Worth a read

Daily life challenging due to living conditions, dietary restrictions, social interaction.

Occupation period: Pharaonic Times, continued by the Romans with a peak between 1st – 3rd c AD, and to a lesser degree in 4th – 5th c AD; some more during the Byzantine era.

State run operation, wages paid monthly (likely in the city of Qena).

Hierarchy, types and ranks:

Top – overseers and managers

Workers organised in teams, diverse group from various origins – 2 groups:

             Top: skilled labourers (surveying, extracting, transportation)

             Bottom: unskilled labourers (dragging, lifting, loading)

Settlements:

Isolated

Limited number excavated so far

Home to soldiers and civilians, the latter employed as quarrymen. Some evidence of women and children onsite as well.

Quarry sites:

Mons Porphyrites, no evidence of forced labour, or prisoners

Mons Porphyrites and Mons Claudianus, has evidence of women and children living in the settlement (archaeological remains, tombs). They might have also been employed at the quarries (textual evidence said the children were paid).

Quarry men as divided in two groups:

-          Forced labourers, i.e. prisoners of warm slaves and damnati at metalla (political/ religious (Christians, Jews) prisoners) – little physical evidence on site, mentioned in literature.[1]

-          Free labourers, skilled craftsmen

-          Diverse backgrounds: Arsinoe, Alexandria, Memphis, Aswan

-          Diverse occupations: ordinary labourers, stonemasons, blacksmiths, carriers/delivery of water, Sklerourgoi (final finishing of the stones from Alexandria), pagani (unskilled workers used for hard labour duties and other unskilled tasks)

-          Supervisors or architekton.

-          Animals were used to move the blocks, draft animals are camels, horses and donkeys (and could be eaten if not longer functional).

-          Soldiers were also used as quarrymen, to extract stones for military buildings; however they were primarily there for military purposes, it is worth noting their involvement in quarrying, even though they may not be considered a distinct type of quarryman.[2]

Water supply, strictly regulated; guarded by soldiers.[3]  Daily rations distributed by the soldiers

Food supply, vegetables, seeds, nuts, fruits; 51 kinds of plants have been discovered at Mons Porphyrites and Mons Claudianus. Grains (portions vary between soldiers and quarry men). Meat (horses, sheep, goats, pigs (most popular), camels, buffaloes, dogs, and some rodents), birds (chicken, geese and wild sandgrouse, ducks, pigeons). Fish probably caught in the Red Sea. Bread ovens have been discovered at Mons Porphyrites and Mons Claudianus, or sent by family members.

Wages or opsonion: skilled workers eared a monthly salary of 47 dirhams and a quantity of wheat and wine ration[4]

Social activities

Bathing, evidence found in Mons Porphyrites (near fort in Wadi Abu Ma’amel) and Mons Claudianus. There were some logistical problems supplying the structures with water in the desert

Hunting, popular and permitted during free time and outside of service time; both soldiers and quarrymen

Prostitution (According to several ostraca, prostitutes would tour the settlements and stations, accompanied by a woman (maybe a procurer) who would take them to their "workplaces" where they would be eagerly awaited, Cuvigny 2010, 162), a named pimp is known Philokles (O.Did.390)

[1] Around 70 AD, the Jewish historian Josephus wrote that some Jewish prisoners were sent to the quarries in the eastern desert as a form of punishment (Josephus, BJ 6, 418). Later, in 142 AD, the Greek historian Aelius Aristides wrote that some prisoners were sent to the porphyrites quarries (Aegyptios 67, 5-12). Eusebius of Caesarea, writing in the 3rd century AD, mentioned that 97 prisoners were present in the porphyrites quarries in the eastern desert during the reign of Diocletian (De Martyribus Palaestinae, 8.1, 26). In the 4th century AD, Athanasius of Alexandria also wrote about the punishment of 357 Christian prisoners who were sent to the quarries in the eastern desert (Historia Arianorum, 72). Although Athanasius did not mention the name of the quarry, it is likely that he omitted it because it was already well known.

[2] This practice can be traced back to the reign of Trajan in Britain, some fifty to sixty years after the initial invasion. Inscriptions record this work at the legionary bases at Caerleon and York during the first half of Trajan's reign (Breeze, 2016, 113-115). The discovery of a lead ingot in St. Valèry sur Somme with a mold mark suggest that it was produced by a Roman legion gives more indications that not only quarrying but also mining was included in the roman soldiers tasks (Roman Inscriptions of Britain II 2404.24; Hirt, 2016, 198). There are indications that this may have also happened in Egypt but only concerning stone quarrying. The only known evidence of this is graffiti in the Wadi al-Hammamat area, where a soldier named Gaius Aurelius Demos refers to himself as a "soldier quarryman of water wells" (Cuvigny, 2005, 336).

[3] An ostracon containing fascinating text has provided valuable insights into the water distribution system in the settlement of Mons Claudianus. The most notable aspect of this text is the revelation of the amount of water allocated to individuals, which ranged from 6.5 litres for those in the highest ranks, as this was the highest recorded amount, 5.4 litres for the simple soldiers (both foot and cavalry), 3.25 litres for stonemasons and blacksmiths or skilled workers, and 2.16 litres for unskilled labourers (Cuvigny, 2005, 348-349; Bülow-Jacobsen, 1996, 726)

[4] The salary for the Mons Claudianus quarrymen as an example was paid in the Nile Valley,47 and each month, one worker or more were chosen to go down, possibly to Qena, to collect all the money and make various payments on behalf of the workers.