171: Law & Order (Special Ma'at Unit)

Horemheb's Great Decree. Sometime during his reign, King Horemheb proclaimed a new set of laws. Taking aim at corruption and abuses-of-power (allegedly happening throughout Egypt), the pharaoh went hard on corrective measures. Punishments could range from beatings to disfigurement, exile, and death. Horemheb was not messing around. But what was he really trying to achieve?

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• Intro music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net
• Interludes and Outro music by Luke Chaos www.twitter.com/luke_chaos

Select Bibliography:

1. G. de la Bédoyere, Pharaohs of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of Tutankhamen’s Dynasty (2022).
2. C. Eyre, The Use of Documents in Pharaonic Egypt (2013).
3. A. Gnirs, ‘Haremhab - ein Staatsreformator? Neue Betrachtungen zum Haremhab-Dekret’, Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 16 (1989), 83–110.
4. A. M. Gnirs, Militär und Gesellschaft: Ein Beitrag zur Sozialgeschichte des Neuen Reiches (1996).
5. A. M. Gnirs, ‘Coping With the Army: The Military and the State in the New Kingdom’, in J. C. Moreno García (ed.), Ancient Egyptian Administration (2013), 639—717.
6. R. Hari, Horemheb et la reine Moutnedjemet ou la fin d’une Dynastie (1965).
7. W. Helck, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie: Ubersetzung zu den Heften 17–22 (1961).
8. J.-M. Kruchten, Le décret d’Horemheb: traduction, commentaire épigraphique, philologique et institutionnel (1981).
9. K. Pflüger, ‘The Edict of King Haremhab’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 5 (1946), 260–76.
10. YouTube: Guy de la Bédoyere, "Horemheb, the 'Enlightened Despot,'" https://youtu.be/-jCEo21_hK4 

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