Tutankhamun's Egypt - 10. Art and Artisans (BBC)
Oct 15, 2025
From the famous 1972 Tutankhamun Exhibition at the British Museum, Cyril Aldred introduces a programme on the role of artists in ancient Egypt.
Artists rarely signed their work and were considered primarily as craftsmen, often depicted alongside potters, metal workers, goldsmiths and other artisans. They appear to have worked an eight-hour day, with a rest on the tenth day, and were paid in kind. When the rations did not arrive, they downed tools. Were these the first recorded strikes in history?
King Tutankhamun was buried about the year 1350 BC in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings at western
Thebes with a whole treasure house of objects around him. A kind of time capsule of his age
and culture. Some of these objects are of great opulence and mystery and most have a strange
beauty. Looking at them and thinking about their use and significance on the needs that commissioned
them and the minds that devised them there is a danger of overlooking the hands that made them
with such skill and devotion. In walking with kings and their retinue there is a tendency to
ignore the artist and the craftsman straggling in the rear. Perhaps it is time therefore to leave
the palace and to visit the workshop. In fact the artist's studios were often not far from the
palaces. Here is the sculptor Yuti in his workshop within the palace of Queen Ti. He's putting the
finishing touches to a statue of the queen's daughter. A sculptor's studio was found in the
ruins of a palace at Amarna, the site of a great new capital city built by the heretic pharaoh
Akhenaten who was the predecessor of Tutankhamun. This plaster head of Akhenaten was found there.
Other studies included plaster masks of an unknown woman,
an elderly man and a bust of Akhenaten's chief queen Nefertiti.
There also seems to have been a factory attached to the palace where the art of
glass making was practiced under royal patronage.
This glass bottle in the form of a fish comes from there.
Clever craftsmen were held in high esteem and this stela
shows the chief goldsmith of Amenophis III receiving homage from his sons.
One of his sons Paranepha was also an artist. He worked for King Akhenaten who gave him an
honorary position as his cup bearer. Kings themselves weren't above being considered as
artists. King Thutmose III himself designed a set of metal vessels as a gift for the temple at Karnak.
In the sixth dynasty the great officials like Mereruka showed themselves in their tomb reliefs
as seated before an easel. Here Mereruka is painting a representation of the three seasons
of the Egyptian year. Apart from those of kings and high officials the works that can be accredited
to specific artists are very rare. However the bust of Nefertiti may possibly be by the chief
craftsman Thutmose. A scrap of ivory found in the workshop bore his name and titles and informed us
that he was the king's favourite. Fair of face, joyous with the double plume, mistress of
happiness, endowed with favour, adhering whose voice one rejoices, lady of grace,
great of love whose disposition cheers the lord of the two lands.
An ebony head thought to be of queen tea may well be by the hand of her chief sculptor Yuti.
This stela is of Akhenaten's chief sculptor Bak and his wife.
Bak describes himself as a favourite whom the king had taught.
He carved his own self-portrait with the fashionable distortion of Akhenaten's pronounced
paunch. From the old kingdom comes this relief of the sculptor Nyanktar taking his ease in a skiff.
He's watching the other boatmen who are engaged in mock battles.
Nyanktar was responsible for the designing of these scenes
but otherwise the names of very few artists are known to us. The artist was considered
chiefly as a craftsman and sculptors are often shown as ordinary workmen alongside metalsmiths
about the year 2000 BC by a sculptor who boasts of his mastery of various crafts and also claims
to be a scribe well versed in the divine books. Such books were often kept in temple libraries
and consulted whenever the correct form of a statue or a relief was required to be revived.
Over the years constant repetition frequently caused the artist to stray from the original.
In the earliest days of Egypt when the centre of culture was at the city of Memphis
it was the city god Tar who was the patron of all artistic enterprises.
