Egyptian (beer for the) workers

[Tomas Lipps <tmlipps@zzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

in 1970, as I stood before the pyramids, I envisioned larger shapes
looming over them.  these were the mountains of FUL.  that is to say
BEANS, that fueled the armies of workers and enabled them to perform
their architectonic feats, the monumental effigies, the obelisks, the
pyramidal "time capsules".  the worksite atmosphere was remarkably
pungent.  (ful is still a food staple there)   I can speak with
authority as I was employed there/then too, but as a muralist; this
was before I began a long series of lives as a stonemason. (this is
the last one, next time I get to be a jazz musician).  but I digress,
I just wanted to share this with you:

Pyramid Builders' Village Found in Egypt

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
Updated September 18, 2002
New evidence uncovered at Giza is adding to our knowledge of who
built the great pyramids, and how they accomplished this timeless
feat.

The University of Chicago/Harvard University Giza Plateau Mapping
Project, sponsored in part this season by National Geographic and led
by archaeologist Mark Lehner, has made several new discoveries in an
area lying south of the Sphinx near the workers' cemetery.

The area, often called the "workers' village," is the site of a vast
community that thrived some 4,500 years ago on the Giza Plateau. It
may have housed as many as 20,000 people.

Every discovery in the area is an important piece to a puzzle with no
written key. "On the site we really have no texts," Lehner says, "so
we interpret from what we find on the ground."

Ancient Beds Suggest Barracks Structures

Among this season's interesting finds are mud ramps approximately one
meter wide, believed to be bed platforms. Ancient beds were often
designed with the foot a bit lower than the head.

The beds were found within large "galleries," or colonnaded porches
half open to the sky, which allowed sunlight to stream in and smoke
to float out. Lehner believes the galleries may have served as a
dormitory or barracks for temporary workers, providing sleeping
quarters for as many as 2,000 people at once. Originally excavated
during the 1999 to 2002 field seasons, the galleries appear to be
part of a vast complex that also housed activities such as
copper-working and cooking.

Chambers in the rear of the sleeping galleries may have been used for
cooking, roasting, and baking-suggesting that some of the food
production for workers might have been done on site.

The presence of a barracks could help explain the abundance of
pottery, ash, and refuse found in the area, especially the tremendous
amounts of animal bone. "When we excavate we find enough animal meat
bone to feed several thousands of people," Lehner reported. "This
would explain why."

The bones in the area suggest that workers enjoyed quite a lot of
prime beef. Previous excavations have discovered that they also ate
bread and fish, and drank beer.

Analysis of human remains has suggested that workers apparently had
access to medical treatment. Evidence has been found of healed broken
bones, amputated limbs, and even brain surgeries.

Evidence of a New Workers' Town

This year's research also uncovered evidence of a separate workers'
town, dubbed "the Eastern town," complete with courtyards, chambers,
and houses. "It looks like a typical settlement, and that's what we
had expected," Lehner said. "But we found these curious long
galleries and we didn't know what they were."

"If the galleries mean thousands of people, and the Eastern town
means substantial numbers of people, they were people who moved in
very different ways," Lehner explained. "In the Eastern town, the
powers that be are allowing them to organize themselves as they see
fit."

Lehner speculates that the Eastern town housed skilled craftsmen,
artisans, stone masons, quarrymen, overseers, and officials. The
discovery of the town area reinforces the theory that ancient
Egyptians utilized both permanent skilled labor, and a temporary
workforce to complete the massive construction project.

While such temporary labor was not voluntary, Lehner suggests,
neither was it slave labor in the sense most commonly assumed.

Beginnings of Egyptian Unity?

"It's hard for modern Americans and Europeans to understand what
obligation was like in a traditional pre-modern society," Lehner
said. "Obligation was understood-it was a part of society, which was
sometimes nothing more than your clan or your village."

But while labor in the ancient world was obligatory, Lehner believes
it did not have to be a totally unpleasant experience.

"The picture of a highly centralized bureaucracy going through the
land and conscripting people for labor by force-it's highly
doubtful," said Lehner. "Instead, it's the local rulers, heads of
villages, large estates, that the royal house goes to when they need
labor."

Because the labor pool was a rotating force, contributed by local
authorities from all over Egypt, the Pyramids project may have had a
tremendous socializing effect.

"It was a coming together of people from throughout the land," said
Lehner. "By coming and working in this place, it socialized
information and bound all these disparate areas, these provinces,
into a whole. It was really the beginnings of Egyptian unity."

"That's why I like to say my interest now is not so much how the
Egyptians built the pyramids but how the pyramids helped to build
Egypt."

Site Could Yield First Old Kingdom Royal Palace

While the workforce might have been disparate, the royal house was
likely the driving force behind the pyramids' construction. As
excavations continue, Lehner and his team hope to find further
evidence of royal presence on the site.

A group of mud-brick silos surrounding a rectangular court was also
found this year, which probably stored huge quantities of grain used
for baking bread. They are situated within a royal structure for
storage and administration of the complex, first viewed during the
2001 field season, and excavated in 2002.

"It's been my expectation that we wouldn't have a barracks out there
by itself in the desert," Lehner said. "Whenever they organized
production it was always centered around a household."

On a small-scale project, this might mean an ordinary household. On
bigger projects, it was that of a governor or a palace. "When we
started finding bakeries some ten years ago, my expectation was that
there would be a royal house right there," Lehner said.

Such expectations may yet be realized. The team has uncovered a small
part of some tantalizing remains, which lie primarily beneath a
soccer field.

"We've begun to clear a very big double-walled and triple-walled
building," Lehner enthused, "and inside we find lots of chambers,
evidence of weaving, copperwork and a big court where we found the
sunken silos. It could be a palace, or some sort of administration
building. If this site follows the pattern of other sites, we should
have the residence of an important person on the site."

If that person turns out to be one of the ancient Pharaohs, a unique
archaeological treasure could lie beneath the playing field-Egypt's
first Old Kingdom royal palace.

The new discoveries were featured in a National Geographic Channel
global television event on September 16, 2002.