Dier-El-Medina Flashcards
About Dier El Medina
Dier el medina had a high standard of living, this was due to the wealthy citizens who came to build and organise the tombs.
The purpose was to serve the most famous pharaohs.
-strategically positioned between the Vally of the Kings and Queens, as its positioning provided a perfect passage of the dead.
Locality
Located on the west bank of the Nile, across from the religious capital Thebes.
Stages of Settlement
First faze- during Amenhotep’s reign
-first pharaoh to form a group of construction worker for the royal tombs
Grew from 10-68 houses serving 600 people- analysing the house foundations
-narrow streets, shared walls, believed to travel on a network onto the flat rooftops.
uterlized the surrounding landscape for trade and farming
Inside the houses-
Housing was allocated by the government then become Hereditary- typical house- small- mud
Entrance- Decorated with niches and stelae, images of the gods over a low bed or seat
Main room- alter, offering tables to please the household gods. Small cellers for sleeping and storage
Small rooms- few rooms in the back area, believed to be a kitchen- evidence of oven, water containers and an built in fridge
Other room- working place keep all the materials
Storage rooms below the kitchen and main room, storage of food and goods, stair case to roof, slept kept their goods or a shrine
Workman
- Were considered in modern terms as middle class, pages individual wages (rations) also varied depending on the job, skill, capability and experience of the person.
- Prepped Royal Tombs in the Vally of the Kings and Queens administrated foreman and Visors
Highly educated- better paid
Several scribes like ‘Turin Strike Papyrus’ (Monthly rations)
kept records of work, absences, attendances, supplies, wages and payments through food like, fish, wheat, veggies and beer.
10 days of labour, 2 days off (weekend) returned home to families to carry out unofficial business. Evidence- drawn up contracts.
Benefited them, earning twice the amount of income, perhaps 4 times more then an average Egyptian
Skills revealed by the workman in the royal tombs
Workers different from normal agricultural slaves, they were skilled educated artists benefited from their work by exchanging goods and skills, further transferred to built their own tombs and shrines.
E.g. Tomb of Sennedjem, decorated, offerings, niches, pottery, food, clothes, perfume. Remarkably large tomb for someone who was not of importance
- Archeologists have found unfinished tombs with grid marks on walls and guides for painting and chiselling.
- Stages leading up to the final piece- rare in some cases, see how they transformed their artworks- beginning, middle and end
Women
-The women of the village were depicted on tomb walls ,ostracon and papyri as thin and beautiful in the face, with tight revealing clothing.
-Entrusted with responsibilities of their own, were respected as equals.
Considerable for legal, economic and political justifications.
-intitate divorce, made wills, inherited 1/3 husbands property rest belonging to the children
-Papyrus documentation has been found of previous female occupant of Deir el- medina - Lady Naunakhte. This documentation was a will of hers. In her will she expressed how she wanted her slave to have her property once she die, indicating women had legal rights
Women Educated- literate
- literate, they received and retrieved message, social, gossip, business like forms. Men spent most of their days at work cycle it was the wife role to handle messages, rations and activities in and outside of the house
- On a papyri scroll it is documented that a scribe named Nasamunopet hired his wife Hennuwtawi as his deputy. On the days when he was away from home, she would take his position and hand out provisions and wages to the workers.
Religious beliefs
The Religious Beliefs of the people of Deir el-Medina was mono – theistic in the way they worshiped so many gods and goddesses. This fact becomes evident when we look at the tomb walls of individuals such as Senedjem who has illustrations of gods such as Anubis (god of embalming), Osiris (god of the dead), Hathor (god of music), Horus (god of the pharaohs), Hapi (god of inundation – the yearly flooding of the Nile).
-often spoke directly to the gods form of personal piety., did it to commemorate the gods, Hearing ears carved on walls and temples, steel, representing the gods ability to hear their prayers. Theres extensive evidence, stelae, shrines, temps, ostraca testify this. stelae depicting ears is the workman Bai playing to the god Amun.
carved prayers into the temple as graffiti, preserved evidence of the types of things people prayed for.
letters written by officials one Dhutmose, instructed his family and servants to “please call upon Amun to ring me back, i have been ill. As soon as my letter races to you, you shall go to the forecourt of Amun of the throws of two lands.”
Entertainment
The villagers also used forms of entertainment to keep them occupied. Found in the tomb of Kha and Merit was a board game called Senet, which was a very popular game. Another popular pass time was to go hunting for wild animals such as ibex, gazelles, hares, ostriches and wild foul. Hunting scenes are depicted on the walls of Sennedjem’s tomb. As well as hunting it was also common to go fishing in the Nile. Inherkhau and his wife have themselves listening to a harp player on the walls of their tomb. Papyrus storybooks were found at the village that villages would have been able to read to past their time.
The book of the Dead
They heavily believed in this book as it displayed the stages and steps to carefully pass through to the after life. Vital for the deceased to get right.
