The Village. The ancient village located at Deir el Medina provides the best documentation for the social organization of a group of skilled workers during the New Kingdom (circa 1539-1075 B.C.E.). Deir el Medina is the modern name of a village on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes (present-day Luxor). In ancient Egyptian it was called "The Place of Truth" (Set-Maat) and was the home of the artists who decorated the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the New Kingdom. Because the artists could read and write, they left behind personal records that allow Egyptologists to reconstruct their lives. For almost three hundred years, one can follow many families who worked directly for the pharaoh's building and decorated his tomb.

The Residents. The village at its greatest extent had seventy...