Deir El-Medina

Deir el-Medina

Deir el-Medina is not an important site to study when looking at Egyptian culture, architecture and workforce as it only represents a small part of Egyptian society and a specialised one at that. Deir el-Medina was a city that was built for the sole purpose of building tombs for the people of the main Egyptian cities. For this reason it is an important site to study when looking at Egyptian burial practices. It is, however useful when looking at Egyptian culture, architecture and workforce as Deir el-Medina did have a certain degree of contact with the rest of Egypt, namely Thebes.

Deir el-Medina is different from the other Egyptian cities for a number of reasons. For one, it was far from the Nile or any other water source. This meant that water had to be imported from Thebes. Deir el-Medina also had a higher standard of living compared to other cities of similar size. This was due to the number of wealthy Egyptian citizens who came through Deir el-Medina organising their tombs. Deir el-Medina was furthermore different to the rest of Egypt as it appears that many women were literate and sent letters to other citizens of Deir el-Medina although they may have dictated their notes to literate men.

Citizens of Deir el-Medina often had a higher social status than the average worker in other Egyptian cities. This was due to the skills required to work in the Valley of the Kings. The people of Deir el-Medina also enjoyed the benefits of having their food brought to them as opposed to having to harvest it themselves as the majority of Egyptians did.

Other sources show that Deir el-Medina was similar in some ways to the rest of Egypt. Antiquity 1 Preliminary Course shows that the citizens of Deir el-Medina used trade the same way as the citizens of the rest of Egypt did. The only difference between the two was that the citizens of Deir el-Medina had their skills as craftspersons, stonemasons and priests to offer in exchange for goods.

Deir el-Medina also had their own courts which were made up of the foremen, deputies and scribes, as well as some esteemed citizens. These courts settled minor grievances such as non-payment for goods and theft. More serious crimes were sent to Thebes for the vizier to pass judgement on.

Deir el-Medina was not a completely different society in terms of culture, especially religion. Religion was an important part of the culture in Deir el-Medina. All of the houses held statues to different gods. Often the statues were to the gods of the underworld. These gods were important to the people of Deir el-Medina as they provided an income for the workers and kept the town prosperous.

The first ever recorded strike in history took place in Deir el-Medina, another example of how different Deir el-Medina was from the rest of Egypt. There may have been other strikes that preceded this one but there is no evidence that says so. This strike was said to be a hard one that left the workers hungry and poor (as cited in J. Romer, Ancient Lives: The story of the Pharohs' Tombmakers, p.116).

Another difference between Deir el-Medina and the rest of Egypt was the quality of the common person's tomb. As the workers in Deir el-Medina all had skills they could trade, they were able to organise a better tomb for