He was said to have made things with his hands as solace for his heart. His high priest bore the
title of greatest of craftsmen. Imhotep the great chancellor of king Zoser designed the step pyramid
about 2700 BC. It was the first stone building of any size in the near east. On the base of a statue
of Zoser he bears the title of chief of sculptors. He too was a high priest and it was such literate
men who designed ancient Egyptian buildings, their decoration and contents. Later there were workshops
under the patronage of other gods besides Tar. Two designers in the great temple of the god Amun
signed this work. Thanks to them we can also ascribe to their hands another similar group
that of king Thutmose IV and his mother. Such designers had specialised in the fine and
decorative arts the practice of which was handed down from father to son.
They knew all the techniques used by the craftsmen under their charge
and supervised the joiners, jewelers, goldsmiths and other artisans.
The vizier Rekmire was in charge of these workshops of the god Amun at Thebes.
It was an official of Amun who was commissioned to provide the rich funeral equipment which was
bestowed as a royal gift on Yuya and Tuyu. They were the grandparents of Tutankhamun.
The treasurer Maya commissioned an effigy of Tutankhamun for the king's burial. The men who
actually made such things worked under supervision in their studios. Only in their leisure hours could
they make something for themselves or for less exalted patrons. A walled village at Deir el
Medina in western Thebes contains the houses in which generations of these artisans lived.
Over a period of five centuries from about 1500 BC they hewed and decorated tombs in the Valley
of the Kings and in other royal burial places. This village was divided into two parts by a
street. One or two narrow lanes joined it at right angles. The houses were built in groups
and shared party walls. Their lower courses were constructed of rough blocks of limestone.
The upper parts and subsidiary walls were built of mud brick and plastered with mud. Door frames
and thresholds were of stone. The houses were one story high and were all built on a similar plan
which consisted of a reception room leading into a higher living room.
Its ceiling supported by one or two wooden columns which rested on stone bases.
From this room one door led into the bedroom and another into the kitchen. A staircase led
to the roof where much of the daily life was spent. This is a drawing of one such house in
this village. Living conditions today in the rural areas are scarcely any different.
The excavation of this site by the French during the interwar years has uncovered many clues that
enable us to reconstruct the history of the village. Families of artisans lived in these
houses and their employment was hereditary. For instance the post of secretary to the community
was in the hands of six successive members of the same family. The secretaries often wrote on
flakes of limestone. Some of these documents record disputes which were settled by a village council.
Severe punishments however were in the hands of the vizier who was in supreme charge.
He visited the site from time to time to inspect progress and listened to complaints. These were
quite frequent and usually concerned shortages in the supply of rations. When protests had no effect
the workmen downed tools. These disputes were the first recorded strikes of history.
The artists and craftsmen had labourers to toil for them, to wash their clothes and to grind their
rations of barley and wheat which provided their basic diet of bread and beer. They were mostly
paid in kind and this food was part of their wages. Fishermen caught perch and other fish for
them in the Nile, while lesser servants drew water and hewed wood for their daily needs.
Another document, this time on papyrus, is the architect's plan of the tomb of Ramesses IV.
This detail shows the sarcophagus surrounded by its shrines. The tomb of the king still survives
along with its sarcophagus but the gilded shrines have of course long since disappeared. Careful
measurements by the archaeologist Howard Carter show how precisely the workmen followed the
architect's plan. The team was divided into two gangs, each under the charge of a foreman.
One worked on the left and the other on the right hand side of the tomb.
Their working day was surprisingly enough eight hours with a break at midday but their working
week consisted of 10 days. During this time they lived and slept in rough huts near the site.
On their rest days and the many feast days they returned to their homes and families in the
village. Some of the artisans were sufficiently well off to prepare tombs for themselves close to
their houses. One such tomb is that of the workman Synergy. Here he is shown with his wife
enjoying an idyllic pastoral life in the afterworld. In view of the sensational ideas that
still persist, that the royal tombs were hewn by gangs of slaves toiling under the lash of a task
master, it is reassuring to learn that the workmen of this community enjoyed a fairly high standard
of living. They worked an eight-hour day, had regular holidays, their board and lodging was
assured and indeed they had a great deal of independence and self-government in many of
their everyday affairs.