ANCIENT EGYPTIAN LIVES, CLASS 5

The village known today Deir el-Medina, but simply “The Village” to its ancient inhabitants, is remarkably well preserved. Its inhabitants were the skilled artisans who excavated and decorated the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and a large percentage of the men of the village were literate. We have their houses, shrines, and tombs, as well as their favorite reading material—stories, instruction literature, and teaching texts—and many, many ostraca with miniature works of art (and sometimes just doodles). One of the men that we will meet is the chief workman Paneb, who was accused of both inappropriate behavior with women of the village and theft from royal tombs—but everything we know is testimony from his rivals.