The Production of Private Ramesside Tombs Within the West Theban Funerary

8/4/2019 The Production of Private Ramesside Tombs Within the West Theban Funerary

1/37

Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2008 JEH 1.1Also available online www.brill.nl

* I would like to thank Betsy Bryan, Violaine Chauvet, Ben Haring, JosephManning, and David Warburton for reading drafts of this article and making help-ful suggestions. Amber Myers Wells generously created the hieroglyphic tran-scriptions. Ideas from this article were first presented at the International Conferenceof Egyptologists in Grenoble in 2004. A paper was also presented at the AmericanResearch Center in Egypt annual meeting in New Jersey in 2006.

1 Helck, Wer Konnte sich ein Begrbnis in Theben-West Leisten?2 Hayes, A Selection of Tuthmoside Ostraca from Deir El-Bahri, esp. 40.

PROFIT OR EXPLOITATION?THE PRODUCTION OF PRIVATE RAMESSIDE TOMBSWITHIN THE WEST THEBAN FUNERARY ECONOMY*

Kathlyn M. CooneyGetty Research Institute

AbstractExisting economic models for Egyptian craft activity are currently dominated bytheories of state redistribution, to the extent that market driven economic systems,as evidenced in the ancient texts themselves, may have been overlooked. This arti-cle examines New Kingdom textual material from western Thebes, reconsideringhow private tomb production might fit updated economic models models thatallow for private sector, pre-modern and pre-capitalist market activity within anyredistributive state economic context.

* * * *

In a short article on the ability of the New Kingdom Theban eliteto purchase private tombs, Wolfgang Helck notes that state craftworkers attached to a royal workshop were allowed to engage inon-the-side labor, beyond their state duties, and that they weretherefore allowed to accept payment for additional and private sec-tor work.1 He bases this conclusion on an 18th Dynasty ostracon

published by Hayes,2

an ostracon documenting Senenmuts con-struction of his second tomb, for which he utilized his own funds.Helck suggests that the workers hired by Senenmut to build hisprivate tomb were state craftsmen normally employed in West Bankworkshops and that the officials connected with (and having the mostaccess to) grain supplies were the most able to afford decorated
http://www.brill.nl/http://www.brill.nl/


2/37

80 kathlyn m. cooney

Fig. 1 The Necropolis of Deir el Medina, showing courtyards, tomb shaft entrances,and pyramids, Ramesside Period. (Authors photo)

3 These terms often overlap with each other in the literature. For the Polanyistperspective, see Polanyi, Arensberg, and Pearson, eds., Trade and Market in the EarlyEmpires. For a primitive perspective, see Dalton, Primitive, Archaic, and ModernEconomies. For a substantivist perspective, see Janssen, Commodity Prices.

4 For the notion that redistribution is the best way to describe the ancientEgyptian economy, see Janssen, Die Struktur der Pharaonischen Wirtschaft, 69-74; Gutgesell, Arbeiter und Pharaonen, 181-83; Bleiberg, The Economy of AncientEgypt.

5 For similar discussions with regard to the ancient Classical world, see Manningand Morris, eds., The Ancient Economy; Scheidel and von Reden., eds., The Ancient

tomb chapels made by these official craftsmen. Helcks conclusionsthat officials were required to pay for tomb construction and dec-oration to state craftsmen out of their own pockets with grain orother commodities, rather than the tomb being a benefit of theirstate position, is a powerful argument that many Polanyist, sub-stantivist, or primitivist3 scholars might find problematic becausethey conclude that the ancient Egyptian economy was redistribu-tive and state controlled.4 Helcks claim should be seriously con-sidered, but without the baggage of outdated redistributionist theories:5


3/37

profit or exploitation? 81

Economy. For updated economic theories applied to Mesopotamia, see Powell,Preise. For an Egyptological re-evaluation, see Warburton, Work and Com-pensation in Ancient Egypt.

6 Romer, Who Made the Private Tombs of Thebes?7 Ibid., 212.8 Porter and Moss, eds., Topographical Bibliography, Vol. I. For updates of Porter

and Moss and re-assignments of private tombs to or from the reign of ThutmoseIV, see Bryan, The Reign of Thutmose IV.

9 Wente and Van Siclen, A Chronology of the New Kingdom.10 Romer, Who Made the Private Tombs of Thebes?, 211.

if private officials were financially responsible for their own tombchapels and burial chambers, who were they paying to build anddecorate these structures?

In a later article, Who Made the Private Tombs of Thebes,6

John Romer claims that Deir el Medina texts connected to privatetomb production relate only to the creation of tombs in the villageitself (which will be shown in this article to be incorrect). In otherwords, Romer maintains that relying on the west Theban docu-mentation alone cannot prove Helcks statement that members ofstate workshops earned a side living decorating private Thebantombs. Instead Romer employs a statistical analysis of the numbers

of private tombs decorated through time, concluding that duringthe 18th Dynasty and Ramesside Period, approximately eight dec-orated private tombs were created every ten years in westernThebes almost one tomb during each year.7 Based on outdatedand now inaccurate reign assignments from Porter and Moss8 aswell as the atypical chronology of Wente and van Siclen,9 he con-cludes that private tomb production was reasonably consistentthroughout time, suggesting to him a permanent work force for pri-

vate tomb production. Romer then links the Deir el Medina work-ers with this hypothetical permanent work force although, accordingto him, none of the numerous surviving Deir el-Medina workrecords of the period mention this private tomb work. Examiningthe archaeological data, Romer finds that the rate of productionof both royal and private tombs followed similar cycles of activity,leading him to make the theoretical jump that this pattern musthave been reflective of a permanent workforce that was directed

by a single authority.10

According to him, that single authoritymust have been the Deir el Medina craft organization, as it appearsforemost in west Theban textual sources. To Romer, therefore, sta-ble and consistent tomb production is a clear marker of authoritarian,


4/37


11 Gutgesell, Arbeiter und Pharaonen.12 Janssen, Prolegomena to the Study of Egypts Economic History. Janssen,

Die Struktur der Pharaonischen Wirtschaft.13 For non-Egyptological scholarship on craft specialization, see the following:

Brumfiel and Earle, Specialization, Exchange and Complex Societies; Clark and Parry,Craft Specialization and Cultural Complexity; Costin and Wright, Craft and SocialIdentity, 3-16; Sinopoli, The Organization of Craft Production at Vijayanagara;Stein, Heterogeneity, Power, and Political Economy.

14 For a review of theories associated with ancient Egyptian economic history,see Cooney, The Cost of Death ; Cooney, Value of Private Funerary Art.

state-run control. This theoretical leap is similar in its logic to thoseof the quasi-structuralist Manfred Gutgesell11 or the substantivist-primitivist Jac Janssen,12 who believe that stable prices are proof of

strict state control and/or redistribution systems. For Romer, tombbuilding patterns that are consistent through time automaticallyimply authoritative state control. However, what Romer does notsee is that these tomb building patterns actually mirror larger eco-nomic movements between prosperity and recession, driven by anumber of socioeconomic and political factors, which would haveaffected the entire population of western Thebes in both the stateand the private sectors.

This article expands this discussion of craft specialization and theeconomic foundations of private tomb production in the NewKingdom. It focuses on the textual evidence from Western Thebes,including receipts, workshop records, legal suits, and letters, andtheir relation to the production of private tombs in Western Thebesduring the Ramesside Period in order to ask the following ques-tions: What was the actual cost of building and decorating a pri-vate tomb and how does this compare to the costs of other funerary

materials? Did the Deir el Medina craftsmen decorate private tombsas part of a formal gang organization?; or, were they working infor-mally, as part of smaller community workgroups? And finally, howdid the role of Deir el Medina artisans within a formal, attachedcraft-specialist group affect their work in informal, unattached, pri-vate-sector settings?13 Ultimately I question whether the craft workdescribed in documents available to us, carried out by the mainbody of Deir el Medina artisans, might be representative of pri-

vate economic gain in a market economy, as opposed to exploita-tion by gang leaders within a strict, authoritative, redistributivesystem.14


5/37


15 See P. Abbot, pg. 2, 1, in Peet, The Great Tomb-Robberies, 37, pl. 1, 2,1.16 I would like to thank Rob Demare for his generous help with these difficult

terms. He provided many helpful references as well as information from his ownongoing research (personal communication, October 2004).

17 O. Cairo 25243, 8 rt., O. Cairo 25501, 1 vs., O. Cairo 25517, 9, O. Cairo25521, 6 vs., O. DeM 112, 2 vs., O. Ashmolean HO 183, 1-2 vs., O. StrasbourgH. 174, 1-3 rt., O. Turin 57378, 4-7, P. Turin 2070 / 154, 5-6, col. II, vs.

18 O. Berlin 10666, 2-4 probably dates to the late Eighteenth Dynasty. Thistext reads, Month 1 of prt, day 1. This day of beginning work of the men whichis in the sy tomb of the praised one, includingRn-snb. The Deir el Medina onlinedatabase translates, An diesem Tag: Beginn des Arbeitsprojekts der Mnner, die imGrab des Geehrten sind. Namenliste davon: Rn-snb. The database includes thenote, Wohl nicht Name des Grabherrn, sondern (Beginn der) Namenliste. Merkwrdigbleibt, weshalb die Liste nur 1 Eintrag ausweist. See www.uni-muenchen.de/dem-online. For the word sy, also see Lesko,Dictionary of Late Egyptian, I, 52.

Private Tomb Lexicography

The craftsmen of Deir el Medina are widely credited with the cre-

ation and decoration of their own private tombs neighboring thevillage. More open to discussion is whether these craftsmen alsodecorated any of the many private tombs of officials in Thebes andadjacent areas during the 19th and 20th Dynasties. There are manywords connected with funerary architecture, including (m)aat, st-rs,sy, nw, stytand mr. The nuances of meaning between these termsare not completely clear, causing uncertainty as to what was beingproduced, for whom and under what circumstances. For example,

the Tomb Robbery Papyri provide a number of words related tovarious tomb elements, but the texts lack clarity concerning thedifferent designations. In one section, Peet can only vaguely trans-late the terminology describing different parts or types of tombs: nmrwsyw maawt sp m hrw pn n n rwwThe pyramids, graves andtombs examined this day by the inspectors.15 These vague lexico-graphical interpretations must be addressed before further consid-eration of the systems of production is possible.

