Housing in a workers' village:
Deir el Medine
The village
Deir
el Medine was not an ordinary village populated by farmers and their
dependents but a community of craftsmen, painters, masons, scribes,
sculptors and their families. As such they were probably better educated
and more affluent than most Egyptians.
The
village was 50 metres wide by 130 metres long and completely enclosed by a
wall. Its main street was two to three metres wide. The houses, most of
them roughly the same size, were chiefly built of stone. This was unusual
in pharaonic Egypt and due to the settlements distance from the banks of
the Nile, where mud was available for the production of bricks.
The average house size was about 4m by 20m, the
smallest houses measured 13m by 4m, while the largest, probably belonging
to foremen, were up to 6 metres wide and 27 metres long. The height of the
roofs was between 3 and 5 metres. The thinness of the walls suggests that
there were no upper stories, though the flat roofs were accessible by
stairs.
Deir el Medine differed from ordinary settlements in
another respect. Over the centuries other villages rose slowly above the
plain, when people rebuilt their houses on top of the debris of former
accommodations. The ground level of Deir el Medine remained the same.
Houses must have collapsed here as well, which means that the rubble was
reused or cleared away before rebuilding.
A typical dwelling
In comparison with Djehutinefer's townhouse these people lived under rather cramped conditions, without the possibility of adding further living space. This kind of house had a long tradition. At Gizeh 4th dynasty appartments have been found consisting of a small vestibule, a main room, and a small niche or inner room which probably served as a bedroom, your basic 2½ room flat.
Entering a house from the
three metre wide street one descended a few steps. The whitewashed
entrance hall contained a construction similar to a cupboard bed, the
bottom of which was 75 cm above the floor with a three step stair leading
up to it. It was decorated with a painting of the god Bes. It's use is
uncertain.
Through a further door one entered the main hall, the qa'a. In its centre a wooden pillar supported the roof. The chair of the master of the house stood on a little dais. The room was lit by a window set high in the wall above the first room. Alcoves in the wall contained holy images and perhaps busts of ancestors. In front of a false door there might be a table with symbolic or real offerings. Most of the social and official activities took place in this room. Typically this room would be furnished with at least a chair for the master of the house and a number of stools for guests or family members, one ore more tables and perhaps a chest (see furniture). The walls were decorated with paintings.
Lifting a trapdoor in the dais one could descend a stair into a cellar, the safest place in the house where valuables could be kept.
Adjacent to the hall there was a bed room, which served for storage as well. If the family was large they would have to use the hall as well for sleeping and, the weather permitting, the roof. It is questionable whether all the family had bedsteads. Possibly most of them slept on mattresses which could be rolled up and put away when not in use. The ceiling of this room was appreciably lower than that of the hall.
Another door led from the hall to a small corridor and to the kitchen which was not properly roofed over, but had just a covering of branches to give the cooks shade and let the smells escape. An oven for baking bread, a kneading-trough and a mill or a mortar set into the floor were necessary items in every household. There may also have been a table for preparing food, but most of the activity took place on the ground, with people kneeling or crouching. Some kitchens had a cellar which served as a larder.The rooms had varying heights and were at different levels with steps between them and doors. The reason for the uneven floor may be simply topographical. The lower ceilings in the smaller rooms had two advantages, less building material had to be prepared and transported, and there was an opportunity for lighting and ventilating inner rooms through windows. The possibility of inserting windows in sidewalls did not exist as most of the houses shared these walls with neighbouring habitations.
No signs of a bathroom or a fixed toilet have been found. They probably washed using a bowl and relieved themselves outdoors or on a toilet stool.
Information provided by: http://www.reshafim.org.il