Roles were sometimes filled by newcomers to the village, and conversely there were often more children than jobs. As only one son could take the role of his father, the other sons no doubt left the village to gain employment elsewhere.
While the workmen were away from the village, working in the Valley of the Kings, they constructed a small village of workmen’s huts near the tomb within which they were working. These huts were not houses, as they were only 1.5 metres by 1.7 metres and were made of stone without mortar. There is evidence of cooking and the remains of fish bones, as well as the bones of two domestic cats, indicating this was where the workmen rested, ate, prepared tools and completed portable work for the tomb.20
There were also a number of small guard huts, where the guards sat and kept watch on the entrances and paths into the Valley of the Kings twenty-four hours a day. The tombs were always at threat from tomb robbers, as were the storage huts that housed the tools needed by the workmen, as these were a valuable commodity.21
From this small, temporary village in the Valley of the Kings there were hundreds of ostraca fragments, including workmen’s lists and letters, as well as images of tomb art to be rendered within the tomb. Evidence suggests the workmen were also making limestone jewellery moulds at the site, which were then sent to the jewellery workshops.22 Whether this was official work or a way to while away a lunch break is unknown.
One of these small huts belonged to the village scribe, who was on the same level as the foreman and was responsible for tomb administration: recording absences from work, the number of tools distributed (and returned) and general work progression, which he passed to the vizier and ultimately to the king. This role was also hereditary. The scribe and the foreman were the highest-paid positions in the village.
With no monetary system in Egypt, wages came in the form of rations, which included fish, vegetables, water, wood for fuel, pottery for household use and sometimes clothing. On festival days the workmen received extra rations, including sesame oil, blocks of salt, natron (a natural salt from the Wadi Natron) and even oxen. Rations provided enough food to feed a large family, plus a little extra to use as currency. Marketplaces worked on a barter system, where items of clothing, food, animals, shoes, beer and even services were swapped for other items. Each item had a relative market value, which varied depending on demand. As long as the seller and the buyer were happy with the exchange it did not matter if the items were not equal in market value. As people did not necessarily visit the marketplace with all the items a seller may require, credit was often given between friends, relatives and neighbours, although from the legal records it seems these credit notes were not always paid.
There was no word in ancient Egyptian for ‘market’ and it was not a major aspect of the Egyptian economy, but they were essential for local economy and, in particular, social interaction. An experimental archaeology project carried out in 2009 demonstrated that the most successful people in the reconstructed marketplace were those who were more sociable, happy to converse and willing to argue over a price. Shy people were easily sold items at inflated prices, or were unable to persuade others to buy their goods, essentially rendering them worthless.23
The main village of Deir el-Medina also housed a number of small, homemade chapels to the north of the site. These were financed, built, decorated, maintained and serviced by the people in the village for the worship of local deities as well as acting as social clubs and meeting areas.24
Deir el-Medina was abandoned as a village at the end of the twenty-first dynasty, primarily because of security concerns after attacks by Libyans from the western desert. The villagers left Deir el-Medina for the security of the temple complex at Medinet Habu, meaning the village houses were then only used for storage.
The eighteenth-dynasty city of Tell el-Amarna, or Akhetaten as it was then known, was built during the reign of Akhenaten (1350–1334 BCE), who decided he wanted a new city to dedicate to his favoured god, the Aten, on a site which had not been used previously to worship any other deity. ‘Behold, it is Pharaoh who found it – but being the property of a god, not being the property of a goddess, not being the property of a male ruler, not being the property of a female ruler, and not being the property of any people.’25 This city, although built as a singular project, is different from Deir el-Medina or El-Lahun, as the palace forms the centre of the main settlement. This centre also included temples and military barracks, but no evidence has been found of shops, taverns or schools, so these activities may instead have taken place within the homes or open spaces. The houses expanded to the north and south from this centre, each forming a small village-like area centred on a large official house. The cemetery was built on the periphery of the town.
The elite tombs in this cemetery are different from others in Egypt, as the religious imagery is replaced with images of Akhenaten and the royal family. It is the only time in Egyptian history where the tomb owner is not the dominant figure in the tomb. Instead, he is always presented as a small figure in relation to the king, who is seen favouring him with golden jewellery from the Window of Appearances.
The city boundaries were marked by sixteen boundary stelae carved in years five, six and eight of Akhenaten’s reign. They outlined the outer limits of the city and were a method unique to Amarna. The texts on the stelae discuss the founding of the city and the intended buildings as well as describing some of the problems Akhenaten may have faced in Thebes. Akhenaten does not specify what these problems were but states he no longer wanted to listen to the ‘evil words’, which was his reason for moving the capital. The inscription is believed to be a verbatim record of one of the king’s speeches:
It was worse than those things I heard in regnal year four,
It was worse than those things I heard in regnal year three,
It was worse than those things I heard in regnal year two,
It was worse than those things I heard in regnal year one,
It was worse than those things Nebmaatre (Amenhotep III) heard,
It was worse than those things which … heard,
It was worse than those things Menkheperure (Thutmosis III) heard,
And it was worse than those things I heard by any kings who had ever
assumed the White Crown (ruler of the south).26
The city was divided into quarters, or suburbs, and communal wells were placed in public squares or were shared between several houses. There was also a sculptors’ quarter and a workman village, similar to Deir el-Medina, with seventy-two houses placed in the desert to the east of the city in six orderly, parallel rows.