West Theban textual material contains at least 31 mentions ofprivate tombs (referred to as mr, (m)aat, sy, nw, or st-rs)16 in asocioeconomic context that is, as commodities that can be com-missioned, bought and sold, or inherited. Eight of these examplesrefer to the private tomb as a (m)aat sfP

t.17 Only one west Theban

ostracon mentions the sy iJ_Y_P in a socioeconomic context, andit is probably a word for tomb of pre-Ramesside date.18 By the


6/37


19 Erman and Grapow, Wrterbuch, II, 49, 8-13. Lesko,Dictionary of Late Egyptian, I,213.

20 For example, see Grandet, Catalogue des Ostraca Hiratiques . . . Nos. 831-1000,no. 983. For the meanings of dwelling, resting place, chapel, temple, orcellar, crypt, see Lesko,Dictionary of Late Egyptian, II, 179.

21 For the wst, see Spencer, The Egyptian Temple.22 All Ashmolean ostraca were previously named O. Gardiner.23 O. Ashmolean HO 152, O. DeM 248, P. DeM 16.24 O. Ashmolean HO 132, O. Ashmolean HO 166, O. Berlin P 10637, and

perhaps O. BM EA 5637.25 O. Ashmolean HO 23, O. Ashmolean HO 103, P. Berlin 10496 vs., P. BM

10055 vs. 1, 13, P. Bulaq 10, P. DeM 26B.26 Cern and Gardiner, Hieratic Ostraca, 13, pl. 43, 4. Helck, Materialien zur

Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 337-38. Allam, Hieratische Ostraka und Papyri, 153-54, no. 49.Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, VI, 663. McDowell, Village Life, 175-76 no. 30.

New Kingdom, t (m)aat seems to have been used to describe notonly rock cut tombs but also tombs with masonry built chapels.The word (m)aat19 is broad enough in meaning to refer to the entire

tomb complex, but the context of these economic records oftenseems to describe only the decorated tomb chapel. Some of thereceipts and letters discussed below record a price for the decora-tion of a particular amount of wall area in the (m)aattomb, stronglysuggesting that, in the context of these transaction texts, only thetomb chapelwas meant, rather than the entire tomb. Consideringthis, the most problematic aspect of the word (m)aat remains howmuch of the private tomb it actually describes. It is not clear if the

word (m)aatrefers to the entire tomb or only to the tomb chapel.And if (m)aatdoes refer to the entire tomb, is there a word reservedexclusively for the tomb chapel?

The nwn.WP is best translated as chapel,20 but not everychapel is necessarily funerary in nature. In socioeconomic texts fromwestern Thebes, the nwcan be described with a wst forecourt,21

as in O. Ashmolean HO 132.22 The nwcan be dedicated to thedeified Amenhotep I23 or to other deities, such as the goddess Mut

(O. Deir el Medina 297). People can dwell (ms) in the nw, some-times along with their animals.24 But a nwcan also belong to anindividual, as they can be passed on to the next generation in inher-itance texts.25 One such inheritance text, O. Ashmolean HO 23,26

reads: [. . .] about the division of property of his father In-[. . .].This broken introduction is followed by a list of names. Then atthe end of line 5, we read:


7/37


27 This Cairo ostracon is unpublished and numbered only by Cern. O. Cairo[181], [154], and [182] all come from excavations by Mond at Sheikh abd elGurnah. Transcription from Cern, Unpublished Notebooks.

28 McDowell, Village Life, 69. Grandet, Catalogue des Ostraca Hiratiques . . .Nos. 831-1000, 134-36, no. 964. Raisman, UC 31922. Keller, A Family Affair.Cern, Troisme Srie de Questions Adresses Aux Oracles. Janssen and Pestman,Burial and Inheritance, 137-70, esp. 62-63. For this type of tomb in west Thebantextual material, see O. DeM 198, O. DeM 789, O. DeM 964, O. IFAO 881,and O. Univ. College 31922.

29 Cern, Troisme Srie de Questions Adresses Aux Oracles.

likewise his nwchapel and his athut which is in the sytfields, and his ahattomb. And one gave the house of a-nt, his nwchapel, his aat tomb, hisathut, which is in the sytfields to the crewman Msw. . . .

This text clearly differentiates the nw chapel from the ahat tomb,indicating that in this case, they are separate properties in space.Therefore, not only can nw chapels be passed on in inheritancetexts, but they are set apart from other types of immovable prop-erty, including the aat tomb, the at hut, and the pr house. Thismakes it difficult to definitively associate the nw with the tombchapel belonging to the aat tomb. The nwcan also be sold out-right, as seen in the receipt O. Cairo [181]27 where line 4 reads

the place next to his nwwhich he sold to me, making [. . .] dbn.All of this evidence suggests that the word must have had a muchbroader meaning than funerary chapel.

Still unclear in any of these socioeconomic texts, however, iswhether the nw chapel ever describes the funerary chapel of atomb or if the word only refers to non-funerary chapels. The oneassociation of the nwchapel with the wst in O. Ashmolean HO132 seems to link this word more specifically with a courtyard and

therefore perhaps a public chapel space, funerary or non-funerary.Because of the broad meaning of this word, socioeconomic textswith the nwwill be included in the following analysis, but withstrong reservations about the words nature as a funerary space.

Another word associated with the private tomb is sty tBiiPt orstyt tBay Pt , and it likely refers to the burial chamber.28O. IFAO 88129 is a small ostracon with two lines, most probablyused in an oracle decision, reading, one gives/sells the stytbur-

ial chamber of Wa[- . . .]. This suggests it was possible to sell astyt, or at least pass it on generationally, indicating that a burialchamber was considered independent of its associated tomb chapel.It also suggests the possibility that this particular tomb was of lower


8/37


30 Grandet, Catalogue des Ostraca Hiratiques . . . Nos. 706-830, vol. VIII, 61.31 Erman and Grapow, Wrterbuch, II, 94, 15. Winlock, Tombs of Kings of

Seventeenth Dynasty at Thebes, esp. 25-26. Lesko, Dictionary of Late Egyptian, I,225-26.

32 O. DeM 215, 3-4, O. DeM 586, 8, P. Bulaq X / P. Cairo 58092, 2 rt.,P. Turin 2070 / 154, 5-6, col. II, vs.

33 For example in O. Petrie 18, 8 rt., and P. Bulaq X (P. Cairo 58092, 2 rt.).34 Janssen and Pestman, Burial and Inheritance.

socioeconomic value and did not have a tomb chapel attached.The Twentieth Dynasty letter O. Deir el Medina 78930 also men-tions a stytchamber and reads:

Recto: Please may you cause that Mry-smtbuild the st[y]t in few hours,under the supervision ofMry-wnw. And may you carry [. . .] And may youcause that one bring to [. . .]

Verso: Likewise one fish, some salted (?) meat and [. . .] sun bread

No price is mentioned, but the construction of the burial chamberin this text seems to have been commissioned, perhaps in this letter.

The mrrm=P is usually translated as pyramid,31 and the texts

show that it was also built, decorated, and passed on through gen-erations. The specificity of this word is very problematic; it is notclear whether the word mrrefers to the small masonry built pyra-mid, to the carved pyramidion atop it, or even to the paintedmasonry chapel under this small pyramid. The mrpyramid usuallyappears in a legal context in socioeconomic documents from west-ern Thebes. There are four references in four different texts,32 andthree of them are legal inheritance texts passing the pyramid, and

one would thus assume the entire tomb, on to the next generation.Only Ostracon Deir el Medina 215 mentions the payment ofmtnw,recompense, to a draftsman for decoration work on a mrpyramid.

Another common name for a tomb type is the st-rsJPt rU _ P,literally place of burial, which probably denotes a space withinan already existing family tomb chamber or some small, undeco-rated installation lacking a tomb chapel. This word is most oftenmentioned in legal and inheritance texts.33 In Papyrus Bulaq X

(P. Cairo 58092)34

a son provides a st-rsfor both his mother andfather, an act which grants him ownership of their property. Ast-rsdoes not seem to be an actual piece of property that couldbe built, bought, or sold, but rather a reserved place of intermentwithin a larger burial property. No socioeconomic texts refer to theconstruction or decoration of a st-rsburial place; only legal texts


9/37


35 Helck, Wer Konnte sich ein Begrbnis in Theben-West Leisten? Romer,Who Made the Private Tombs of Thebes?

36 Eyre, Work and Organization of Work in the New Kingdom, esp. 197.For a description of the Deir el Medina tomb architecture and decoration, seeBarthelmess, Der bergang ins Jenseits, 131-36. See also Keller, Royal Painters,esp. 57. Also see Bruyre and Kuentz, La Tombe de Nacht-Min et la Tombe dAri-

Nefer. For a value judgment of these Deir el Medina tombs, Janssen, CommodityPrices, 535.

37 Bruyre, Tombes Thbaines de Deir el Mdineh Decoration Monochrome.38 Keller, The Draughtsmen of Deir el-Medina. Keller, How Many Draughts-

men Named Amenhotep?

use this particular label. It is not a commissioned funerary loca-tion, but rather refers to a spot where a coffin set or mummy couldbe placed.

Price Evidence for Private Sector Tomb Productionby Deir el Medina Artisans

After this brief lexicographical review, we can now return to theremarks by Helck and Romer about private tomb construction.Helck and Romer have both claimed that Deir el Medina artisansdid indeed work in the many private tombs of Western Thebes forofficials of the state bureaucracy.35 Given their specialization paint-ing royal burial chambers, the craftsmen of Deir el Medina weremore than capable of creating and decorating their own privatetombs. Adjacent to the village was the workmens necropolis con-taining 454 tombs of which 54 (about 12 %) have decorated chapelsor burial chambers.36 Not all decorated tombs were fully poly-chrome. Bernard Bruyre has documented many examples thatrefrained from incorporating expensive pigments such as blue andgreen.37 Deir el Medina craftsmen decorated their own tombs tobe sure, but did they also craft those of the local Theban officials,and if so, under what circumstances?

