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Amarna Workers Village

The Egyptian city of Amarna was the pet building project of the pharaoh Akhenaten, who

oversaw construction of his new capital between 1346 and 1341 BCE. The city was largely

abandoned after the death of Akhenaten (a very interesting character, should you feel like doing

some extra reading on the lives of Egyptian pharaohs), which means that most of it has survived

quite well and it is now an extensive archaeological site that has been in the process of

excavation since the late 1800s.

In this assignment we will focus not on the royal palaces, but rather on the small village up in the

hills to the east of Amarna which was built early on to house the workers who built the great city.

In our popular culture, Egyptian laborers are often presented as having a terrible lifestyle, and

sometimes referred to as slaves. In fact, the ancient Egyptians did not use slave labour (they had

very few slaves, nearly all of whom were domestic slaves serving the royal family). Rather,

labour for major building projects like new cities or the pyramids was drawn from the local

populace at certain times of year as a form of taxation. Families would relocate to purpose built

houses, like the ones you’ll be looking at from Amarna, to do work for a month or two, after

which they would go back to their farms. Although not technically slaves, the actual quality of

life of these laborers is certainly worth investigating.

The summary of the data and the diagrams available for the site focus on three areas of the site -

the houses, the animal pens and garden plots, and the main chapel.

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The Houses:

The walled village contains several rows of neatly planned houses, all roughly the same size.

Gate Street 8 is the most completely excavated house and has many features typical of the rest of

the houses at the site. There is a plan of this house on page 5.

The house is divided into three major areas, with the front and back areas further subdivided into

two rooms each.

A. Northern Front Room (c. 2.7 x 2.3 metres):

This room opens onto the street. The walls of this room have been coated with plaster and

whitewashed with a gypsum mixture. The front area of the house is the only part of it that is

whitewashed in this fashion. The features on the floor (marked on the plan as 1704, 1706 and

1736) are modern disturbances to the surface of the floor, not part of the ancient building.

B. Southern Front Room (c. 1.75 x 2.3 metres):

The primary feature of the south room is a structure that has been built into the eastern wall

(marked on the plan as 1708, 1731 and 1732). This box-shaped structure is about 40 centimetres

tall. From similar structures at other sites and models in tombs, we know that these were used for

setting large querns into for the milling of grain.

C. Middle Room (c. 4.55 x. 3.85 metres):

This is the largest room of the house. Along the west and south walls of this room runs a low-

lying, L-shaped bench, 7 centimetres high off the floor. On the western part of this bench there is

an upturned limestone table-top (1997), an area of wear in the plaster where a chair may have

been (2004), and impressions in the plaster itself from a mat laid on the bench (2003). A second

limestone table-top (2001) lies on the floor. On a projection from the bench is a large, broad,

thick-walled, pottery bowl (1895) containing a small deposit of ash. Against the east wall are two

shallow circular depressions in the floor where pottery vessels had stood (1995, 2002).

D. Southern Rear Room (c. 2.45 x 1.75 metres):

The only significant feature of this room is a low bench (1506). At either end of this bench

patches of the plaster show traces of wear – possibly as a consequence of a piece of furniture

once laying there.

E. Northern Rear Room:

This room contains a well-preserved staircase leading upwards, with a small cupboard under the

stairs.

The angle of the staircase indicates that the ceilings were not inconveniently low – one could

stand fully upright in these rooms, though the staircase may have been awkward to navigate.

The evidence suggests that the middle room and rear rooms were certainly roofed, though it is

not clear whether the front rooms covered by a roof – they may have been only partially

enclosed.

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Although it was originally suggested that the staircases in these houses only led to rooftop

access, the amount of fill in the middle and rear rooms (and some of the items, such as wooden

shutters, well-decorated plaster, and localized evidence of fire) suggests a collapsed upper storey.

This upper storey may have contained a sleeping area and a kitchen, but it is impossible to say

for certain.

Although the structural features are well preserved, there is very little domestic debris left at the

houses, suggesting that they were regularly cleaned and the refuse taken to rubbish dumps

throughout the surrounding area.

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Animal Pens and Garden Plots:

There are several areas of the site (including the annexe to the chapel, see below) where clear

garden beds had been laid out, with alluvial soil from the Nile floodplain deliberately brought to

the site for the purpose. Preliminary analysis of botanical remains provides evidence for the

presence of several species, including: barley, wheat, peas, lentils, cucumber, onion, garlic, a

variety of herbs, flax, pomegranate, grape, watermelon, fig, olive, almond, and date.

At least seven different sets of animal pens were present at the site (one of these, the one next to

the main chapel, is shown in the plan on the following page). These pens consist of a courtyard

with access to a series of smaller pens. The courtyards and some of the pens had limestone

troughs.

Although the pens themselves are relatively clean, analysis of animal bones from the rubbish pits

helps to provide information on the animals kept in these pens. Only bones of oxen, goats and

pigs are found at this site. Oxen are certainly too large to have been kept in these pens, and

analysis of the coprolites found in the pens themselves points to pigs as the primary occupants.

This is of note as pigs require a great deal of water and are not particularly easy animals to raise

in a desert environment.

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The Main Chapel:

There are several chapels present at the site, all located outside the main city walls. The largest

and best preserved of these was called the ‘main chapel’ by the excavators. Half of the building

is the chapel proper, the rest consists of an annexe that runs along the south side of the chapel

(see plan on following page).

The chapel itself follows a fairly standard design for this time period in Egypt: a sequence of two

halls followed by a sanctuary with three shrines, the whole arranged symmetrically on a central

axis. Low square offering tables of brick stand in the centre of the floors of the Inner Hall and

Sanctuary; benches line the two principal walls of the Outer Hall. The walls which subdivide

these rooms were screen walls, rising to a height of about 1.2 metres. All areas inside the chapel

were roofed, including the Outer Hall.

The inner surfaces of the chapel walls were entirely plastered and painted. The plaster is

fragmentary, but it can be determined that the Sanctuary was painted with images of stylized

vultures, as well as floral and geometric motifs. The Inner Hall has images of a male and female

with incense cones on their heads, holding bouquets of flowers – probably representing

participants in religious ritual. What is most interesting about the paintings at the chapel is that

they are not in the style of the Amarna ruling elite but share strong similarities with the older

(and at this period not politically favored) art style.

There is not enough evidence at the temple to suggest the worship of a particular deity, though

the proximity of the chapels to cemetery areas and the presence of at least one burial beneath the

chapel itself might suggest a funerary temple function.

The annexe on the south side of the chapel possessed a very different atmosphere. Its walls were

not plastered and on its floor lay a deposit of organic debris. Most of this area was also un-

roofed. The function of the annexe seems to have been the provision of food: animals were

probably kept in areas i and ii, areas iii and vi contained ovens, area ix contains a podium

supporting five square plots for the growing of flowers or vegetables.

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Based on the data presented, your task in this assignment is to evaluate the quality of life for the

individuals living in the workers village outside of the city of Amarna. Your report on the

general lifestyle of the villagers should address the following questions:

How big are the houses at the village? How many people likely lived in each building?

Roughly how many people would have lived in the village?

What sorts of activities were performed in the houses?

What was peoples’ diet like? Do you think it was nutritionally adequate?

What types of activities did people do outside their houses?

Was there a sense of group community or identity?

Does the evidence support the typical Hollywood portrayals of the lives of Egyptian

workers?

Note: You won't necessarily be able to sift through the data and find straightforward answers.

This is a chance to use your skills in interpretation and inference. Make sure you indicate which

evidence leads you to your conclusions.