• Object type: Document
• Formal Title: Money and the Law
• Creator: Khapokrates
• Date Created: January 30, 124 BC
• Origin: Egypt
• Current Location: Rome, Italy

Because the Egyptians wrote mostly on papyrus, little of their writings – legal or otherwise - has survived. This is a rare exception.

In it, Khapokrates, a son of “Horos”, acknowledges to his brother, perhaps the estate administrator, that he did receive a sixth of his father’s estate. The document refers to that share as being comprised of “silver, the gold, the copper, the clothing, the buildings, the grains, all the domestic (objects), all house requisites, all cattle, donkeys, small cattle, the right to claim debts externally.”

Perhaps at the estate’s request, the settlement includes a penalty clause where Khapokrates agrees that if he breaches the agreement as to his one-sixth share, he “shall give 5 (pieces) of real silver” to the Pharaoh and a further larger amount of silver to the administrator “and to your siblings”.

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