Very few texts document the construction or decoration of pri-vate tombs in the larger west Theban area. Candy Keller main-tains that Deir el Medina workers used their skills to cut anddecorate nobles tombs outside of their village, and she proves thisby examining the stylistic similarities of Deir el Medina artists hands

in Theban Tomb 65 and Theban Tomb 113, among others, com-paring them to signed figured ostraca or local Deir el Medina funer-ary painting.38 Egyptologists have yet to systematically examine the


10/37


39 Unpublished. See Cern, Unpublished Notebooks. Previously O. Gardiner183.

40 The word ns seems to mean hair. See Hannig, Groes Handwrterbuch gyptisch-Deutsch, 434. Erman and Grapow, Wrterbuch, II, 337. The word is also mentionedin P. DOrbiney 3,2 (Gardiner, Late Egyptian Stories).

41 For a discussion of the difficult description terminology in this text, see Janssen,Commodity Prices, 218.

42 For a discussion of the dn measure of area and a link to the ostraca fromthe tomb of Senenmut, where the word is also used, see Ibid., 143.

43 Ibid., 101-02.

west Theban textual material concerning private sector tomb pro-duction, probably because only very few texts mention the craftingof private tombs with actual prices (see Table 1).

The undated O. Ashmolean HO 18339

is one of only two receiptsthat describe the purchase of work in a private (m)aat tomb:

Recto: List of all the commissions which the workman P-ra-tp did forImn-m-d.-ra-nb: 1 wt coffin, varnished, its n body part (?) being greenits ns (?)40 being yellow orpiment (n)41 making 40 dbn. Precious wood: 1sw tmummy board, varnished, and decorated making 25 dbn. List of thework of the tomb (maat ) making [. . .]

Verso: while I was missing 28 dn42 [m snm (? )] and remaining to himare 72 dn making 4 dbn of silver. And I said to him: Give to me the 2dbn of silver and you will take 2 dbn, and he said: it is [. . .]

The recto of this text records craft work of mobile funerary art coffins and mummy boards for a certain Amenem-diy-raneb. Atthe end of the recto, the text moves on to the decoration of atomb, here called maat, probably belonging to this same man. Despitethe broken nature of this text, it seems clear that 4 dbn of silver or 240-300 copper dbn depending on the silver to copper ratio43

were to be paid for 100 dn of decoration work (a measure of areato be painted). Only 2 silver dbn had been paid at that point for72 dniof area, according to the text. Most interesting is the manto whom all of this craft work was being sold: Amenem-diy-raneb,a man without a craft title, and as far as the west Theban docu-ments show, not associated with the Deir el Medina work crew.He was probably an elite outsider coming to the village of Deir elMedina for private craft work. Clearly, this document strongly

counters Romers claim that all west Theban textual material dealtexclusively with tomb building confined to the craftsmens villageitself.


11/37

Table1:WestThebanRe

ceipts,Letters,andG

raffitiMentioningPrivateTombCreation

Text

Date

Texttype

Owner

Buyer

Seller

Price

Pricein

Work

D

etails

(dbn)

t

ext

done

O.Ashmolean

D.19

receipt

Nfr-a

bt

ss-dRa-

tp

108+

listof

perhaps

rdytn

Nfr-a

btn

HO133

xdbn

comm

odities

decoration

ss-d

Ra-

pt

only

r-b

pnw

O.Ashmolean

D.19

receipt(?)

Imn-m-

Imn-m-rm

-stP-

240(?)

4dbn

of

decoration

4dn

=

4dbn,

HO183,1-2vs.

d.-

hrw-

d.-

hrw-ra-tp(?)

silver

only

aat

nb(?)

nb(?)

O.Berlin

lateD.

workshop

Iry-rn-sn

b

Iry-rn-sn

b

*

beginningof

10666,2-4

XVIII(?)/

record(?)

(?)

work

onsy

earlyD.19

tomb

recorded

O.Brooklyn

lateD.19

receipt

mww

rm

-st

6+

x

vegetables,

rdytn.

frpy.f

37.1880E

Mry-ra(?)

Imn(-m

-)

dbn(?)

sieve,

nw

pt(?)

textiles,oil,

grain

O.Cairo[181]

Ramesside

receipt

8

tst

.d

.fn.

r-gspy.f

nw

rwn

dbn[...]

O.DeM198,

D.19

receipt(?)

a-nt

M

ry-smt

31

6sn

w

decoration

pssnty.fsty

1-3vs.

and2

pt

only

O.DeM215,

D.19,yr.1

receipt(?)

rm-st

Nb-ss-dBw-r-18.5(?)

comm

odities

decoration

mtnw

npy.f

mr

3-4

SetiIIor

[...]

[nw].f

worth

17-20

only

Siptah

(+x)d

bn

O.DeM789

D.20

letter

M

ry-smt

*

construction

d

.kdMry-

smt

ts[t]yt

wnwtsrt


(cont

inue

donnext

page)


12/37

Table1:(

cont.)

Text

Date

Texttype

Owner

Buyer

Seller

Price

Pricein

Work

Details

(dbn)

text

done

O.IFAO881

Ramesside

receipt

W

a-[...]

*

w.tw

dttstyt

[n]Wa[-...]

O.Strasbourg

Ramesside

letter

mayorofmayorofssBn-g

(?)

*

pb

kwmt

H.174,1-3rt.

thetown

thetown

aatpt-a

nnwt

O.Turin57378,

D.19

transaction

11-14(?)1sn

w+

rdytn.

frmtnw

4-7

receipt

2pt

+

(1

nt

aa

r+

2

pt)+

1

snw



13/37


44 Cooney, The Cost of Death, chapter 4. Cooney, Value of Private Funerary Art,203-19.

45 Lopez, Ostraca Ieratici, 3, 23, pl. 114. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, VII, 322.46 Botti and Peet, Il Giornale della Necropoli, pls. 40-41.47 Cern, Prices and Wages in Egypt in the Ramesside Period. Helck,

Wirtschaftsgeschichte des alten gypten, 231-32. Janssen, Commodity Prices, 455-93.

This Ashmolean ostracon describes a non Deir el Medina (m)aattomb, probably of average or below average size, and it is beingsold to an outsider of Deir el Medina. The price of 240-300 dbn

is much more expensive than the average cost of 30 dbn for a stan-dard mummiform wtcoffin or 40 dbn for a wt a outer coffin.44 Inother words, the cost to paint an average sized west Theban tombchapel was at least 8 to 10 times more expensive than the aver-age mummiform coffin sold by Deir el Medina workmen. Onecould probably assume that tomb chapel decoration for highlyplaced Theban elites was often much more expensive than whatwe see in this text. For example, O. Turin 5736845 preserves a

receipt for a wtcoffin sold by the scribe of the tomb Hori, for alarge sum of 145 dbn. In another text, P. Turin Giornale17B, lines7-17 vs.,46 an expensive coffin set is sold to a Chantress of Amenby the name of Tanedjem, most probably not a Deir el Medinaresident. In this text, her inner coffin costs 200 dbn, the outer coffin95 dbn, and the mummy board 34 dbn. If an elite individual couldafford to spend such sums on just one coffin set, it seems likelythat the price for tomb cutting and decoration would be propor-

tionally higher for this class of commissioner, and therefore totalmuch more than the 300 copper dbn recorded in the Ashmoleantext, probably even extending into the thousands of dbn.

Deir el Medina workmen earned 11-14 dbn of copper per month,on average, at the going rates of exchange between grain and cop-per known from the village.47 The cost of the tomb chapel deco-ration mentioned in the Ashmolean ostracon (240-300 dbn) accordinglyrepresents approximately 20 months wages. Given these costs, it

seems that very few Deir el Medina workmen could have affordedsuch a tomb. Even with the extra income earned by painting coffinsand other funerary items in the private sector, only the highestranking village scribes, crew leaders and draftsmen would have hadthe means for such construction.

Because the Ashmolean ostracon quoted above probably docu-ments work done for a Theban official (Amenem-diy-raneb) and


14/37


48 Lopez, Ostraca Ieratici, III, 26, pl. 118.49 It is unclear if this 1 snwis meant to be the equivalent of the commodities

that come before it, or if it should be added to the grain amounts as part of thetotal price for the work in the tomb. Because of this problem understanding thetext, the price for this tomb work is either 11 dbn or 14 dbn.


51 Cern, Catalogue des Ostraca Hiratiques, III, 3, pl. 3. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions,IV, 230. Allam, Hieratische Ostraka und Papyri, 103-04. McDowell, Village Life, 69.

not a Deir el Medina crewman, it is the best evidence we have forvillage artisans performing tomb craft work in the private sector.Another Nineteenth Dynasty Ostracon, O. Turin 57378, 4-748 states

that 11-14 dbn were paid for mtnw, or recompense for work donein a private tomb (aat):

What was given to him as recompense for the tomb (aa): 1 thin dnwbas-ket of a woman making 1 snw, 1 [basket object] making 2 pt, [. . .] mak-ing 1 r, 2 pt, making 1 snw.49

Line 4 of this text contains the formula What was given to himas recompense for the tomb, followed by a number of commodi-ties worth 11-14 dbn, the exact amount depending on how the com-modity amounts listed at the end of the text should be understoodand added together. As is common with so many socioeconomictexts, important details are left out: we do not know the exactnature of the craft work, nor can the reader ascertain the amountof craft work performed in this private tomb. Furthermore, no indi-viduals are mentioned by name or title. The work paid for in thistext was probably decoration work, because the word mtnw, or rec-ompense, most commonly refers to painting when used in Deir elMedina socioeconomic texts.50 If this text does record the paintingof an entire tomb chapel, then the document seems to suggest thatthere were less expensive options for tomb decoration.

