Texts discovered near the Valley of the Kings contain an account of the lives of the workers who built the tombs in the valley. The workers were housed in a village nearby, and some of those houses are still recognizable in the present-day village of Deir el-Medina. The workers were called “Servants in the Place of Truth,” and from the limestone tablets and fragments of papyrus that were discovered at Deir el-Medina, it is possible to construct a vivid picture of the workers' lives.
The documents contain reports, letters, lists of absentees, contracts, invoices, wills, and other administrative records, as well as educational, literary, and magical texts. The documents describe a privileged group of artisans who were engaged in building and decorating royal tombs on a full-time basis. Their wages were paid by the government in the form of rations, and their managers were directly accountable to the vizier, who visited the valley to inspect their work at regular intervals.
The texts also reveal a good deal about the local economy and the trading, borrowing, and lending that took place among the villagers. All goods had fixed prices, expressed in quantities of grain or silver, but were actually paid for in kind. Any dispute about a transaction could be submitted to the local council, where judgment was pronounced by a group of important villagers. There is also a record of the earliest known strikes in history. When there were delays in the distribution of rations during and after the reign of Ramses III, the workers put down their tools and marched in protest to show their displeasure and their hunger.
This wall painting from the time of the 18th dynasty depicts a scribe hunting gazelles from a chariot.