Let’s Tour Deir El-Medina’s Necropolis with Hawass!

By: Ali Abu-Dashish

CAIRO, Dec. 30 (SEE)- One of the ancient Egyptian villages that still exists till now is Deir El-Medina historical village. The pharaonic term “Set Maat” that means “The Place of Truth” is the village that is located at the West Bank of the Nile right in-between the Valley of The Queens to the west, funerary temples to the east and ‘Qarna Mari’ village to the south was known as.

“The name of the artist’s village dates back to the monastery that the Copts established in that area in the early Christian Era,” noted Archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass. “Workers of the village were called “Servants in the Place of Truth.” Their main tasks, that passed from father to sons, were establishing tombs and royal temples.”

Hawass explained that workers were pided into two groups; left and right groups that consists of 60 persons, each headed by two foremen in addition to a manager in charge of organizing attendance and preparing daily workflow reports that were later presented to the minister’s office or the royal delegate. “Usually, the minister used to tour the royal tombs under construction as part of his follow up and supervising responsibilities. Workers were allowed for 3 days off per month besides national holidays and festivals.”

The area embraced various monuments, most significantly the necropolis of the workers where more than 50 embellished tombs were unearthed with pleasing graffito and screens that date back to the 19th and 20th dynasties.

“Actually, the workers’ tombs were different from those of the elite at the western part, as they consisted of an entrance designed as an edifice surrounded by adobe stones and at its end is a boracic pyramid established directly on the surface of the land or on a low base of adobe,” elaborated Hawass. “A niche area exists at the pyramid’s frontage that faces the patio exists, where a small statue that portrays the deceased one kneeling and another time holding a funeral painting was placed.”

Inside this pyramid, a compartment for the offerings with a dome ceiling embellished with daily live and funeral screens subsists. “The etched part in the ground can be reached through a deep well either from the Northern part of the open patio or through down stairs that lead to one or two decorated chambers to the burial chamber.”

The burial chamber is a rectangle room with a domed ceiling in which walls are covered with a layer of plaster screens that depict the other world.

“Interestingly, the daily lives of Deir El-Medina’s residents including disputes are the best of what we uncovered about pharaonic Egypt,” added Hawass. “What really makes these tombs stand out is that it still preserves its vivid colors and features with various charming inscriptions besides their unique small pyramids that topped tombs.”

The predominance of the religious screens that belonged to the other world in the burial chamber is an exotic trait of Deir El-Medina’s tombs as people preferred to engrave holy teachings more than their daily lives’ routines, yet the latter did not completely vanish from the designs. “No tourist can come to Luxor and miss Der El-Medina Necropolis!.”