Another Nineteenth Dynasty text, Ostracon Deir el Medina 198,51

records painting work that was done in a sty burial chamber forabout 31 dbn worth of commodities:

Verso:

What a-ntgave toMry-smtin exchange for the painting of his sty burialchamber.


15/37


52 This man is probably the same workman of the 19th Dynasty who appearsin the following official rosters: O. Ashmolean Museum 57, O. Ashmolean Museum111, O. Cairo 25519, 25521, 25522, 25523, among others. This crewman is notmentioned in Davies, Whos Who at Deir el-Medina.

53 For identification with Merysekhmet (ii) and reference toO. DeM 198, see Ibid.,162-63. Davies states, The contextual evidence offered by this document certainlyappears to corroborate the fact that Merysekhmets mtier was that of a draftsman.

54 The average of all known wtcoffin prices is 31.57 dbn. The average of secureprices is 29.67 dbn. The median of all prices is 25 dbn. See Cooney, The Cost of

Death, chapter 4. Cooney, Value of Private Funerary Art, 205.55 Bruyre, Tombes Thbaines de Deir el Mdineh Decoration Monochrome.56 Cern, Catalogue des Ostraca HiratiquesIII, 7, pl. 10. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions,

IV, 394-95. Allam, Hieratische Ostraka und Papyri, 104.

Recto:

Col. I Col. II1 sy loincloth, 2 (pairs of) sandals,sy loincloth, [blank]

3 bunches of vegetables, rwpigment: 2 snw, 2 pt,1 tm mat, wood: 1 [. . .]2 kbsbaskets,2 rgsmats.Total: 6 snwand 2 pt

The verso contains the opening formula, and should probably beconsidered the recto of the text conceptually. Listed on the otherside of the ostracon are two columns of commodities given by

Aanakht52

to Merysekhmet53

for the painting of his burial cham-ber. Because so many burial chambers at Deir el Medina were dec-orated, in contrast to other Theban tombs, this text likely documentsthe decoration of a village burial chamber. The price of 31 dbncompares well to the average price of a mummiform coffin;54 how-ever, it is not clear if this price represents only partial payment orif an entire burial chamber at Deir el Medina could be decoratedfor approximately 30 dbn. If it could be, then this tomb likely did

not include any expensive blue or green pigment. In fact, this textmay be a receipt for painting one of the so-called monochrometombspublished by Bernard Bruyre.55 Appropriately, this text suggeststhat less was spent on tomb decoration in the village of Deir elMedina (O. Deir el Medina 198 for 31 dbn, O. Turin 57378 for11-14 dbn) compared to tomb decoration for individuals from out-side, who were able to commission royal craftsmen to work in theirprivate tombs (O. Ashmolean HO 183 for 240-300 dbn).

Another Nineteenth Dynasty text, O. Deir el Medina 21556

doc-uments mtnw or recompense of 17-20 dbn for decoration workdone by the draftsman Burekhinuef on a mrpyramid:


16/37


57 For this restoration, see Janssen, Commodity Prices, 119.58 Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, VII, 182-83. Formerly O. Gardiner 133.59 For the snw dbn ratio, see Janssen, Commodity Prices, 107.

Year 1, month 2 of summer, last day. What was given by(?) the crewmanNb[- . . .] to the draftsmanBw-r-[nw].f as the recompense for his mrpyra-mid: [1 rof]57 barley making 3 snw, 1 nbdbasket, 1 kbsbasket making2 pt, 1 pair of sandals from pharaoh, l.p.h., making 1 pt, [. . .] 1 mnm

basket, 1 nrsieve [. . .]

This text probably refers only to the painting of the masonry builtpyramid and stone pyramidion atop it, not the tomb chapel inte-rior. Given the mention of the pyramid, this text may refer to aDeir el Medina tomb. Furthermore, because the draftsmans titleis recorded and because the word mtnw is used, describing craftwork, this texts relevance is likely limited to the painting of the mrpyramid, not the sale of the pyramid itself. The price is partly bro-ken, but 3 snw is more or less equivalent to 15 dbn. Three ptofgrain are also added to the price, and this is equal, more or less,to 1.5 dbn. Furthermore, two additional items of basketry are men-tioned, the prices of which are lost. This suggests that decorationwork on the pyramid cost about 17-20 dbn total, for an admittedlyunknown amount of labor.

Even though it remains unclear whether the nw chapel wasfunerary in nature, there are nonetheless a few prices preserved inthe west Theban documentation that should be examined here inthe context of commercial exchange. The recto of O. Ashmolean133,58 for example, records payment for a nwchapel:

What was given byNfr-abtto the draftsman Ra-tp in exchange for the nwchapel: 1 fine, thin fd sheet making 3 1/2 snw, 1 decorated Book of theDead papyrus making 1 (silver) dbn, 3 hnwsesame oil [. . .] hnw mr oil [. . .]large [. . .], 20 hnwof [. . .] . . .

This excerpt is thefi

rst transaction mentioned in a list of severalcomplicated exchanges recorded in this one text, all involving thedraftsman Rahotep. The most glaring interpretational question is:does this text document the purchase of an entire nwchapel, ordoes it record merely the painting of the chapel? A number ofcommodities were handed over to Rahotep, who is specifically saidto be a draftsman, and his title alone is enough to arouse suspi-cion that this document was used by him to record payment for

his painting work in the nwchapel. The items traded, includinghigh quality cloth probably worth about 15 dbn,59 a Book of the


17/37


60 This Book of the Deads price is only 1 dbn, but because it is decorated andbecause all the other prices in the text are in snwof silver rather than copperdbn, Janssen assumes that this indicates 1 dbn ofsilver, not copper, thus equivalentto 60-100 copper dbn, depending on the exchange rate. See Janssen, CommodityPrices, 102, n. 6, 246.

61 Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, VII, 310-11. Janssen,De Markt op de Oever, 14.McDowell, Village Life, 84-85 no. 55.

62 Janssen, Commodity Prices, 359-61.63 Ibid., 147-49.64 The one hnwof oil is said to be equal to 1 copper dbn in this text. See Ibid.,

332. The rof grain is equal to approximately 2 copper dbn. Ibid., 112-32.

Dead worth 1 silver dbn, equivalent to 60-100 copper dbn,60 sesameoil worth 3 dbn, an unknown amount ofmr varnish, and 20 hnwof an unknown oil, add up to a high price with a conservative esti-

mate of at least 108 dbn (using a low price for the Book of theDead at 70 copper dbn). Given the fact that the price also includesan unknown amount of varnish, the price for this nwchapel couldeasily have approached 120 dbn. This text either records paymentfor the entire nw chapel, or it records only the painting of thenw chapel. Despite the uncertainty regarding the nw chapelsfunerary nature, this transaction is of interest in that it representsan undertaking of significant cost to its commissioner.

In another text, O. Brooklyn E 37.1880 E,61

a nw chapel isexchanged for a number of commodities. Part of the recto reads:

The crewman Imn-(m)-ipt to the carpenter Mry-ra in exchange for the atbed: 20 (pieces of) sy (tamarisk) wood, 1 (piece of) mn wood, 1 kbsbasketwith 2 pt (of grain) making 1 rand 3 bundles of vegetables. What wasgiven to him: 1 sheep / goat making 1 r. What was given to him for hisnwchapel: 5 bundles of vegetables. What was given to (?) his mother say-ing, Cause the completion (of the total price): 2 (pieces of) clothing ofgreen (ws ) and awobject (?). What was given to him: 1 mrtsieve and

1 hnwof sesame oil making 1 (?) rof emmer wheat.

Lines 4-7 of this text seem to indicate that this nw chapel wassold outright, rather than having been commissioned or decorated.At first glance, it appears that this nwchapel was exchanged foronly 5 bundles of vegetables, the equivalent of a meager 2.5 cop-per dbn.62 However, line 5 of the recto records that the price wasnot complete and that items were given to his mother as well,including two possible textile items, 1 mrtsieve, which are usually

worth 1/2 dbn,63 1 hnwof sesame oil, and 1 rof emmer, providing the tentative and very low total price of 6 dbn, plus theunknown value of the textiles.64 Given these two texts, the price


18/37



66 Spiegelberg,gyptische und andere Graffiti, 92. Keller, How Many DraughtsmenNamed Amenhotep? 124. McDowell, Village Life, 242.

67 For this translation with restorations and corrections of Spiegelbergs copy,see Keller, How Many Draughtsmen Named Amenhotep? 124.

information for the nw chapel is very confusing. The range inprice is extreme, from around 6 dbn to over 100 dbn. It is not clearif either of these nwchapels are funerary in nature, nor is it under-

stood if the payment recorded in these texts represents decorationonly or the entire structure. The one clear characteristic of the nwchapel is that there was a massive range in economic value forthese buildings a trait certainly shared by crafted funerary objectslike coffins and mummy boards.65

Evidence for Tomb Production by Deir el Medina ArtisansOutside of the Village

A graffito from the tomb of Ramses VI, dated to the reign ofRamses IX, contains a rare mention of the decoration of a privatetomb by Deir el Medina crew members, in this case Theban Tomb65, belonging to the overseer of the scribes of the Temple of theEstate of Amen-Re, Iyemseba.66 It reads:

Year 9 II prt14 (?): the draughtsman Amenhotep and his son, the scribe(and) the deputy of the draughtsmen Amennakhte, came today to see thePlaces of Truth (wwt matyw ) . . . [they found / completed] the drawingsaccording as (or: when) they had executed the decoration in the tomb-chapel [of] . . . the [Overseer of Scribes] of the Temple Iymiseba of theEstate of Amun.67

No prices or spatial details are mentioned in this graffito. Furthermore,the text is quite broken, and some of the restorations are insecure.Nonetheless, it does prove that Deir el Medina workmen were activein the tombs of highly placed Theban officials, in the so-called

Places of Truth (wwt matyw ), not to be confused with the villageof Deir el Medina. It also demonstrates that crewmen with lead-ing Deir el Medina titles, such as draftsman or deputy, werethose most often mentioned in the texts that document craft workoutside of their village. In this case, it could be assumed that thewell known draftsman Amennakht and his son, a deputy, organ-ized decoration work in the tomb chapel of a scribal official asso-ciated with the Amen temple organization.


