Guide to Deir el-Medina.
French Institute of Oriental Archaeology. IFAO.| N° d'inventaire | 25448 |
| Format | |
| Détails | 184 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Cairo, 2022 |
| Etat | Nine. |
| ISBN | 9782724708066 |
The site of Deir el-Medina is unique: its particularly well-preserved archaeological remains form an exceptional ensemble in Egypt (consisting of a village, a necropolis and a temple), and the rich documentation it has provided has spanned the millennia.
Artists as well as craftsmen, the inhabitants of Deir el-Medina dug and decorated the hypogea of the sovereigns in the Valley of the Kings and Queens. They did not limit themselves to exercising their talents for the benefit of the sovereigns; they also decorated, or had decorated by the most skilled among them, their own tombs and were buried with hundreds of cult objects and funerary furniture. The scribes kept archives that constitute an incredible wealth of information on the history of the New Kingdom and the functioning of the royal construction sites, but they also had literary interests, and some built up some of the richest libraries that have come down to us.
As you stroll through the site of Deir el-Medina and through the paintings that adorn the walls of the rock-hewn caves, visitors will be able to discover the spirit of its occupants, their earthly aspirations, the religious and funerary universe of their conception of the afterlife and the festivals of the multiple divinities that made up the local pantheon. The discovery of the temple, built in the Ptolemaic period, constitutes a happy epilogue to this archaeological walk.
The site of Deir el-Medina is unique: its particularly well-preserved archaeological remains form an exceptional ensemble in Egypt (consisting of a village, a necropolis and a temple), and the rich documentation it has provided has spanned the millennia.
Artists as well as craftsmen, the inhabitants of Deir el-Medina dug and decorated the hypogea of the sovereigns in the Valley of the Kings and Queens. They did not limit themselves to exercising their talents for the benefit of the sovereigns; they also decorated, or had decorated by the most skilled among them, their own tombs and were buried with hundreds of cult objects and funerary furniture. The scribes kept archives that constitute an incredible wealth of information on the history of the New Kingdom and the functioning of the royal construction sites, but they also had literary interests, and some built up some of the richest libraries that have come down to us.
As you stroll through the site of Deir el-Medina and through the paintings that adorn the walls of the rock-hewn caves, visitors will be able to discover the spirit of its occupants, their earthly aspirations, the religious and funerary universe of their conception of the afterlife and the festivals of the multiple divinities that made up the local pantheon. The discovery of the temple, built in the Ptolemaic period, constitutes a happy epilogue to this archaeological walk.