The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern investigation of Pharaoh's Workforce.

• Author: LEPROHON, RONALD J.
• Position: Review

The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of Pharaoh's Workforce. By ROSALIE DAVID. LONDON: ROUTLEDGE, 1996. Pp. x + 264. 12 illus., 32 plates. $19.95 (paper [cloth ed., 1986]).

This paperback edition of a book first published in 1986 is little changed from the original edition, save for a few passages removed from the chapter on textiles (see pp. 241-45, and first paragraph of p. 246), and one item added to the bibliography on p. 251. The book is a multi-disciplinary study of the objects of daily life found by Flinders Petrie in 1888-89 at Kahun, the town where the workmen who toiled in Senwosret II's mortuary complex lived, situated just north of the king's Valley Temple, half a mile to the east of the pyramid. A major discovery in the annals of Egyptian archaeology, it was the first time that a complete plan of an Egyptian town was uncovered. The objects of everyday life excavated at Kahun--ranging from tools, weapons, and furniture to pottery, textiles, and so forth--were distributed among various museums, but the lion's share of the finds went to the Petrie Museum in University College, London, and to the Manchester Museum of the University of Manchester, where David is Keeper of Egyptology.

The impetus for the present study was the scientific investigation of a mummy carried out in the mid 1970s (see David's Manchester Mummy Project: Multidisciplinary Research on Ancient Egyptian Mummified Remains [Manchester: Manchester Museum, 1979]). A logical development of this work was to assemble another team of scientists, each able to extract relevant information from the objects to be studied. Thus, the book is divided into three parts, on general background, the town of Kahun, and the scientific investigation, respectively. David was responsible for the first two parts, with other scholars contributing to the final three chapters (pp. 207-52).

The first part presents a chapter on geography and a general history of Egypt up to the end of the Middle Kingdom. A second chapter describes the pyramid of Senwosret II at Lahun in the Fayum area, its construction and architectural features, and a brief account of the famous Lahun Treasure, the hoard of jewelry belonging to Sat-Hathor-Iunet, a daughter of Senwosret II. A third chapter, entitled "The Towns of the Royal Workmen," covers the New Kingdom workmen's villages at Tell el-Amarna in Middle Egypt, Deir el Medina on the west bank at Thebes, and Gurob in the Fayum.

The second...