19/37


68 Amer, A Unique Theban Tomb Inscription under Ramesses VIII. Thetranslations used here are Amers.


70 Koenig, Les Ostraca Hiratiques Indits, 14, pls. 86, 87, 132.71 This name is read as Amen-qen in the Deir el Medina online database

(http://www.leidenuniv.nl/nino/dmd/dmd.html). The middle part of the name is notclear according to the facsimile and the photograph of the ostracon. The first signgroup readingImn and the last sign of the man holding the stick are clearly read.

Another graffito found in Theban Tomb 113 of Kynebu68 tellsus that craft work in this private tomb began in the: First (month)of Inundation, day 13 and ended in the First (month) of winter,

day 2. The text was probably written by a Deir el Medina crew-man, providing another circumstantial hint that Deir el Medinaworkmen could be organized to do tomb decoration work outsideof the village. The text records that it required about 3 1/2 monthsfrom start to finish for the decoration work on the small (m)aattomb of the Theban priest Kynebu, but no prices are mentioned.This renders the amount of time mentioned in the text practicallymeaningless in an economic context because first, it is not known

how large the work crew was, second, it is unknown if the workwas uninterrupted given that Deir el Medina crewmen could beactive in many other duties, and most importantly because thereare no prices mentioned in this text to correlate the amount ofwork with actual labor hours. In fact, no Deir el Medina texts fromthe private sector clearly link labor time to price,69 forcing theresearcher to discuss the material or craft value, rather than thevalue of time.

A Ramesside letter written on O. Strasbourg H. 17470

mentionswork by Deir el Medina craftsmen in a tomb belonging to themayor of the town, but no payment of any kind is recorded:

The scribe Imn-n to his lord the scribe Bn-g, the one who was workingin the tomb (aat ) of the mayor of the town. To the effect that: Listen tothe message (hbt ?) which you made, saying, Cause that one (bring?) tome the scribe S-mwtand Pn -[. . .]. It is the coming to completion of 1cubit, 2 cubits, The message to you which I sent is good today. Nineteenin the [. . .].

Because the name of the first scribe (Amenqen) is difficult to read,71

the mans connection to Deir el Medina is unclear. He writes tohis master, an external scribe named Benga associated with theoffice of the mayor of Thebes. The text does indicate that west
http://www.leidenuniv.nl/nino/dmd/dmd.htmlhttp://www.leidenuniv.nl/nino/dmd/dmd.html


20/37


72 Kampp,Die Thebanische Nekropole.73 Cooney, The Cost of Death, chapter 4. Cooney, Value of Private Funerary Art,

181-231. Compare to Janssen, Commodity Prices, 209-48.

Theban craftsmen, and perhaps Deir el Medina scribes, were incontact with highly placed bureaucrats for high level commissionsand that Deir el Medina workmen, like Samut, certainly worked

in the tombs of high Theban officials, such as the mayor. The textalso proves that letters were sent to secure the employment of cer-tain artisans and to inform the tomb owners scribe as to how muchwork had been completed on a given day. How Deir el Medinaworkmen were paid for this kind of work, however, is still unclear,because absolutely no price information is found in this letter, asis common with this genre of text. This lack of contextual andfinancial detail is one of the most frustrating characteristics of west

Theban letters.The examination of these west Theban texts has already pro-vided more insight into the creation of non-royal tombs outside ofDeir el Medina during the Ramesside Period than either Romeror Helck allowed for. Despite Romers flawed chronological method-ology, and our incapacity to judge the chronological implicationsof Friedericke Kampps work, in which are documented hundredsmore undecorated New Kingdom tombs,72 it seems that we can

indeed conclude that the frequency of decorated tomb production,irrespective of reign assignments, is unlikely to amount to morethan one tomb per year. If only one elite tomb was constructedand decorated every year in western Thebes, we should not expectto find much textual evidence for tomb production when comparedto the relative wealth of documentation concerning the creation ofcoffins or other funerary arts, which were much more accessible,economically, to the larger ancient Egyptian population.

In fact, for the entire Ramesside Period I know of only threeprices recorded for production of the (m)aator styt tomb, perhapsfour if we include the painting work of the mrpyramid from O.Deir el Medina 215. There are two prices for the nwchapel, butas stated above, it is by no means certain that this structure wasfunerary in nature. In contrast, there are 150 prices for the cre-ation and decoration of various types of coffins, including the wtanthropoid coffin (96 prices), the wt a outer coffin (17 prices), the

wtsr inner coffin (9 prices), and the swtmummy board (28 prices).73

Admittedly, many of these coffins belonged together as sets and


21/37


74 In Theban Tomb 1, the one intact burial chamber found at Deir el Medina,20 bodies were found, but only 9 of these were buried in decorated coffins. Theother 11 were wrapped only in mats and textiles. (Shedid and Shedid, Das Grabdes Sennedjem, 15). Also see Toda and Daressy, La Decouverte et linventaire duTombeau de Sen-Nezem.

75 See Cooney, The Cost of Death, chapter 8.76 Zivie, Un Dtour par Saqqara: Deir el Mdineh et la Ncropole Memphite.

And Personal communication from Zivie, April 17 2004. At the keynote lectureof the annual meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt, Zivie suggestedthat the tomb of Netjerwymes may have been decorated by the Nineteenth Dynasty

were used to bury only one individual. Even if we assume thatmany of these prices represent a smaller number of coffin sets, theprice records imply that coffins were produced 40-50 times more

often than decorated private tombs in the west Theban region dur-ing the Ramesside Period. This ration of 50:1 should not be shock-ing as decorated family tombs generally contained more than oneburial.74 Furthermore, the vast majority of ancient Egyptians wereinterred in undecorated burial chambers without a connected tombchapel. This ratio also seems to mirror the socioeconomic trend ofmid Dynasty 20 a move away from decorated tomb chapels andtowards large undecorated tomb caches containing hundreds of

coffins.75

Thus, the small number of price texts for private tombdecoration is understandable in the context of overall tomb costand accessibility, the later Ramesside economic recession, and thetrend towards large undecorated tomb caches.

Still, a few texts do link Deir el Medina individuals to privatetomb decoration both within the village and beyond (O. AshmoleanHO 183, O. Turin 57378, O. Deir el Medina 198, O. Deir elMedina 215, graffito in tomb of Ramses VI, graffito in TT 113,

O. Strasbourg H. 174), and many of these texts clearly indicatethat craftsmen were paid for this work. The small number of pricesitself provides no reason to assume that Deir el Medina craftsmenwere not active in the private tomb decoration market in theRamesside Period. Alain Zivie has even suggested that Deir elMedina workmen of the Ramesside Period participated in the dec-oration of private tomb chapels at Saqqara. Not only did he findevidence of Eighteenth Dynasty craftsmen called sm-as m st Matat

Saqqara, but he found stylistic similarities between RamessideSaqqara tomb painting and that of Deir el Medina or the royalTheban tombs.76 This link between Deir el Medina craftsmen andSaqqara is much more tenuous during the Ramesside Period, but


22/37


Deir el Medina craftsman Khabekhnet because of the similarities of a sculpturewith the Hathor cow in the tomb and on a stela of Khabekhnet, now at theBritish Museum (Inv. EA 555).

77 Cooney, The Cost of Death, chapter 5. Cooney, Value of Private Funerary Art,235, 51-52.

78 Deir el Medina crew members did also cut the tombs in the Valley of theKings as part of their state sector labor, but because these tombs needed to remainsecret, the number of workers had to be restricted, requiring these men to alsodo stone cutting. In their private sector work, on the other hand, the work ofDeir el Medina crewman was valuable in terms of painting, not in terms of stonecutting, which was work that could be left to unskilled laborers. I would like tothank David Warburton for bringing this value difference to my attention (per-sonal communication, May 2007).

if it is substantiated, then some Deir el Medina draftsmen andscribes had the time, ability, and organizational workshop infra-structure to travel hundreds of miles downriver, spending weeks at

a time away from home, in order to supplement their state income.It would also strongly suggest that their reputations as the paintersof the royal tombs placed them in high demand, making them thedesired artisans of the Egyptian elite, of those most able to afforddecorated tomb chapels in the first place.

Interestingly, none of the Deir el Medina socioeconomic textsinvolving private tombs indicate the actual cost of cutting a tombfrom the living rock. The documentation only preserves receipts for

the paintingof a tomb chapel, tomb chamber or a masonry pyra-mid. There are no prices for stone work, although there is someindication that the Deir el Medina crew did indeed cut privatetombs (such as O. Cairo 25243 discussed below). My previous inves-tigation of the production of private sector coffins and other funer-ary items shows a similar trend: the Deir el Medina workmen clearlyspecialized in draftsmanship as their private sector craft activity,rather than stone or wood working.77 To this end, no titles associ-

ated with stone cutting are found in the documentation of privatesector funerary art production. Perhaps most transportable stonework stelae or pyramidia was crafted near a quarry site, and thus theassociated texts, if any were created, might be found at a locationnearby. Under such a scenario, workers who actually cut the tombsof Western Thebes would most often be those associated with aquarry, rather than the villagers of Deir el Medina, whose drafts-manship, in the private sector at least, seems to have been their

most valued skill.78

One of the many confusing features in the westTheban textual material (as it pertains to private funerary art) is


23/37


79 O. Deir el Medina 129.80 Cern, Unpublished Notebooks. Cooney, Value of Private Funerary Art, 59.81 Most of these official texts are from the Cairo collection and catalogue because

of their findspot in the Valley of the Kings. Many of these texts were discoveredby Theodore Davies and Lord Carnarvon-Howard Carters expeditions.

the focus on crafted wooden objects and the decoration thereof.Many texts document painting in the private sector private craftsmarket, but the large majority involve wooden goods such as coffins

or domestic furniture. Very rarely are stelae mentioned (and in oneof the four textual references to them, the stela is said to be madeof wood).79 Only Ostracon Berlin 1425680 discusses actual paymentfor stone stelae, and this receipt probably documents only the dec-oration thereof, not the construction. The same is true for mrpyr-amids or pyramidia. Only one price exists for a mrpyramid, andit documents decoration rather than the crafting of the stone (O.Deir el Medina 215, see above). This lack of reference in the Deir

el Medina textual archive to funerary stonework or to funeraryobjects crafted in stone is puzzling given the stonework and stone-painting specialization of the crew in the royal tomb, not to men-tion the hundreds of stone stelae found in the village itself. Weknow only that Deir el Medina crewman were sometimes paid forpainting private Theban tombs, but whether they were also paidfor cutting tombs out of the living rock remains unclear. For now,the extant west Theban documentation suggests that these craftsmen

specialized almost exclusively in painting in the private sector.

