Deir El Medina Case Study

The economic and political crisis of Egypt caused the hard workers of Deir el Medina to act out against their superior/s, fighting for justified reasons. The workers of Deir el Medina were seen as a significantly well off society that, alike many in Egypt, were payed for their service and skills employed in the Valley of the Kings. This would determine that the inhabitants of Deir el Medina would have been quite content with their lives, however, towards the end of Ramesses III’s reign this was not the case. Through an investigation of these question; Identify the ways of everyday life versus working life for the inhabitants of Deir el Medina, Evaluate the events leading up to the Royal Tomb robberies and Evaluate the usefulness and reliability …show more content…
The historical workers of Deir el Medina were a highly functioning society whose work and everyday lives were consumed around the construction of the Valley of the Kings. Each week was long, tiresome and continuous. Workers had to endure a ten-day week spending eight days in the Valley of the Kings. When constructing the tombs workers would live in small shelters outside of the village, work was tough and required complete accuracy and perfection meaning many differently skilled workers were essential for the job including, painters, sculptors, stonemasons, carpenters, plasterers, draughtsmen and management of the groups or ‘gangs’. This is evident form the extensive details inside the tomb of Seti I known to be one of the largest and most completely decorated of all the royal tomb of the Valley of the Kings . The workers, although privileged had very little spare time, the last two days of their week were spent constructing their own tombs …show more content…
The first strike ever recorded was in 1182 B.C. in Deir el Medina, wages were delayed by half a month to nearly one year. The situation only escalated from there with planned protests at a Mortuary Temple west of the worker’s village and sit-ins. An Egyptologist, John Romer, interprets “One and a half khar of grain has been taken from us … we are dying, we cannot live”, as a highly important affair to the workers concerned for the likelihood of the people . This is a reflection of the economic crisis in Egypt that directly affected the workers of Deir el Medina who were willing to dispute an economic disadvantage. This leads John Romer to believe that the motive behind the Royal Tomb robberies were not only for riches but to destroy the tombs because of the strife with the leadership in place. Since the workers knew the location of all the Royal Tombs and the architectural layout of the tomb, getting inside the tombs would be seen as easy for the workers who built the tombs. However, the Tombs were known to be very well protected and “the valley was so quiet, that any sound, a foot fall, a chisel’s blow, would rise like whisperings in a Cathedral dome” stated by John Romer, which would prove difficult for the robbers if they were not already skilled builders. Tomb robbers would make their own tunnels into the tombs or

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