From Oral Practice to Written Record in Ramesside Deir el-Medina

Abstract

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 rst 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.Parmi les milliers des ostraca et des papyrus hi ratiques du village des ouvriers de la n cropole de Deir el-Medina, de lÕ poque ramesside, on trouve un grand nombre de textes relatifs aux affaires priv es et juridiques. La plupart de ces textes comprennent des formules standardis es datant de la premi re moiti de la 20i me dynastie, tandis que la majorit des formules habituelles dans les textes administratifs de la n cropole existaient d jˆ plus t™t. LÕaccroissement et la formalisation tardifs des textes priv s et juridiques sugg re que lÕ criture ne se r pandait que lentement dans le village. Les tudes de proc s similaires dans la litt rature anthropologique et historique nous aident ˆ expliquer ce d v loppement dans une communaut exceptionellement lettr e.

Hieroglyphs, Pseudo-Scripts and Alphabets

“…Much of the settlement and its adjoining chapels and workmen's tombs, all situated in the desert, has survived, and the community of necropolis workmen have left a wealth of hieratic texts on papyri and ostraca, in addition to the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the royal and private monuments they produced. 42 Their work on inscribed monuments and objects, the presence of locally based scribes, and close contact with government officials resulted in an exceptional level of literacy within this community during the Ramesside Period (1292-1077 BC: Baines & Eyre 2007: 89-94;Haring 2003). 43 Being specialists in the construction and decoration of monumental rock tombs, the necropolis workmen used their spare timeof which they seem to have had plentyto create their own monumental tombs, as well as those of their colleagues and superiors, near the settlement (case studies e.g.…”