Tomb Journal Texts and Evidence for Private Sector Tomb Production

The west Theban textual documentation, scarce as it is, suggeststhat as little as 11 dbn or as much as 300 dbn could be paid fortomb painting. Almost all of the texts examined thus far are receipts,and as a result, they fail to provide information about organiza-

tional infrastructure of the private sector workshop. Receipts recordprices and the means of exchange, but they do not tell us if theDeir el Medina craftsmen decorated private tombs as part of a for-mal gang, or if they were working informally, as part of smallercommunity workgroups. To shed light on how private sector tombwork may have been organized, it becomes necessary to examineentries from the so-called Deir el Medina tomb journal,81 a body


24/37


82 Daressy, Ostraca. Nos. 25001-25385, 65, pl. LIII. For a correct transcription,see Cern, Unpublished Notebooks.

83 The provenance for this text is probably Tomb KV 6 (Ramses IX) or TombKV 9 (Ramses VI).

84 Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, VII, 462-63. Daressy, Ostraca. Nos. 25001-25385,62-63, pl. LII. Wimmer, Hieratische Palographie, I, 38-39.

85 Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, VI, 624-30.86 This of course reminds one of the famous law of the pharaoh, which indi-

cates that the one who takes on the financial responsibility of burying the parentwill inherit their fortune. See Janssen and Pestman, Burial and Inheritance.

of textual material that recorded the day to day activities of thecraftsmen when they were working together as a group (see Table 2).

In one text from the royal tomb journal of late Dynasty 20

O. Cairo 25250, rt. (see Fig. 2)82

we see a list of workmens per-sonal names followed by crafted wooden objects such asgwtboxes,msrboxes, afdtboxes, at beds, or other wooden items.

As can be seen in the transcription, some lines have been crossedout, suggesting that the work was perhaps completed. No pricesare mentioned, but the text indicates that small scale craft pro-duction, presumably for the private sector, occurred at the officialwork site in the Valley of the Kings where this text was found.83

Another late Dynasty 20 text Ostracon Cairo 2524384

suggeststhat the crew sometimes performed private sector tomb productionas a group. This particular ostracon is a journal of the royal tombfound in KV 6 of Rameses IX, and line 8 of the recto reads, Day14, cutting the tomb of the high priest. The text indicates thatmuch of this commission was performed during work hours. Noother details of possible payment or organization are mentioned.The verso of another late Dynasty 20 tomb journal (P. Turin 1906 +

1939 + 2047)85

preserves grain deliveries and other details of work,including the following lines (2:6-2:7):

That whichMswdid: 3 day[s] of work on the wooden btsarcophagus ofP-m-nr.That whichMswdid: one day of carrying stones.

Line 2:6 (see Fig. 3) records a crewman spending three days work-ing on the bt sarcophagus of a man who is not from Deir elMedina Pakhemnetjer. In lines 2:8-2:10 is written What wasgiven to him, followed by a long list of commodities, includingvegetables, fish, beer, grain, all from the hand of the son ofPakhemnetjer. It would appear that this workman was actuallypaid with a number of commodities by the future sarcophagusowners son, whose father may or may not have already died.86


25/37


Table2:WestThebanJ

ournalRecordsandL

egalTextswithPriva

teTombCreation

Text

Date

Texttype

Owner

Bu

yer

Seller

Price

Pricein

Work

D

etails

(dbn)

text

done

O.Ashmolean

lateD.20

inheritance

*

rpsmwtnpy.f

HO23

t...

mttpy.f

nw

O.Ashmolean

D.20

oracle,

*

w.

fnm

p

nw

HO103

legalreco

rd

m-d.

O.Cairo25243,

Ramesside

journal

High

*

aa

8rt.

record

priestof

Amen

O.Cairo25517,

D.19,yr.6

journal

Ipwy

*

Ipwy

rttaa,off

9

SetiII

record

officialworkfor

tomb

O.Cairo25521,

D.19,yr.1-2

journal

wImn-m-n

tr

14rt.

Siptah

record

bkwm

pnw

[...]

O.Cairo25521,

D.19,yr.1-2

journal

ry-

stP-n

b

*

absent

towork

6vs.

Siptah

record

inaa

O.DeM112,

D.19

transactio

n

T-s

kt

*

inheritanceofa

2vs.

receipt,legal,

(inheritor)

aat

inheritance

O.DeM586,8

D.20

legalreco

rd

T-w

r-tp

*

rpmrntyraa

(inheritor)

nImn-m-

pt

ny-sw

T-wr-tp

O.DeM964,5

D.20

inheritance

*

sb

1mtstytrsyt

O.DeM983

Ramesside

oracle,

*

rpnw

legalreco

rd

(cont

inue

donnext

page)


26/37

Table2:(

cont.)

Text

Date

Textty

pe

Owner

Bu

yer

Seller

Price

Pricein

Work

D

etails

(dbn)

text

done

O.Petrie18,

D.20

legalreco

rd

*

manleaveshis

8rt.

st-rstohisson

O.Univ.

D.XVIII

ss-nswt

y

*

listofthings

College31922

placed

instyt

P.Berlin10496

D.20

legalreco

rd

Imn-msw

*

nw

P.BulaqX/

D.20

legalreco

rd

an-n-n

wt

*

ty.fmw

tst-rs1,

P.Cairo58092,

aboutend

T-[gmy]

gavea

burialto

2rt.

ofD.19,

mother

earlyD.20

P.BulaqX/

D.20

legalreco

rd

wy-n

fr,

wy

*

ry.fst-rs,a

P.Cairo58092,

aboutend

fatherof

burialforhis

2rt.

ofD.19,

wy

father

earlyD.20

P.BulaqX/

D.20

legalreco

rd

ssRa-m

sw-

*

pmr,willw

ith

P.Cairo58092,

aboutend

propertyfor

2rt.

ofD.19,

children

earlyD.20

P.BulaqXvs.

D.20

inheritance

*

tatntr-gsp

hnw

nMnw

-p-apy...

hnaty.ststyt

P.DeM26B

Ramesside

legalreco

rd

Imn-m-

pt

*

n

P.Turin2070/

D.20,RVII

legalreco

rd

her

Nt-mn

*

mr,aat,

154,5-6,

daughter

(beneficiary)

inheritance

col.II,vs.

(inheritor)

text



27/37


87 Bogoslovsky, Hundred Egyptian Draughtsmen ZS107 (1980): 89-116.88 Janssen, Absence from Work by the Necropolis Workmen of Thebes.

Very rarely is payment listed for private sector craft work in thetomb journal, but P. Turin 1906 is one such record. In most casesrecording crewmens craft work in the tomb journal, it is unclearwhether the men were reimbursed in any way beyond their officialsalaries for their craft work, or if their work was simply consideredone of the official tasks of the crew. The purpose of the tomb jour-nal was to document who was working on what, where they wereworking, and when the work was completed. It was never intended

to record private commercial exchange. Nevertheless, some Deir elMedina specialists, including Evgeni Bogoslovsky87 and Jac Janssen,88

Fig. 2 Transcription of O. Cairo 25250 from the Cern notebooks,with permission of the Griffith Institute.

Wn,{

55[/?]/[//]tC Ko{R{yr

,{-tLs

t{CW*[//]r2_Typ

I

ri

{dr"2A

_Typt&[r] {QW [_5 C]E?rr_Tyr5_5o]E{?{qdC _Tt? ?

?

o Cy%L

t[{o E22'_W7

t{

y

r rDUsic rt7

Fig. 3 Transcription of Turin Papyrus 1906 + 1939 + 2047, afterKitchen, Ramesside InscriptionsVI, 624-26, 630.

?-C

pti{3]o?=p{?-r{Q{HniKr{

WK

ItiW. w Csic

C injH ,vr{7[{

-|rU rY}i

jDl

C Yy

-O}tqrhyr{

//-? Z? ?

tB{

2 sic

rY{/

-wt{q sicd{[Wtl/

p2 sic E-WlP C

ptiWt-t{/

.


28/37



90 Cooney, Value of Private Funerary Art, 249-56.

maintain that work in the tombs of high Theban officials wastantamount to institutionalized and accepted exploitation, becausesome recorded instances of non-royal tomb work, such as that in

O. Cairo 25243 discussed above (and see Table 2), record no detailsof payment.However, the west Theban documentation itself provides many

clues that suggest these men were given some kind of additionalrecompense for this labor, beyond their monthly wages. First onemust remember that the documents upon which these assertions ofexploitation are based are tomb journals, a particular genre of textwhose function is not to record the private transfer of money, but

rather to document the organization of work, most commonly officialwork. The prices themselves were only recorded when an objectwas actually sold and a receiptwas drawn up, a genre of text whosemain purpose was to record the transfer of wealth. Four receiptsdiscussed above (O. Ashmolean HO 183, O. Turin 57378, O. Deirel Medina 198, O. Deir el Medina 215) do in fact provide pricesfor decoration work in private tomb chapels or burial chambers,thus proving that Deir el Medina workmen could be paid for tomb

work ranging from inexpensive to costly. One tomb journal docu-ment (P. Turin 1906) even includes payment for non-royal work,despite being a record in the official tomb journal. Finally, a muchlarger body of texts, including receipts, workshop records, letters,legal texts, and tomb journal records, document other types offunerary art, in particular coffins, and this documentation stronglysuggests that these men were paid for private sector work by Thebanofficials in an informal workshop system that functioned alongside

the formal royal workshop organization.89

The Informal Workshop and Coffin Production for the Private Sector

A large body of documentation from Western Thebes records pri-vate sector production of coffins and other funerary goods for whichthe workmen were clearly paid, indicating that craftsmen couldwork within a private sector market for which there was regional

demand.90 For example, in the mid Twentieth Dynasty text O. Berlin


29/37


91 Erman, Hieratische Papyrus, vol. III, pls. XXXIV, XXXIVa. Kitchen, RamessideInscriptions, VI, 164-65. McDowell, Village Life, 81-82.

