A choice of more recent Egyptological Publications on Deir el -Medina

Edited by J.F. Borghouts, R.J. Demarée, R. van Walsem and H.O. Willems taken from this page

Gleanings from Deir el-Medina
Edited by R.J. DEMARÉE and Jac.J. JANSSEN
1982 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 1)
XIII, 312 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-201-X

no synopsis

Jurisdiction in the Workmen’s Community of Deir el-Medina
A.G. McDOWELL
1990 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 5)
XII, 307 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-205-2

One of the best known villages of antiquity, the artisan's community of Deir el-Medîna on the west bank of Thebes which had its floruit in the Ramesside period, has also yielded a wealth of information on the social and juridical systems. A great number of ostraca, papyri and inscriptions form the base on which the main outlines of the system of administering law can be reconstructed. This richly documented monograph tries to find answers to problems like: who were the members of the village council (the knb.t)? Which cases did it deal with by itself and which were rather put before the village oracle? And, finally, what juridical cases occupied the minds of the villagers which fell out of the scope of these two main means to regulate the social life of community?

The Vignettes in the Book of the Dead of Neferrenpet
H. MILDE
1991 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 7)
VIII, 284 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-207-9

The volume is an inquiry into the illustrations found with practically every spell in the Book of the Dead of Neferrenpet, a sculptor from Deir el-Medîna who lived in the early nineteenth dynasty. After an attempt to recover the correct relation to the accompanying text, each vignette of the papyrus Neferrenpet is compared with parallels in older, contemporaneous and younger documents in order to establish the specific position of this Book of the Dead in the iconographical development as it becomes manifest in this type of funerary literature.
The Brussels part of the papyrus, published by Louis Speleers in 1917, could be complemented with a hitherto unpublished Book of the Dead from the University Museum in Philadelphia. Neferrenpet's Book of the Dead (as far as preserved now) is photographically reconstituted on 42 plates. The extant sheets of a duplicate papyrus in the British Museum follow on six additional plates.

Village Varia. Ten Studies on the History and Administration of Deir el-Medina
Jac.J. JANSSEN
1997 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 11)
X, 192 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-211-7

In "Ten Studies on the History and Administration of Deir el-Medîna" the author discusses various subjects pertaining to the community of necropolis workmen at Thebes during the New Kingdom. Some illustrate particular aspects of their life in general, such as the sources of and the rights to their provisions or their free time, others deal with individual texts or events and their relations with the authorities.

Who’s Who at Deir el-Medina. A Prosopographic Study of the Royal Workmen’s Community
Benedict G. DAVIES
1999 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 13)
XXIV, 317 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-213-3

This book investigates the family histories and relationships of the royal artisans who lived in the village of Deir el-Medîna during the Ramesside Period - from the highest ranking officials to the ordinary workman. The author has provided a unique reference work that traces the careers of the community's most important personalities. The results of his meticulous research will undoubtedly serve as an indispensable tool in the identification of individuals and in the dating and interpretation of texts from this unique Egyptian settlement.

Deir el-Medina in the Third Millennium A.D. A Tribute to Jac.J. Janssen
Edited by R.J. DEMARÉE and A. EGBERTS
2000 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 14)
X, 374 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-214-1

This book contains 27 contributions by authors from various countries, all dealing with the ancient Egyptian village of Deir el-Medîna. Most contributions focus on the New Kingdom community of Deir el-Medîna, when the village was inhabited by the workmen who constructed and decorated the royal tombs of western Thebes. The contributions include publications of unknown texts, new interpretations of published texts, and studies of the archaeological remains, the administration, the economy, the school system, and religious life at Deir el-Medîna.

Women at Deir el-Medina. A Study of the Status and Roles of the Female Inhabitants in the Workmen’s Community during the Ramesside Period
J. TOIVARI-VIITALA
2001 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 15)
VIII, 293 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-215-X

The non-literary Deir el-Medîna ostraca texts form the main source material for this study of the women of the royal workmen's community. The life-span of the household provides the frame within which women's social roles and status are discussed by examining women's titles, actions, circumstances, as well as opinions voiced by and about women.

Writing in a Workmen’s Village. Scribal Practice in Ramesside Deir el-Medina
Edited by B. HARING and K. DONKER van HEEL
2003 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 16)
X, 218 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-216-8

Four studies on the daily practice of the scribes of Deir el-Medina. Under the heading "duplication", the first chapter looks into the use of drafts or mother copies, and the second deals with the work of five individual scribes. Under the heading "classification", the third chapter presents a survey of the words used by the scribes when referring to their products, the documents, and the fourth looks at the method of reconstructing ancient classifications by the clustering of texts with identical headings.
Together, these chapters reconstruct the individual and collective habits of those who have produces the mass of texts found at Deir el-Medina, the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens.

Woodcutters, Potters and Doorkeepers. Service Personnel of the Deir el-Medina Workmen
Jac.J. JANSSEN, Elizabeth FROOD, Maren GOECKE-BAUER
2003 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 17)
VIII, 170 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-217-6

The community of necropolis workmen of Deir el-Medina was part of the administrative branch responsible for the preparation of the royal tombs. To this department also belonged several groups of service personnel. This volume presents separate studies on three groups of this service staff. Two of these belonged to the so-called smdt, namely the woodcutters and the potters, while the third group occupies a position somewhere in between the workmen and the smdt, the doorkeepers.

