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The Place of Truth

Related Images

  • Fig. 2 - The so-called ‘strike-papyrus’: the scribe Amunnakht informs his superiors that the workmen have ceased working, because they haven’t received their rations - Museo Egizio Turin [Cat. 1880](https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/Cat_1880)
  • Fig. 1 - The workmen’s village of Deir el-Medina, seen from West to East – photograph by the author.

The hieroglyphic text on this fragment gives us the place name ‘set-maat’, which translates as ‘place of truth’. This is the ancient name for a workmen’s village on the west bank of Thebes, also known by its Arabic name as Deir el-Medina. This small village was founded in the early 18th dynasty (1550-1295 BC) for a special reason. The inhabitants of this village were responsible for building and decorating the royal tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens and were specifically chosen because of their excellent craftsmanship.

Because pyramids were too visible for tomb robbers, from the 18th dynasty onwards the pharaohs were buried in hidden underground tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It is believed that the workmen's village was founded by Thutmose I, J. Toivari-Viitala, “Deir el-Medina (Development)” in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 4. and since then the town has expanded multiple times. The elongated village of Deir el-Medina runs from north to south and has a necropolis on both the western and eastern sides (Fig. 1). To the north, private chapels and temples were found, which were used by the inhabitants.

Because the location of the ancient village is in the desert, the village remained almost untouched for many years after being abandoned at the end of the 20th dynasty. Therefore, Deir el-Medina has provided us with a lot of archaeological data, and many artifacts were found at the site. The amount of textual evidence that was found there is remarkable. Literacy among the inhabitants of the village was relatively high in comparison to other villages in Egypt. The many administrative documents that were found give us a look into daily life at the site. Because of this, we know, for example, that workers were paid with rations for their services. A papyrus written by the scribe Amunnakht reports of a time during the reign of pharaoh Ramesses III (1184-1153 BC) where these rations were not received on time. (Fig. 2) https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/Cat_1880 The papyrus states that because of this the workers have ceased working. Therefore, Deir el-Medina is known for recording the ‘first strike in history’.