Indeed, the information that our writer has recorded on this ostracon is also documented in a hieratic document. Most probably, the ostracon of our writer and the hieratic ostracon were created around the same time. The hieratic ostracon belongs to a series of hieratic documents, produced over several years, that record the deliveries to the settlement and the workmen who stood guard to receive them. Research has shown that these hieratic documents were written by a single scribe who was active during the life of our writer.
Researchers think that this scribe was a man called Hori.Ben Haring and Koen Donker van Heel, 2003, Writing in a Workman’s Village: Scribal practice in Ramesside Deir el-Medina, 72-78; 81-82. He was not the chief scribe of the crew of necropolis workmen of Deir el-Medina, but still a well-known figure in his community. He probably wrote a literary instruction text with sagely advice on how to live a virtuous life.The text is preserved on an ostracon from Deir el-Medina, see Günter Burkard, 2014, ‘Ostrakon Berlin P 10844: Hymnus und Gebet an Amun aus der Feder des Nekropolenschreibers Hori’ But he was predominantly occupied with recording the deliveries to the settlement. He had good reasons to be concerned. In the time of Hori and our writer, Egypt’s economic and political stability were declining. Only two years before this ostracon was created, in year 29 of the reign of king Ramesses III, our writer and his colleagues had to go on strike and petition for the payment of their rations.A report of this strike is preserved on a papyrus document written by a scribe from Deir el-Medina. It is now kept in the Museo Egizio in Turin, which provides more information.
Hori may thus have had quite the incentive to closely monitor the deliveries. Interestingly, some administrative texts indicate that he was often present at the site where the royal tombs were constructed by the workmen.Ben Haring and Koen Donker van Heel, 2003, Writing in a Workman’s Village: Scribal practice in Ramesside Deir el-Medina, 35. So how was he able to record the deliveries that were brought to the settlement, about two kilometres downhill from the worksite? This is where our writer comes in.