Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Great's Builders: The Workers Who Made the Monuments
Transcript
- Lucas: We've talked a lot about Ramses the Great's monuments — Abu Simbel, the Ramesseum, Per-Ramesses — but we've barely touched on the thousands of people who actually built them. Not the architects or overseers, but the stonemasons, plasterers, scribes, and laborers who did the work. Luna: So we're talking about the everyday workers, not just the famous names. Lucas: Exactly. And we actually know a surprising amount about them, thanks to an extraordinary archaeological site: the workmen's village of Deir el-Medina. It's on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Thebes, and it was home to the crews who built the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings for nearly 500 years — including Ramses's own tomb, KV7. Lucas: Deir el-Medina is a goldmine for historians because the workers left behind thousands of records written on potsherds and limestone flakes — ostraca — listing everything from daily rations to disputes, medical prescriptions, even love poems. It's like having the personnel files and break-room chatter of Ramses's workforce. Luna: Wait — they wrote on broken pottery? Lucas: Yes, ostraca were the scrap paper of the ancient world. Cheap and abundant. And because the climate at Deir el-Medina is so dry, they survived. These documents give us names, job titles, family relations, and even the occasional complaint. For example, during the reign of Ramses III — not our Ramses, but a later one — there's a record of the first recorded labor strike in history. Luna: A strike? In ancient Egypt? Lucas: Absolutely. Around 1159 BCE, the workers at Deir el-Medina hadn't received their grain rations for over a month — the state's supply system had broken down. So they marched to the mortuary temples of two pharaohs and refused to work until they were paid. The authorities eventually gave in. It's a remarkable reminder that even pharaohs couldn't ignore the basic needs of their labor force. Luna: That's incredible. So what was a typical day like for these builders? Lucas: The workforce was organized into two gangs — one for the left side of the tomb, one for the right — each with a foreman, a deputy, and a crew of about 30 to 40 men. They worked ten-day shifts, followed by two days off. The workday started at dawn and ended at dusk, with breaks for meals. They lived in the village with their families, and the state provided housing, food, and even medical care. Lucas: The actual construction was a massive logistical puzzle. For Ramses's monuments, stone was quarried at Aswan for granite, Gebel el-Silsila for sandstone, and the Eastern Desert for harder stones like diorite. The blocks were transported on barges down the Nile during the flood season, when the water level was high enough to float them close to the building site. Luna: How did they move those enormous blocks without modern machinery? Lucas: They used sledges, wooden rollers, and thousands of laborers pulling ropes. The sledges were often soaked in water to reduce friction on the sand — you can see this in tomb paintings. Ramps were built to raise the blocks into position, and then the stonemasons would chisel them into shape using copper and bronze tools. The precision is astonishing — at the Ramesseum, the joints between stones are often less than a millimeter wide. Lucas: And of course, it wasn't just brute force. The workers were highly skilled. The stonemasons, for example, underwent years of training. They were literate — at least some of them — because they had to read plans and mark measurements. At Deir el-Medina, we've found ostraca with architectural sketches and grid lines used for laying out statues and reliefs. Luna: So they really were professionals, not just conscripted peasants. Lucas: Exactly. The royal tomb builders were a privileged class. They were paid in grain, beer, oil, and other goods — wages that supported their families. Some even accumulated personal wealth. One foreman, Inherkhau, had a tomb of his own at Deir el-Medina, decorated with beautiful scenes of his family and the gods. They had a strong sense of identity and community. Lucas: But it wasn't all good. The work was dangerous — cave-ins, falls, and respiratory problems from stone dust were common. Medical papyri from the village record treatments for eye infections, fractures, and even depression. And the state kept a close eye on them. The vizier, like Ramses's vizier Paser, oversaw the entire operation, making sure the work met the pharaoh's standards. Luna: So Paser wasn't just a bureaucrat — he was the project manager for the biggest construction projects in Egypt. Lucas: Exactly. Paser was essentially the chief operating officer of Ramses's building program. He managed the supply chains, the labor allocations, the budgets. And he reported directly to the pharaoh. Without people like him, and the thousands of workers at Deir el-Medina, Ramses's monuments would never have been built. Lucas: So when we look at the great statues and temples of Ramses II, we should remember that they were made possible by a system that mobilized skilled artisans, fed them, housed them, and gave them a sense of purpose. They weren't slaves — they were craftsmen who took pride in their work, and they left their own mark on history, one ostracon at a time. Luna: That really changes how I see those ruins. They're not just monuments to a king — they're monuments to a whole community of workers. Lucas: Exactly right. And next time, we might look at one specific project — maybe the Ramesseum itself — and trace the entire chain of command from Ramses down to the man with the chisel.