Experience a Week in Ancient Egypt | Day 2: The Tomb Builder
Imagine a village in 1250 BC where almost everyone can read and write, at a time when global literacy hovers around 3%.
This is Day 2 of our 7-part series: 7 Days in Ancient Egypt.
Today, you are a tomb builder in Deir el-Medina — one of the most extraordinary working-class communities ever excavated. Tucked behind the cliffs that hide the Valley of the Kings, this village of 68 houses produced the men who carved the royal tombs of Ramesses II. They had latrines. They kept legal records. The women could own property, divorce their husbands, and sue in court. And when their grain rations were late, they staged the first recorded labor strike in human history.
You will chisel the face of Anubis into solid stone by oil-lamp light, eat honey on fresh cheese for breakfast, and walk home at sunset along a cliff path overlooking all of Thebes. Your wife is keeping books in her own name. Your son is faster at reading than you were at his age.
Using AI trained on archaeological evidence and tens of thousands of surviving ostraca — pottery fragments used as scrap paper — we've reconstructed what one day of life in this remarkable village actually looked like.
🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss Day 3 — the priest who dresses a god before dawn, alone, in a room smaller than a closet, believing that if he gets it wrong the sun will not rise.
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