The houses at the workman village all appear to have an upper storey and, although they were unable to change the footprint of the house, should the occupants need it they were able to expand upwards or downwards. The upstairs of these houses were used for the bedrooms, and the front room of the house served as an area of ‘cottage industry’, with food preparation, weaving, metalworking and stone bowl production carried out here.27 Outside the walls of the workman village at Amarna were subsidiary buildings for their use, including chapels, animal pens and a central square.28 It was to this square that the rations and weekly supplies were delivered, and in other villages such squares may have been important for public activities such as celebrations, information gathering or public trials and executions (see chapter seven). Unfortunately these activities, as well as the spaces themselves, are not easily identified in the archaeological record.
The workman village at Tell el-Amarna was cramped, dirty and unhygienic. Evidence of rats, fleas and bed bugs has been identified and such living conditions were a breeding ground for tuberculosis and parasitic infections. It is thought that fleas travelling on the Nile rats were responsible for the European bubonic plague, and evidence suggests that near the end of the reign of Akhenaten Amarna suffered an epidemic, killing many members of the royal family in a short space of time.
Rats were not just a problem at Amarna, as at the village
of El-Lahun Petrie discovered the earliest rat trap. It is a pottery box with slits in the side and a slideable end that can be raised in order to allow the rat to enter and lowered to prevent it escaping. Petrie commented that ‘nearly every room has its corners tunnelled by the rats, and the holes are stuffed up with stones and rubbish to keep them back’.29 It is quite likely that with the large number of rats at Lahun there were numerous cats at the village as well.
Evidence indicates that pigs were kept in the workman village at Amarna, as well as at Elephantine, Tell el-Dab’a and Memphis.30 It is often stated that the Egyptians did not eat pork, but such evidence suggests they were either farmed or domestically raised. They may have been kept for waste disposal, although evidence of parasitic worms in mummies contracted through eating undercooked, infected pork indicates that pork was eaten (see chapter eight).
Between 50,000 and 100,000 people lived in the main city at Tell el-Amarna during the height of Akhenaten’s reign, 10 per cent of which were elite. The wealth of the homeowners was reflected in the size and grandeur of the houses. The two main residential areas were the north and south suburbs, which housed up to 90 per cent of the total population.
The southern suburb contained approximately 2,000 houses – as well as workshops, which highlight the area as one of industry and manufacture – and housed 50 per cent of the population of Amarna.31 It seemed to be comprised of various residential areas for different social groups, as there were rich, palatial homes alongside the small houses of the poorer classes. The most famous workshop located here was that of the sculptor Thutmose, in whose workshop the famous bust of Nefertiti was discovered. This suburb also housed High Priests of Aten and Viziers, and was therefore primarily an area for the rich and influential.
The northern suburb was made up of approximately 600 houses and seemed to be divided into industry quarters, with one section being associated with fishing – as indicated by the number of hooks and fish-related products discovered there – and others associated with carpentry and clerical work. The houses were smaller than in the southern suburb and there were not as many palatial homes.32
The third suburb was the royal suburb, in the northern part of the city, which housed the North Palace, the North Riverside Palace and the administrative buildings.
This grandiose city of Tel el Amarna was short lived and was quickly abandoned following Akhenaten’s death. Tutankhamun (1334–1325 BCE) returned the capital city to Thebes and the majority of people left Amarna, leaving only a couple of faience factories still in use. By the end of the reign of Horemheb (1321–1293 BCE) these were also abandoned and the stone blocks reused elsewhere, leaving the city to the sands.
Although there were variations between settlements, the house layout and size was similar across the different villages. In the modern world, we are used to, and even expect, a certain amount of space, with rooms for designated activities (e.g. bedroom, kitchen, bathroom or office), and in the West most people expect a separate bedroom for every individual or couple living in the home. In ancient Egypt this was unheard of and the houses were often small and, to the modern mind, cramped.
The houses at Deir el-Medina were very similar to the workman houses at other villages. They were only one storey high, with a staircase at the rear leading to a flat roof used for storage, a sleeping area or a place to dry meat or hang washing. Poorer families used the roofs more often than richer families, who had more square metres within the house itself. One house at Amarna even had an oven on the roof, showing this area was utilised as a cooking space. As the streets and alleys at ground level at Deir el-Medina were narrow, cramped and no doubt crowded with people, animals and overspill from the houses, it may have been possible to navigate across the village using some of these roofs.33
Houses at Amarna are thought to have had an upper floor instead of simply a flat roof, although as only the foundations survive it is difficult to ascertain the likelihood of this. However, examination of the walls at Deir el-Medina proves them to be too thin to support a second storey,34 whereas at Tell el-Amarna it was possible. On the flat roofs, simple, temporary reed structures may have been placed to provide extra sleeping or work space, as can still be seen in modern Egypt.
