A visit to the village at Deir el Medina

One of my favourite sites is the workman’s village at Deir el Medina. It was established under Tuthmosis I and inhabited until the end of the Ramesside period. We know a lot about the villagers for several reasons. One they were literate and wrote things down on the ancient equivalent of scraps of paper, shards of pottery and limestone called ostraca. Secondly their village was built of stone not mud brick because of its location far from the cultivation so it has been preserved. Thirdly their unique tombs with their combination style of noble and royal decoration.

At the site there is a mini visitors centre with informative display boards and a model of the original village under Tuthmosis I. You can see that they lived on top of each other and there would have no concept of privacy, very like modern Egyptian villages. The display also shows the various stages of expansion, once under Tuthmosis III and lastly in the Ramesside period. Many of the owners of the homes have been identified as their names are inscribed on door jambs, lintels etc. The houses were quite large with several rooms, some pillared.