Deir el –Medina
Place of Truth
Life of the common man
Deir el- Medina Uncovered
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Evidence
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Housing and decoration
Temples and altars
Tombs of the Kings
Tombs of the villagers
Ostraca
Surviving literature, including Tale of
Sinuhe
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Deir el- Medina
• Founded by Amenhotep1, 18th dynasty,
during New Kingdom, ca 1525 B.C
• Tutmosis 1 (ca 1500B.C ) builds the first
wall
• Located near the Valley of the Kings, west
of Thebes, across the Nile
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Location of Deir el-Medina
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Tombs of the Kings-Thutmose 111
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Community of Craftsmen
• In use for over 500 years
• Approximately 100 inhabitants plus children
• Known names include- Kha the architect
-Ramose the scribe
-Kenherkopershef the
historian
• Workers for the tomb builders, but other
workmen included gardners, fishermen, potters
and handymen
• Specialized jobs included painters, plasterers,
sculptors, foremen and scribes
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Social Structure of Egypt
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Organization of Workgangs
Vizier
Captains of the Village
Chiefs of the
Gangs-2 foremen
Scribe of the
Tomb
Two deputies
eldest sons of foremen
Servants of
the tomb-gang
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Guardians of
the tomb
Servants of
the tomb-gang
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Craftsmen of Egypt
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Housing
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Artists reconstruction of workmens
houses
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About 100 homes, were plain and made of mudbrick,
mostly single storey
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The average family consisted of father, mother, and two to four children.
Relatives who had fallen on hard times may have shared their flat, as may have,
in the more affluent households, a small number of servants. The living space
per person seems to have been between five and fifteen square metres. As the
man was often away for the whole work week, the overcrowding was not quite
as bad most of the time.
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Furniture
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Temples and Altars- The Temple of
Hathor
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Temples of the West Bank
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Private Tombs
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Tomb Entrance
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Sennedjem’s Tomb
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Tomb of Sennedjem
Discovered in tact in 1886,
it displayed the
conventional funerary
imagery, as well as
Sennedjem and his wife in
their daily life.
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Tombs of the Foremen, Inerkhau
and Pashedu
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Ostraca
• Thousands of ostraka have been found
• They include letters, notes, records and
evidence of daily life
• Most are written in hieratic, a short hand
version of heiroglyphs
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Ostraca showing orders for yarn
and wood for a king’s tomb
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Women of Deir el- Medina
• Thou shouldst not supervise they wife in her house,
when thou knowest she is efficient. Do not say to
her: 'Where is it? Fetch it for us!' when she has put it
in the most useful place. Let thine eye have regard,
while thou art silent, that thou mayest recognize her
abilities."
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Recreation
&
Story telling
Building
techniques
In the New
Kingdom
Literacy
levels other
than
scribes
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Evidence of
the role of
women
Importance
Of
Deir el-Medina
Significance
Of religion
To lower
classes
Life of lower
Class
Egyptians
Skill of
different
craftsmen
Evidence of
disputes and
labour
relations
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