92 Cooney, Alternative Models for Craft Specialization. Cooney, The Cost ofDeath, chapter 5. Cooney, Value of Private Funerary Art, 232-55.

93 m nwt, in Thebes. See McDowell, Village Life, 82.94 See O. Berlin 11260 rt., O. Berlin 12343 rt., O. Cern 20 rt., O. Gardiner

105, O. Gardiner 119, O. Gardiner 134 rt., O. Gardiner 136, O. Gardiner 151vs., O. Gardiner 190 vs., O. Lady Franklyn.

12343,91 a workshop record, a crewman named Bakenwerner doesboth carpentry and painting-work, but he seems to have done soin the context of what I have called the informal workshop in

other publications:92

Recto: The decoration work which is from the workman Bk-n-wrnr: theyttfunerary object ofMwt[- . . .] making 12 dbn, the mn-an outer coffin ofan making 20 dbn, the wtsr inner coffin of an making 10 dbn. One gave tothe builder P-a-m-nt: also doing for her another making 10 dbn. The wtcoffin that he gave in exchange for the dy cloak in town93 making 10 dbn,its sw tmummy board making 4 dbn, the 2 decorated sb doors of the st-rsburial place making 6 dbn, [. . .] 2 wtcoffins and the sw tmummy boardofBkt[-n-]st making 24 dbn [ . . . ]

Verso: The carpentry work which the workman Bk-n-wrnr gave to the[drafts]man r-sr: wood: 1 plastered dbt box making 8 dbn, 1 afdt boxmaking 2 dbn, 1 wt coffin making 15 dbn, and the wood belongs to me[. . .]. Wood: 1 small at bed making 15 dbn, and the wood belongs to me.Wood: 1 at bed making 20 dbn, and the wood belongs to me, but theebony belongs to me from his son Nb-nfr. Wood: 1 y container making 2dbn. From him: 1 wtcoffin. Wood: 1 mw carrying pole (?) making [. . .]of barley. 1 [braided kskstbasket (?)] making 4 (?) dbn, while it belongs tome as regards [the wood], the wtcoffin [. . .] Total 52 (dbn).

In this workshop record, the crewman Bakenwerner performs bothpainting and carpentry. On the recto he paints a number of objects,and on the verso he does carpentry-work specifically for the drafts-man Horisheri. This text does not document Bakenwerners car-pentry and painting-work on the sameobject from start to finish,but rather his decoration work or carpentry-work on several differentobjects. He was laboring within the context of something larger a loosely organized cooperation in which specialized non-royal com-

missions were distributed among artisans attached to a royal work-shop. This text is just one of many that suggest it actually wasunusual for a craftsman to create funerary objects from start tofinish. For example, twelve workshop records document only thedecoration ofwtcoffins, providing indirect evidence that other indi-viduals initially constructed these objects.94 Other workshop records


30/37


95 See O. Gardiner 105, rt., O.IFAO 1017, rt., O. Petrie 17.96 Cern and Gardiner, Hieratic Ostraca, 10, pl. 33, 3. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions,

VI, 161. Allam, Hieratische Ostraka und Papyri, 176.97 Lopez, Ostraca Ieratici, III, 23, pl. 114. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, VII, 322.

point to artisans performing only carving work on the wt coffin,selling or trading the object without decoration.95 The same sepa-ration of labor exists for the wt a outer coffin, wt sr inner coffin,

sw tmummy board, and other funerary objects, like theyttmummyboard. In this informal and private sector workshop, it was unusualfor one artisan to construct and decorate the same coffin, evenwhen he was certainly capable of it, because he was part of some-thing larger a collective group of artisans that provided a vari-ety of skills as well as capital for materials.

The mid Twentieth Dynasty workshop record O. Ashmolean HO11996 also shows that artisans separated the kinds of labor they

would perform in their private sector craft work:The work which Imn-ntson ofRs-ptr.fdid for me: wood: 1 msr furnitureobject making 15 (dbn ), 1 tbtbox making 10 (dbn ). I gave to him decora-tion of the 2 wt coffins making 20 (dbn ) and 2 smooth mss shirts making10 (dbn).

This workshop record documents a simple trade or barter betweencraftsmen, one of whom decorates coffins and the other who con-structs wooden objects. An unnamed man, possibly a draftsman,

made a record in first person that Amennakht did some work forhim, ostensibly carpentry work on a piece of msr furniture and atbtbox worth 25 total dbn. Amennakht is paid for the work (bk)on these objects, but not for the objects themselves. In exchangefor this work the unnamed draftsman decorated 2 wtcoffins for 20dbn and then added 2 mss shirts to the exchange for 10 dbn, pro-viding a total of 30 dbn, which is 5 dbn more than the work doneby the carpenter. One might assume that the tbtbox and msrfur-

niture piece were meant to be decorated by the draftsman, per-haps to sell later. Many other, similar workshop records reveal thatcarpenters and draftsmen traded goods and services with each other,rather than construct one piece from start to finish.

Furthermore, a number of receipts, such as the Twentieth DynastyO. Turin 57368,97 indicate that funerary items made in this infor-mal workshop were often ultimately sold by high ranking Deir elMedina officials:


31/37


98 That is, the commodities received from the buyer of the coffin.99 Cooney, The Cost of Death, chapter 5. Cooney, Value of Private Funerary Art,

232-55.100 For more on text type or genre in the west Theban documentation, see

Cooney, The Cost of Death, chapter 3.

Recto:List of the wealth which the scribe of the tomb r gave: 1 wt coffin oftamarisk wood (sy) making 80 (dbn), the decoration and that which was var-nished making 65 copper dbn, a sw tmummy board [. . .] making 20 (dbn).

Receiving from him:98 1 ox making 100 dbn. Receiving from him: anotherox making 100(+x?) dbn, 1 smooth dyt cloak making 20 (dbn ), making43 dbn, a smooth ftsheet making 8 (dbn ), the sw tmummy board making15 (dbn),

Verso:[. . .] a smooth fd sheet[. . .] 1 thin dgkerchief (?) [making] 9 dbn (?)

High ranking Deir el Medina officials, such as scribes of the tomb,are never documented in workshop records as having performed

any carpentry work,99 yet here we see the scribe Hori selling afinished and expensive coffin set in exchange for a variety of com-modities. He was most likely selling an item which he did not makehimself, but whose construction and decoration he organized.

The Informal Workshop and Private Tomb Production

Given the context of this private sector informal workshop which functioned parallel to the state sector formal workshop ifone examines the tomb journal texts documenting private tombwork in conjunction with the few receipts we have for private tombdecoration, then it is possible to make a circumstantial argumentthat crew leaders organized tomb commissions for highly placedpatrons such as the mayor of Thebes or the high priest of Amen and that workmen were compensated for this private sector activityin some way. Payment and price information were not usuallyrecorded in tomb journal entries, but rather in receipts and work-shop records. Therefore, the argument that private tomb productionin Western Thebes fits into a market economy driven by socialdemand (rather than exploitation) rests not only on the type of text,i.e. genre,100 but also on the entire body of Ramesside textual materialrelating to funerary craft production. Rather than documentingexploitation, it seems much more plausible that overseers care-fully documented non-official craft activity in the tomb journal in


32/37


101 Cern, Quelques Ostraca Hiratiques Indits, 184-200. Cern, OstracaHiratiques, 10-11, 22-25, pls. XV-XVI. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, IV, 397-402.Wimmer, Hieratische Palographie, 1, 52-54.

102 P. Salt, rt. 2, 10-12, 19-20. Cern, Papyrus Salt 124.103 McDowell,Jurisdiction in the Workmens Community, 210.104 Janssen, Commodity Prices, 536.105 Cern, Ostraca Hiratiques, 8-9, 15-17 pls. X-XI. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions,

IV, 320-21, 87-89. Wimmer, Hieratische Palographie, 1, 48-50. McDowell, VillageLife, 35, no. 10.

order to ensure that the responsible craft workers were carefullylisted for future payment.

This does not mean that crew leaders never exploited their work-

ers or that this informal workshop system was fair, especially as itpertained to private tomb construction. For example, OstraconCairo 25521101 records work by the crew in the tomb of the noto-rious foreman Paneb, for which they were probably not paid anyextra wages, given the litigation that plagued Paneb for abusinghis position. Actually, the accusatory texts in Papyrus Salt102 docu-menting the foreman Panebs illegitimate use of the work force forhis own gain represents some of the strongest evidence disproving

the notion that workmen were not paid in some way for privatesector labor. The traditional interpretation of these tomb journaltexts and worker payments, however, is quite different from thatforwarded here. For example, with regard to Panebs worker exploita-tion, Andrea McDowell states, this was no more than other fore-men did: perhaps it was not strictly ethical but it was commonpractice.103 She cites Janssen, who uses O. Cairo 25516 and O.Cairo 25517 to claim that the foreman Hay also used his workers

for his own private gain.104

A closer look at the tomb journal text O. Cairo 25517 vs.105

shows that the record simply documents absences and reasons forabsences. An excerpt from the verso (lines 9-11) reads:

Ra-wbn sick, K-s, S-Ra sick, Ipwy was making the tomb (aa ). Those whoare absent with the chief of the crew y: mw-sr and S-wytmakingthe twtstatue [. . .] the [. . .] was making the tomb (aa) [. . .].