Across all settlements the majority of the houses had cellars, which were used for valuable storage space, and in some instances the burial of young children. The lack of storage space at Tell el-Amarna encouraged the inhabitants to encroach into the street, and some homes had brick mangers, water pots and awnings outside their homes.35
Egyptian houses were constructed of mud-brick on stone-rubble foundations. Mud-bricks were made by mixing Nile mud with water, which was poured into wooden brick moulds and left in the sun to dry. This method is still used in Egypt today. The outside of the house was whitewashed and the front door painted red, which was seen as a colour of divine protection and therefore protected the house from potentially dangerous forces.36 The wooden door frames bore the names of the inhabitants in red ink, identifying who lived there in the absence of street names. This did not prevent letters and notes from going astray, and one villager tried to defend himself against the accusations of a woman by claiming he never received her note:
As for the matters of illness about which you write me, what have I done against you? As for the medication which you mentioned, did you write me about them, and did I fail to give them to you? As Ptah endures, and as Thoth endures, I have not heard from anyone: it was not told to me.
Many of the smaller houses only had four rooms, the first opening onto the street and the rest laid out as one long corridor. To enter the first room there were a couple of steps leading down from the street level.
The dominant feature in the first room was often an enclosed box-bed built onto one of the walls. Some believe they may have been used as a marital bed and many clay models of women emphasising fertility were discovered in these structures. Bernard Bruyère, who excavated at Deir el-Medina (1922–1951), believes the box-beds and feminine figurines emphasise the important cult of the family in the home and in this room in particular. The box-beds were approximately 1.7 metres long, 80 centimetres wide and 75 centimetres tall. This has led to the suggestion that this structure was like a play pen, providing somewhere safe to put the babies and toddlers while the mother pottered around the house.37 Their size, coupled with the fact that some were decorated with images of Bes and Taweret (see chapter three), indicates they were more than likely used as shrines to these deities. Furthermore, the shrine housing statues of deities and ancestors was also located in this room in the home.
In eight houses from Deir el-Medina images of Bes were discovered in this first room, in addition to painted scenes of women breastfeeding, and this has led some scholars to believe this was the room used for giving birth38 with the box-bed functioning as a birthing bed. However, evidence shows women in ancient Egypt gave birth squatting on two bricks, which would not have been possible in such a cramped space. Additionally, as this room was reached directly from the street it seems too public for something so personal and potentially life-threatening. There can be little doubt, however, that the decoration in these rooms had a feminine theme, indicating this was a room closely associated with women. For example, in the house of Nebamun, at Deir el-Medina, on the wall of his first room was painted a nude musician playing a double lute surrounded by Convolvulus leaves, a plant steeped in erotic overtones. These images were obvious to anyone entering the house, indicating that sexuality was considered a legitimate, public and acceptable element of daily life.
The decoration of the second room was far more masculine than the first room. This room led off the first and was reached by steps leading upwards, once more making the floor level with the street outside. The room was dominated by a large platform used as a seating area during the day and a bed at night. This divan was painted white and had armrests that were flared at the top, like a column capital, and painted yellow, red and white. Nearby was a small hearth.
It is believed this divan was where the men of the house conducted business and met with visitors.39
In houses built on bedrock, beneath this divan a cellar was dug for extra storage space. A false door stela, painted or carved onto one of the walls, dedicated to a favourite deity or ancestor, allowed the spirits to enter the house and participate in daily activities. There was often a wooden pillar on a stone base in this room and the ceiling was higher than both the third and the first rooms, leading some to suggest this was to accommodate window grills at the top of the walls which provided light and fresh air.40
Leading from this room was the third room, which served as a work-area, storeroom and sleeping area for female members of the household. Often craftsmen used this room to work on private commissions, which they sold to increase their household income. This room was therefore a transient room which was able to accommodate the needs of the family, who utilised it as they needed to.
The kitchen was at the rear of the house in a walled but open area with a clay oven and occasionally a silo for storing grain. There was no ceiling but shade was provided by reed matting laid over the walls. Although the kitchen was outside, beams in the Amarnan houses were black with smoke from lamps, indicating that the houses in general were poorly ventilated; this led to a condition called anthracosis where soot settles in the lungs, causing breathing difficulties. Further cellar space was dug beneath the perimeter walls of these kitchens, where food could be stored in a relatively cool environment.
Although the workman houses were compact, with some of the smallest houses at El-Lahun measuring only 8 by 7.5 metres – which was enough for two main rooms and two smaller rooms with a corridor between them – there were at times three generations living in them. Families on average had ten children, and unmarried female relatives and ill or elderly relatives may have lived together in the family home. A study of the population at Deir el-Medina has shown that in a thirty-house sample between 42 and 43 per cent of the population were children.41
Lost Voices of the Nile: Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt Page 2