Author Description

This volume is the second in the series of publications on the Museum's excavations in the South Cemeteries of Lisht, Egypt. The series will eventually include contributions on a wide range of subjects, such as religious architecture, wall decoration and religious texts, works of art and funerary equipment. While the first volume described the funerary complex of an Egyptian king, the inscriptions published here supply important information about the organization of labor at an ancient construction site: the workmen, the scheduling of transport and building activities, and the control of the compulsory labor system. The inscriptions are inconspicuous, most of them were written by untrained hands with rough brushes on the coarse surface of building stones, yet they provide a behind-the-scenes view of the construction process of pharaonic architecture. Philippe de Montebello Director, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, from the director's foreword