made of small councils of elders and scribes that handled everyday conflicts. This shows that they oversaw land boundaries, inheritance, worker conflicts, theft and marriage issues.

For our analogy purposes, think your local city council or village council. Along with the district courts. The last part of the bureaucracy would be the scribes.

These are people that I believe were some of the most important people of this time. Nothing happened without a scribe. This group were the backbone of Egyptian bureaucracy. Why you ask? I'll tell you.

The scribes were responsible for documenting all complaints, testimonies, judgments, contracts, property transfers. For so the society at this time was essential to keep accurate records for everything to run.

For us in our time, they were just as important for completely different reasons. Without the scribes of ancient Egypt, there would be no knowledge of this time.

Their records allow modern scholars to reconstruct Egyptian life following the ciphering of the hieroglyphics. So now that we have the backbone and we know how Egypt was run, we can get into who enforced the law. This was Egypt's first police personnel.

They were known as the Medjai. Originally a Nubian desert people, the Medjai became the elite police force under the middle and new kingdoms.

Their main responsibilities included desert patrols. Think about that duty with all but nothing of desert tomb guards making sure no one raided the tombs. City police.

Even three to five thousand years ago, a land like Egypt had bustling cities, palace security, military scouts. The next were temple guards. Temples held wealth and land, so they employed guards to prevent theft, trespassing and unauthorized access.

Then you had your court enforcement officials. They executed any court judgments. So think bailiffs and sheriffs. They also had community responsibility.

Think back to Mesopotamia, where they also had the concept of community responsibility. Egyptian villages were expected to report crimes and identify offenders. Entire groups could be held responsible if they sheltered a criminal.

Remember I talked about scribes. There is police evidence on papyrus. Papyrus was the paper of their time.

And they were deciphered from tablets found and also documents that had information on papyrus. Some of the evidence, interrogation transcripts, theft investigations, reports on missing property, and fugitive lists.

So once we had all of the police and the reports, how were the courts of this time? Egyptian trials were surprisingly normal.

Courts could include the vizier, remember, top guy, local governors, or the nomarchs, priests, military officials, elders, and of course, the scribes.

The evidence that was often considered at these court trials, witness testimony, written contracts, oaths, physical examination of property, confessions, and prior precedents. Does any of this seem familiar? As you can see, many of what occurred in ancient Egypt occurs today. Oaths were taken very seriously.

Swearing falsely wasn't just illegal. It was considered a violation of Maat. So why does Egyptian law matter? Why are we talking about this today?

Because Egypt represents a completely different model of justice for Mesopotamia. Where Mesopotamia used written codes, Egypt used ethical philosophy. Where Mesopotamia saw law as a contract, Egypt saw it as a cosmic duty.

And where Mesopotamia carved rules into stone, Egypt carved principles into culture. Ancient Egypt showed us a world where balance outranked punishment, ethics outranked technicalities. And truth wasn't just legal, it was sacred.

And the questions Egyptians asked remain ours today. How do we maintain harmony in a diverse society? How do we balance authority with fairness? And what role should morality play in law?

Lastly, how do we build systems that preserve justice across generations? Thank you for joining me today.

In our next episode, we'll leave the Nile behind and travel to ancient Greece, where democracy, courts and citizen juries shaped a new understanding of legal responsibility.

That wraps up today's episode of Silver & Blue: Tracing the History of Policing and Corrections. This podcast is produced by LCC Connect. You can listen to other podcasts in the LCC Connect family by going to LCCConnect.com. If you want to listen to this podcast on Demand, go to LCCConnect.com and visit the Silver & Blue webpage. Until next time, keep questioning, keep learning, and keep the dialogue alive.