Deir El-Medina
Deir el-Medina.
Caitlin Wall.
Good morning,
Deir el-Medina is a little workmans villiage set on the west bank or the River Nile, just below the ancient city of Thebes. The village was inhabited by workmen who were responsible for the construction and decoration of the royal tombs from the New Kingdom. The exploration of Deir el-Medina has yielded a huge quantity of artefacts and texts written on ostraca or papyri, which offer a unique view into the daily life of an ancient Egyptian community.
Throughout the 19th century, much of Deir el-medina was pilliaged by foreign travellers visiting the ancient site. A lot of the archaeological evidence that was dug up and collected was taken by two different pioneering Egyptologists; John Gardner and Karl Lepsius. This amazing archaeological site was first seriously excavated by Ernesto Schiaparelli between 1905-1909. He uncovered a seriously large amount of the ostraca we know of today. Shortly after, in 1922-1951, a french team led by Bernard Bruyere went through and excavated the ENTIRE site including the cemetary, dump and villiage. However, his team had little control and half of the ostraca and papyri that his team discovered was removed without his knowledge or aithorization.
In Deir el-Medina, religion was a huge part of their everyday life. Religious beliefs in ancient Egypt shaped the way that every single person thought and acted. The Pharoh was "the son of Ra", most nobles and officals were preists and the Pharaohs built huge temples to please the gods and mae sure that the link between the people and the gods was always strong and never severed. The middle ground for this belief system was that Ra, the sun god, had created an ordered and just world for people to share his love. But a step outside this took you a cruel, un-just world of confusion and demons that always threatened to destroy all the good things in life. Gods and people needed each other to keep their world safe.
Every morning in Medina, in all
Caitlin Wall.
Good morning,
Deir el-Medina is a little workmans villiage set on the west bank or the River Nile, just below the ancient city of Thebes. The village was inhabited by workmen who were responsible for the construction and decoration of the royal tombs from the New Kingdom. The exploration of Deir el-Medina has yielded a huge quantity of artefacts and texts written on ostraca or papyri, which offer a unique view into the daily life of an ancient Egyptian community.
Throughout the 19th century, much of Deir el-medina was pilliaged by foreign travellers visiting the ancient site. A lot of the archaeological evidence that was dug up and collected was taken by two different pioneering Egyptologists; John Gardner and Karl Lepsius. This amazing archaeological site was first seriously excavated by Ernesto Schiaparelli between 1905-1909. He uncovered a seriously large amount of the ostraca we know of today. Shortly after, in 1922-1951, a french team led by Bernard Bruyere went through and excavated the ENTIRE site including the cemetary, dump and villiage. However, his team had little control and half of the ostraca and papyri that his team discovered was removed without his knowledge or aithorization.
In Deir el-Medina, religion was a huge part of their everyday life. Religious beliefs in ancient Egypt shaped the way that every single person thought and acted. The Pharoh was "the son of Ra", most nobles and officals were preists and the Pharaohs built huge temples to please the gods and mae sure that the link between the people and the gods was always strong and never severed. The middle ground for this belief system was that Ra, the sun god, had created an ordered and just world for people to share his love. But a step outside this took you a cruel, un-just world of confusion and demons that always threatened to destroy all the good things in life. Gods and people needed each other to keep their world safe.
Every morning in Medina, in all