One of the best known villages of antiquity, the artisan's community of Deir el-Medîna on the west bank of Thebes which had its floruit in the Ramesside period, has also yielded a wealth of information on the social and juridical systems. A great number of ostraca, papyri and inscriptions form the base on which the main outlines of the system of administering law can be reconstructed.

This richly documented monograph tries to find answers to problems like: who were the members of the village council (the qnb.t)? Which cases did it deal with by itself and which were rather put before the village oracle? And, finally, what juridical cases occupied the minds of the villagers which fell out of the scope of these two main means to regulate the social life of community?