Name: Comparing the Workman's Villages of Ancient Egypt by David Pepper
Start: 2025-11-17T19:00:00-07:00
Location: Hampden Hall

Comparing the Workman's Villages of Ancient Egypt by David Pepper

Four villages which housed the homes and workshops of ancient Egyptian craftsmen have been discovered.
The Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty village that supported the pyramids, temples, and tombs at Giza; the Middle Kingdom 12th Dynasty village of craftsmen at Lahun, where Senusret II built his pyramid; and two New Kingdom 18th Dynasty villages at Deir el Medina, and Amarna.
How were these villages similar? How were they different? What has been found at these sites? And, what does this tell us about who lived there, and how they lived?
The answers to these questions are found in detailed excavation reports and the objects now housed in collections in museums around the world.
At the November ESS meeting, David Pepper will present his findings of how these villages developed over time, and what is known about their occupants. Although each village could be a lecture on their own, much can be learned about them by comparing how they developed over a thousand years, and what their similarities and differences are.

David Pepper is a retired aerospace engineer with a lifelong interest in Ancient Egypt. He was one of the founders of the Egyptian Study Society (Denver), and was formerly an editor of its publications, The Ostracon, and Scribe’s Palette.
Over the past 40 years, David has presented many lectures and classes about Ancient Egypt around the Denver-Boulder area. A number of his past lectures are available on the Egyptian Study Society’s YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOFD1PG8jiMuwzdymWlVwXA
He was a volunteer docent at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science between 1985 and 2005.
He’s currently vice-president on the Board of Trustees of The Amarna Research Foundation, www.TheAmarnaResearchFoundation.org, a fund-raising organization that supports excavations and conservation projects in Egypt, and is editor of their publication, The Akhetaten Sun.
David is especially interested in the Amarna Period and has published two books: Akhenaten’s Royal Court: They city at Amarna and its Officials, and After Akhenaten: What happened to his Royal Court? (both are available at Amazon)
David and his wife, Jill, have visited Egypt many times, and have been study leaders on several trips to Egypt.
ancient sites wherever he traveled and he is a long time ESS Member. Dennis has a Bachelors degree in History from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, a Masters in Strategic Planning from the Naval War College in Newport, RI, and a Masters in Liberal Arts with a concentration in History from Harvard University.
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83764908842