The Workmen's Village, located in the desert east of the ancient city of Akhetaten (modern Amarna), was built during the reign of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. It housed the workers who constructed and decorated the tombs of the city's elite, making it comparable to the better studied Theban workers village of Deir el-Medina. Though an isolated part of Amarna, the Workmen's Village provides many well preserved artifacts and buildings allowing archaeologists to gather much information about how society functioned.
Excavation history
The Workmen's Village has been known since the surveys of Petrie, but was first excavated in 1921 by the Egypt Exploration Society. At this time it was known as the Eastern Village. Two seasons of excavation were undertaken by T. Eric Peet and Leonard Woolley; the first season excavated four houses as a test of the site and the second season excavated approximately half of the village. Some of the tomb chapels that surround the village were also excavated. The Egypt Exploration Society resumed excavations in 1979 led by Barry Kemp and concluded in 1986. These excavations focused on the areas immediately surrounding the walled village.
Walled village
The village is located on the floor of a Y-shaped valley. The South Tombs, which are within easy walking distance, are the only part of the city directly visible from this isolated location. The walled village from which the settlement takes its name occupies an area of approximately 70 square meters and is surrounded by an outer wall thick. It has a single entrance on the southern side and is divided into two unequal halves by an equally thick inner wall; this inner wall is the old outer wall as the western portion of the village is an expansion. Seventy-two houses of identical size are found inside this area, with one larger house with its own garden that presumably belonged to an official overseer; another larger house was found in the western section. Each house was wide and long, and constructed of mudbrick with some stone used around the base of the walls. Thresholds were often made of cut stone but no stone walls were found. The interior was divided into four main rooms: the "entrance hall", "living room", "bedroom", and "kitchen". Stairs, located either in front or rear of the house, led up to a second floor. In some houses the walls had been preserved to a height of . Windows are not preserved but were likely small and high up to let in light but minimize dust. The interiors were once decorated but little survives. Panels of colour were found to begin about from the floor in some houses. The best preserved decoration depicts dancing figures of Bes along with the goddess Taweret, and in a separate house a scene of women and girls who may be musicians or dancers. Finds from within the houses are consistent with everyday life: amulets, beads, fragments of matting, spindle whorls, rings, headrests, and pottery.
The earliest example of human fleas come from the Workmen's Village. High frequencies of both fleas and bed bugs were encountered implying that ectoparasite levels were high in the population, with the cramped conditions of the village serving as a possible breeding ground for disease.
The village contains no well so water along with food stuffs and animal fodder must have been brought in from the city. The likely distribution point is close to a building on the edge of town that probably served as a checkpoint. There is evidence that animals were kept both inside and immediately outside the village. This evidence comes in the form of animal pens in the south-western part of the village and mangers in the main street, as well as buildings directly in front of the village and to the east. The remains of cow, pig, and goat were found in the rubbish dumps. The limited range of cattle bones recovered indicates that joints of beef were likely part of the rations and that they were not being raised on-site. Pigs, fed grain, were raised in covered pens, and goats, fed vegetable material, were raised in separate areas surrounding the village. The inhabitants also made attempts to garden in the areas below and between the chapels outside the village. The fact the villagers were going to such efforts to try to be partially self-sufficient indicates that the state had a limited role in providing for the needs of the people. It can be postulated that the villagers used the animals they raised to pay for the extra water and grain needed for the animals.