deir el –medina place of truth life of the common man

Deir el –Medina Place of Truth

Life of the common man

04/11/23 Free Template from www.brainybetty.com 2

Deir el- Medina Uncovered


Evidence

• Housing and decoration

• Temples and altars

• Tombs of the Kings

• Tombs of the villagers

• Ostraca

• Surviving literature, including Tale of Sinuhe


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


Location of Deir el-Medina


Tombs of the Kings-Thutmose 111


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


Social Structure of Egypt


Organization of Workgangs

Vizier

Captains of the Village

Chiefs of the Gangs-2 foremen

Scribe of the Tomb

Guardians of the tomb

Two deputieseldest sons of foremen

Servants of the tomb-gang

Servants of the tomb-gang


Craftsmen of Egypt


Housing


Artists reconstruction of workmens houses


About 100 homes, were plain and made of mudbrick, mostly single storey

• 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.


Furniture


Temples and Altars- The Temple of Hathor


Temples of the West Bank


Private Tombs


Tomb Entrance


Sennedjem’s Tomb


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.


Tombs of the Foremen, Inerkhau and Pashedu


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


Ostraca showing orders for yarn and wood for a king’s tomb


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."


Recreation&

Story telling

Building techniquesIn the New Kingdom

Literacy levels other

than scribes Significance

Of religionTo lower classes

Evidence of disputes and

labour relations

Skill ofdifferent craftsmen

Life of lowerClass

Egyptians

Evidence of the role of women

Importance Of

Deir el-Medina

deir el –medina place of truth life of the common man

Documents

free template

medina slide

housing slide

nile slide

pashedu slide

furniture slide

kings tomb slide

tomb entrance slide