Dating Late XIXth Dynasty Ostraca
Mark COLLIER
2004 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 18)
XIV, 164 pp., 9 pp. plates; ISBN 90-6258-218-4

Since many ostraca from the environs of Deir el-Medina lack specific regnal year dates, dating them precisely is a tricky business. This volume attempts to provide comparative datings for 78 ostraca (and papyri) from the late XIXth dynasty. The method draws explicitly on the division of the gang into two sides and, crucially, makes full use (for the first time) of the specific ordering of workmen’s names to be found in documentation from this period. The archaeological context of the important body of late XIXth dynasty material from the Valley of the Kings is investigated and it is shown that the datings proposed here on comparative grounds correlate strongly with the grouping of the ostraca by excavation and find-site.

Donkeys at Deir el-Medina
Jac.J. JANSSEN
2005 (Egyptologische Uitgaven, 19)
XI, 127 pp.; ISBN 90-6258-219-2

Donkeys played a substantial role in the life of the necropolis workmen of Deir el-Medina. Based on a corpus of administrative texts consisting of 124 ostraca and 3 papyri, this work focuses on the economic aspect and the function of donkeys as means of transport. After a detailed study of all texts, separate chapters are devoted to the treatment and the work of the animals; their owners, hirers and buyers; the price of hire; and the vocabulary and the formulae used in these texts.

But also – these theses and articles (and probably much more can be found on the web, when searched properly)

Häggman, Sofia (2002). Directing Deir el-Medina: The External Administration of the Necropolis. Doctoral thesis. (English) Uppsala University, Humanistisk-samhällsvetenskapliga vetenskapsområdet, Faculty of Arts, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History. 2002. 453 pp. ISBN: 91-506-1627-7

Synopsis: This study analyses the administrative structure of the Theban Necropolis, with focus on the changes it underwent in the mid- and late 20th dynasty. The structure of the administration is studied in terms of a patterns of contact between the Necropolis and officials representing other institutions. The officials and institutions that are discussed are the king, the vizier, the mayors of Thebes, and the House of Amun, most commonly represented by its head, the high priest of Amun.

The analysis is divided into four chronological phases. The 19th and early 20th dynasties (c. 1294-1153 BC) represent a period during which the administration followed the pattern established in the late 18th dynasty. This phase of relative stability is followed by a period of change in the mid-20th Dynasty, including the end of the reign of Ramesses III as well as the short reigns of Ramesses IV-VIII (c. 1153-1123 BC). The source material from this period reflects a change in the patterns of contact between the Necropolis and external authorities.

An examination of the administrative patterns of the late 20th Dynasty, covering the reigns of Ramesses IX-XI, with the era termed wHm mswt, (c. 1123-1070 BC) as well as the early 21st dynasty (c. 1070-996 BC) concludes the study. The administrative structure detectable in the documentation from the reign of Ramesses XI is further crystallized in the wHm mswt. In the 21st Dynasty the same pattern is found in a more condensed form, as formerly independent offices linked to the Necropolis are merged and held by one person, as the complex central government of the New Kingdom is replaced by a regional administrative focus.

This study also deals with the effects that these changes had on the workmen’s community of Deir el-Medina. In this context the abandonment of the walled village and changes in the character of Necropolis work, as well as in the internal administration of the work force, are discussed.

Frood, Elizabeth A. The potters of Deir el-Medina. Thesis (M.A.)--Univ. of Auckland, 1997. Unpublished.

no synopsis

Meskell, L.M. 1997. Egyptian Social Dynamics: The Evidence of Age, Sex and Class in Domestic and Mortuary Contexts. PhD thesis Archaeology Department, Cambridge.

no synopsis

Meskell, L.M.: An archaeology of social relations in an Egyptian village. IN: Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, Springer Netherlands, Volume 5, Number 3 / September, 1998

Postprocessual archaeology has placed great importance on individuals and social interaction, though in practice this often proves  difficult project to realize. The rich archaeological and cultural data offered in an Egyptian context suggest that it is possible to identify how specific individuals and groups functioned with a domestic context, taking into account the complex vectors of social inequality—age, sex, class, status, and life experience. In the process, this paper seeks to question the narrow construal ofgender as analogous to the domain of women, and show the inadequacies of such an approach. It offers an opportunity to mesh material culture with social theory by linking sociocultural, spatial, and temporal data.

Haring, Ben: From Oral Practice to Written Record in Ramesside Deir el-Medina, IN: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Brill Academic Publishers, Volume 46, Number 3 / September, 2003

The thousands of hieratic ostraca and papyri from the Ramesside settlement of necropolis workmen at Deir el-Medina include many texts about private business and legal matters. The majority of standard formulas in these records did not develop before the first half of the 20th dynasty, whereas most of the formulas current in administrative texts of the necropolis already existed in the 19th dynasty. The later increase in and formalization of private and legal texts suggest that writing became only gradually popular in village life. Studies of similar processes in anthropological and historical literature help to explain this development in an exceptionally literate village community.

And there is much much more out there... 

A systematic Bibliography on Deir el-Medina compiled by  J.F.Borghouts, R.J.Demarée, R. van  Walsem and H.O.Willems can be found on this page