This text is by no means a clear testament to worker exploitationwithin a strict state-run economy. In the first section, it is unclearif Ipuy was given time offto work on his own tomb, or if the tombbelonged to a superior or Theban official. He is listed with indi-viduals who are sick, and who are thus not reporting for official


33/37


106 Cern, Ostraca Hiratiques, 8, 13-14. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, IV, 328,84-87. McDowell, Village Life, 83, no. 54.

duty. This man is still actively performing craft work, but becausehe appears on the absence list, we must assume that he is work-ing informally, and not in official capacity. The next lines indicate

that some of the crew are making statues and working in a tomb,maybe for a superior since they are specifically said to be with theirforeman Hay. Nonetheless, there is insufficient information here toassume that the foreman Hay is actually exploiting his workers forhis own gain; they are only said to be with him doing craft work.Although no payment is listed in these texts, this would not havebeen the place for it. The tomb journal keeps track of craftsmen,locations, and work activities, not of commercial exchanges. In fact,

I argue that the names of these men who worked on these privateaat tombs were carefully recorded in tomb journals because theywere part of an informal workshop organized by their superiors.The details of subsequent payment would only have been listed ina receipt and/or workshop record, not in a tomb journal text suchas this.

The other tomb journal text marshaled by proponents of theexploitation model O. Cairo 25516 vs. 26-27106 also documents

absences of Deir el Medina craftworkers and reads:Month 4 ofprt, day 6. S-wytabsent making a hdmwbox for y. mw-sr absent making a twtstatue for y.

Again, although no payment is mentioned in this journal text, thisabsence by no means proves that these men went unpaid for thework, because a journal text is not the appropriate place to listsuch payment. The men are indeed said to do craft work for theforeman Hay, but given other textual information found in work-shop records and receipts, one could also assume that he was lead-ing commissions in the informal workshop, and that these workmenwould receive remuneration later. They are said to be absent(wsf ) while doing these commissions, clearly indicating that theywere not working in official capacity. Read within the context ofthe informal workshop, this text documents that workmen couldactually be relieved of official duties in order to perform privatesector labor.


34/37


Formal versus Informal Workshops

In conclusion, public sector work in the royal tomb is relatively

easy to understand, as it is possible to identify wages, interpret strictorganizational systems, and understand a clear hierarchy of deci-sion making. Private sector craft work, on the other hand, is looselyorganized and thus not as obvious in the textual material becausea number of different individuals are keeping track of work invarious ways: in workshop records, tomb journal entries and receipts,all within the context of an informal workshop that functionedalongside the formal royal tomb organization. Nonetheless, evidence

of payment for private sector craft production and tomb creationis not absent, nor is it difficult to find. One must simply examinethe genre of a given socioeconomic text and place that evidencecontextually within the entire body of west Theban textual material.I oppose redistributive, substantivist, or primitivist interpretationsthat claim Deir el Medina workers monthly wages were rarelysupplemented by profits from work in private tombs. Instead,examining the entire body of socioeconomic data concerning tomb

goods production and interpreting these texts according to theirtype, I propose that a private sector market for funerary goodsexisted within the Theban region and that it was driven by thedemands of highly placed Theban officials as well as by the Deirel Medina craftsmen themselves.

References

Allam, S. Hieratische Ostraka und Papyri aus der Ramessidenzeit. Urkunden zum Rechtslebenim Alten gypten 1. Tbingen, 1973.

Amer, A. A Unique Theban Tomb Inscription under Ramesses VIII. GM49(1981): 9-12.

Barthelmess, P. Der bergang ins Jenseits in den Thebansichen Beamtengrbern derRamessidenzeit. Studien zur Archologie und Geschichte Altgyptens 2. Heidelberg:Heidelberger Orientverlag, 1992.

Bleiberg, E. The Economy of Ancient Egypt. In Civilizations of the Ancient NearEast, ed. J. Sasson, 1373-85. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1995.

Bogoslovsky, E. Hundred Egyptian Draughtsmen. ZS107 (1980): 89-116.Botti, G. and T.E. Peet. Il Giornale Della Necropoli Di Tebe. Turin: Fratelli Bocca, 1928.Brumfiel, E. and T. Earle. Specialization, Exchange and Complex Societies. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1987.Bruyre, B. Tombes Thbaines de Deir el Mdineh Decoration Monochrome. Mmoires

publis par les membres de lInstitut Franais dArchologie Orientale duCaire 86. Cairo: IFAO, 1952.


35/37


Bruyre, B. and C. Kuentz. Tombes Thbaines: La Ncropole de Deir el-Mdineh, LaTombe de Nacht-Min et la Tombe dAri-Nefer, Mmoires publis par les membresde lInstitut Franais dArchologie Orientale du Caire, 54,1. Cairo: IFAO,1926.

Bryan, B. The Reign of Thutmose IV. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,1991.Cern, J. Catalogue des Ostraca Hiratiques non Littraires de Deir el Mdineh. 6 vols.

Documents de fouilles 3-7, 14. Cairo: IFAO, 1937-1970.. Ostraca Hiratiques. Nos. 25501-25832, Catalogue Gnral des Antiquits

gyptiennes du Muse du Caire. Cairo: IFAO, 1935.. Papyrus Salt 124 (Brit. Mus. 10055).JEA 15 (1929): 243-58.. Prices and Wages in Egypt in the Ramesside Period. Cahiers dhistoire

mondiale (1954): 903-21.. Quelques Ostraca Hiratiques Indits de Thbes au Muse du Caire.

ASAE27 (1927): 183-210.. Troisme Srie de Questions Adresses aux Oracles.BIFAO72 (1972):46-69.

. Unpublished Notebooks. Griffith Institute, Oxford.Cern, J. and A.H. Gardiner. Hieratic Ostraca. Oxford: Aris and Phillips, 1957.Clark, J.E., and W.J. Parry. Craft Specialization and Cultural Complexity.

Research in Economic Anthropology 12 (1990): 289-346.Cooney, K.M. Alternative Models for Craft Specialization in Ancient Egypt: The

Informal Workshop. In Living and Writing in Deir El Medine: Socio-HistoricalEmbodiment of Deir El Medine Texts, University of Basel, July 2004, eds. A. Dorn

and T. Hofman, 43-55. Aegyptiaca Helvetica 19 Basel: Schwabe, 2006.. The Cost of Death: The Social and Economic Value of Ancient Egyptian FuneraryArt in the Ramesside Period. Egyptologische Uitgaven. Leiden: Nederlands Instituutvoor het Nabije Oosten, 2007.

. The Value of Private Funerary Art in Ramesside Period Egypt, Ph.D Diss. Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University, 2002.

Costin, C.L. and R.P. Wright, eds. Craft and Social Identity, Archaeological Papersof the American Anthropological Association 8. Arlington, Va: AmericanAnthropological Association, 1998.

Dalton, G. Primitive, Archaic, and Modern Economies: Karl Polanyis Contribution

to Economic Anthropology and Comparative Economy. In Essays in EconomicAnthropology, ed. June Helm, 1-24. Seattle: University of Washington Press,1965.

Daressy, G. Ostraca. Nos. 25001-25385, Catalogue Gnral des Antiquits gypti-ennes du Muses du Caire. Cairo: IFAO, 1901.

Davies, B.G. Whos Who at Deir El-Medina: A Prospographic Study of the Royal WorkmensCommunity. Egyptologische Uitgaven. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor hetNabije Oosten, 1999.

Erman, A. Hieratische Papyrus aus den Kniglichen Museen zu Berlin. Vol. III. Leipzig:J.C. Hinrichs, 1911.

Erman, A. and H. Grapow. Wrterbuch der gyptischen Sprache. 5 vols. Leipzig: J.C.Hinrichs, 1926-1931.Eyre, C.J. Work and Organization of Work in the New Kingdom. In Labor in

the Ancient near East, ed. M.A. Powell, 167-221. New Haven: Eisenbrauns,1987.

Gardiner, A.H. Late Egyptian Stories, Bibliotheca gyptiaca 1. Brussels: dition dela Fondation gyptologique Reine lisabeth, 1932.

.


36/37


Grandet, P. Catalogue des Ostraca Hiratiques non Littraires de Deir el-Mdinh. Nos. 706-830. Vol. VIII, Documents de Fouilles de LIFAO 39. Cairo:IFAO, 2000.

. Catalogue des Ostraca Hiratiques non Littraires de Der el-Mdnh. Nos 831-

1000, Documents de Fouilles de lIFAO 41. Cairo: IFAO, 2003.Gutgesell, M. Arbeiter und Pharaonen: Wirtschafts und Sozialgeschichte im Alten gypten.Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1989.

Hannig, R. Groes Handwrterbuch gyptisch-Deutsch: Die Sprache der Pharaonen (2800-950 V. Chr.). Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt 64. Mainz am Rhein: Philippvon Zabern, 1995.

Hayes, W.C. A Selection of Tuthmoside Ostraca from Deir El-Bahri. JEA 46(1960): 29-52.

Helck, W. Materialien zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Neuen Reiches. 6 vols. Wiesbaden:Akademie der Wissenschaftlichen und der Literatur, 1961-1969.

. Wer Konnte Sich ein Begrbnis in Theben-West Leisten? GM 135(1993): 39-40.. Wirtschaftsgeschichte des alten gypten im 3. und 2. Jahrtausend vor Chr. Leiden/

Cologne: E.J. Brill, 1975.Janssen, J.J. Absence from Work by the Necropolis Workmen of Thebes. SAK

8 (1980): 127-52.. Commodity Prices from the Ramesside Period. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975.. De Markt op de Oever. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1980.. Die Struktur der Pharaonischen Wirtschaft. GM48 (1981): 59-77.. Prolegomena to the Study of Egypts Economic History During the New

Kingdo