REFERENCE ONLY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON THESIS Degree Y Year Name of Author YV C - C O P Y R IG H T This is a thesis accepted for a Higher Degree of the University of London. It is an unpublished typescript and the copyright is held by the author. All persons consulting the thesis must read and abide by the Copyright Declaration below. COPYRIGHT DECLARATION I recognise that the copyright of the above-described thesis rests with the author and that no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. LOAN Theses may not be lent to individuals, but the University Library may lend a copy to approved libraries within the United Kingdom, for consultation solely on the premises of those libraries. Application should be made to: The Theses Section, University of London Library, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. REPRODUCTION University of London theses may not be reproduced without explicit written permission from the University of London Library. Enquiries should be addressed to the Theses Section of the Library. Regulations concerning reproduction vary according to the date of acceptance of the thesis and are listed below as guidelines. A. Before 1962. Permission granted only upon the prior written consent of the author. (The University Library will provide addresses where possible). B. 1962 - 1974. In many cases the author has agreed to permit copying upon completion of a Copyright Declaration. C. 1975 - 1988. Most theses may be copied upon completion of a Copyright Declaration. D. 1989 onwards. Most theses may be copied. This thesis comes within category D. This copy has been deposited in the Library__________________ of This copy has been deposited in the University of London Library, Senate □ House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. C:\Documents and Settings\lproctor.ULL\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK36\Copyright - thesis.doc Aspects of health, injury and disease amongst the non-elite workforces of Dynastic Egypt Caroline Susan Hebron Institute of Archaeology University College London Ph.D. 1 UMI Number: U592872 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U592872 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract The non-elite workforces in ancient Egypt were at risk from incurring injuries and acquiring diseases due to the nature of their occupational activities. Manual labour forces were conscripted and relocated to comply with the requirements of corvee duties. Craft specialisation ensured that the performance of particular tasks provided a focal point in the life experience of the non-elite individual, determining their role within society and defining the practical demands of the activity, in terms of expertise and productivity. The intensive manual tasks associated with the processes of quarrying and construction and the repetitive activities inherent in industrial and domestic occupations would have determined the health status of the non-elite individual, potentially manifesting as characteristic and occupation-related physical anomalies. It is unlikely that the social and cultural environment of ancient Egypt would facilitate the recognition of these issues and address the debilitating effects consequential to occupational tasks. The sources of evidence are surveyed and analysed utilising the textual, artistic, archaeological and human remains sources. Published textual and artistic sources and their interpretations are reassessed. Theoretical models for the working and living conditions at settlement sites based upon published reports and emerging archaeological data have been created. The sources from a number of non-elite cemetery sites are incorporated to explore the possibility of accessing evidence for non-elite health from the human remains. The anticipated prevalence of injuries and diseases appears to be under-represented in the ancient sources, prompting an evaluation of the ancient ideological and cultural perspectives, evidential survival and consequent interpretative limitations imposed upon the data. The sources are reviewed within the social and cultural environment that determined the elite attitude towards the non-elite workforces and consequently dictated their fate, in addition to their inclusion or omission from the ancient record. 2 List of Contents Page Abstract 2 List of contents 3 Table of figures 7 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 10 I The health of non-elite workforces: interpretative environment and historical perspective 12 1.1. Theoretical framework 12 1.2. Defining the non-elite workforces 13 1.3. The health of non-elite workforces: historical perspective 19 1.4. The concept of disease in an ancient context 23 1.5. The evidence and its interpretation 25 Section One 29 Survey, analysis and interpretation of the evidence for health, injury and disease amongst the non-elite workforces of ancient Egypt Introduction 29 2 Expedition texts 37 2.1. Ideology of procurement 39 2.2. Personnel 40 2.3. Working conditions and health implications 43 2.4. The absentee list from Deir el-Medina 47 3 Domestic religion 49 3.1. Letters to the dead 51 3.2. jj§ikrn R cstelae 53 3.3. Amuletic decrees 53 3.4. Divine intervention 54 3 ‘Literature’ 56 4.1. The role of fate and Maat in society and the concept of misfortune 56 4.2. Attitudes towards death 60 4.3. Satire of the trades 63 Medical texts 66 5.1. The Edwin Smith papyrus: the traumatic conditions 68 5.2. The Edwin Smith papyrus: the incantations and recipes 73 5.3. The Ebers papyrus 74 5.4. The perceived causes of diseases and injuries and treatment methods 76 Trauma in artistic representation 81 6.1. Occupation-related trauma 82 6.2. Surgical procedure 92 Anatomical abnormalities in artistic representation 95 7.1. Anatomical abnormalities with possible occupational origins 96 7.2. Condition-related occupations 106 Protective equipment in artistic representation 111 8.1. Heat protection 111 8.2. Protective clothing 113 8.3. Protection from drowning 113 Occupational tasks in artistic representation 115 9.1. Direct health implications 118 9.2. Indirect health implications 118 Archaeological evidence and public health issues 120 10.1. Urbanisation in ancient Egypt and the interpretation of settlement archaeology 120 10.2. The archaeology of settlements and public health issues 123 10.3. Settlement archaeology data sets 125 10.4. The pattern of infection as derived from settlement data 136 10.5. Urbanisation and population resistance factors 149 4 11 Archaeological evidence and occupational health issues 157 11.1. The archaeological evidence for pyramid building and the potential health issues 159 12 Human remains evidence 164 12.1. Human remains data sets 165 12.2. Human remains evidence, nutritional status and health 173 12.3. Human remains and work-related health issues 176 12.4. Human remains and the evidence for medical intervention 179 Section Two 184 Evaluation of the sources in the light of the evidential biases Introduction 184 13 Biases in the documentary sources and their affect upon our ability to access information regarding the health of non-elite workforces 185 13.1. Excavation biases 185 13.2. Evidential survival 186 13.3. Documentary interpretation 187 13.4. Cultural and literacy biases 190 14 Biases in the artistic representational sources comprising the presentation of the human form and scenes of occupational activity and their effect upon our ability to access information regarding the health of the non-elite worker 193 14.1. Excavation, survival and burial practice biases 193 14.2. Artistic representation interpretation 197 14.3. Cultural and ideological biases 198 14.4. Conventions relating to the depiction of the human figure 200 14.5. Conventions and the depiction of anatomical abnormalities 203 5 15 Biases in the archaeological evidence for settlement sites and associated occupational settings and their affect upon our ability to access information regarding the health of non-elite workforces 207 15.1. Evidential survival 207 15.2. Professional and excavation biases 209 15.3. Settlement archaeology interpretation 212 16 Biases in the human remains data for injuries and diseases and their affect upon our ability to access information regarding the health of non-elite workforces 219 16.1 Evidential survival 219 16.2 Excavation biases 225 16.3 Data interpretation 228 Section Three 234 Concluding section Introduction 234 17 What the sources say about the health, injuries and diseases of the non-elite workforces of ancient Egypt 235 17.1. Evaluation of the sources in terms of non-elite health issues 235 17.2. Evaluation of the sources in terms of the social implications of disadvantage 243 17.3. Evaluation of the sources in terms of their contribution to our understanding of how the non-elite were perceived within society and whether their health issues prompted broader social consideration 248 Conclusions 260 Appendix 1: Tables 268 Appendix 2: Figures 290 Glossary 311 Bibliography 313 6 Table