The Place of Truth
© Lucy Charlotte Acland Johnson
The site of Deir el-Medina was first excavated in 1905. These excavations, led by Italian archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli, lasted four years. In 1922 and 1951 the site was thoroughly excavated by the French, and scholars have been working on it ever since.
The village was founded by pharaoh Amenhopis the third in the early eighteenth dynasty. It did not solely consist of Egyptian workmen, but was unusually cosmopolitan with over thirty foreign names being found there. This demonstrates the whole point of Set Ma'at: to have the best workmen (regardless of creed) to create the best works of art.
Not only was the village tolerant of other races, but women seem to have been treated well and in a liberally minded fashion too. As their husbands were away working for much of the ten day week, women managed the affairs; many of them could read and write, as we know from evidence of letters they sent and received. There are also records left of female landowners (something only allowed in many modern countries relatively recently when one considers that the Ancient Egyptians allowed it), and of a foreman's wife dishing out the wages to craftsmen during her husbands absence.
,The incredible works of art produced by the Ancient Egyptians are admired all over the world today. However, it is not just the pharaohs who we should remember, but those who carved the monuments and painted the pictures:
Probably the most important of these groups of people were the craftsmen of "The place of truth" (Set Ma'at) at "Deir el-Medina". These men had to face rigorous testing before they were allowed to join the village, and have the honour of decorating the tombs of the Pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings, and of carving monuments of other kinds for them.
The site of Deir el-Medina was first excavated in 1905. These excavations, led by Italian archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli, lasted four years. In 1922 and 1951 the site was thoroughly excavated by the French, and scholars have been working on it ever since.
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