Stone Village Survey

The Stone Village is located on the northern face of a low plateau that branches across the desert east of the Main City. The site lies around 1.2km distant from the Workmen’s Village, which lies on the other side of the plateau.

View across the Stone Village (facing north-west)

The Stone Village was for a long time a little understood, and little commented upon, element of Amarna. Barry Kemp briefly surveyed the site in the 1970s and magnetometer survey and aerial photography were undertaken thereafter, but otherwise the Stone Village remained unstudied. Suggestions regarding its function remained speculative: Was it a military outpost? A camp for workmen involved in cutting and decorating tombs? Might it have been an earlier ‘Workmen’s Village’, or a settlement for servants assigned to the latter?

Against this backdrop, the Stone Village Survey was initiated in 2005. Its aims were to:

Reconstruct, as far as feasible, the layout and appearance of the Stone Village and arrive at a better understanding of its function,
Position the site within the broader organisational and social landscape of Akhetaten, through a contextual reading of the in situ remains, and the integration of its material culture and environmental remains into the Amarna-wide dataset,
And consider, more generally, what the site indicates of life in special-purpose and peripheral occupational areas, and in particular of themes of isolation, adaptation and the control and ordering of space and activity.

The fieldwork ran from 2005–9, with five seasons of survey and small-scale excavation, and two study seasons. The results are published in a two-volume excavation monograph (Stevens 2012). The study of the ceramic assemblage is ongoing, directed by Anna Garnett following preliminary work by Boris Trivan (see below).

Results: The layout and nature of the site

The fieldwork indicated that the Stone Village is a smaller and more modest site than the Workmen’s Village. Its hub is a complex of structures built primarily of local materials, and especially of boulders mortared into place with local desert clay (the Main Site). This area was around half the size of the settlement at the Workmen’s Village in terms of ground-floor area, and was roughly rectangular in shape. The site was not laid out like the Workmen’s Village, with its rows of houses and alleys. Instead, excavations exposed the remains of structures of varying scales and layouts, generally orthogonal but with some curved walls as well. Both indoor roofed spaces and outdoor areas can be identified, the former sometimes utilising gypsum-plaster coatings, with outdoor areas often left dirty from accumulations of ashy deposits. No evidence of staircases was uncovered in the sample excavation areas, and it seems unlikely that these were present, or at least widespread. Identifiable fittings included food production emplacements like ovens, a possible quernstone base, mortars and grinding stones. The site appears substantial enough to have supported a permanent population, although this is not to dismiss the possibility that some individuals could have used it in a more transient fashion.

The Main Site appears to have been surrounded by a wall, which is much narrower than that at the Workmen’s Village. Too little of the wall has been exposed to determine how many entranceways it had. The presence of surfaces and rubbish deposits sealed beneath the wall suggest that it belongs to a phase of expansion. This main cluster of buildings therefore ended up taking the form of an overall rectangular zone of dense construction within a surrounding wall, falling somewhere between an agglomerate of buildings and a more rigidly laid-out and walled settlement/activity site. Along the eastern edge of the Main Site the surface deposits are noticeably ashy and excavations here uncovered the remains of several ovens, perhaps forming part of a communal or industrial kitchen.

Structures at the Main Site, built of limestone boulders mortared into place with locally sourced clay.

On the surface of the plateau there are three simple stone constructions (Structures I–III) that may be watchposts and checkpoints, used to monitor movement of people and goods in and out of the site. Two of the structures (I and II) are integrated into a circuit of ancient roadways that enclosed the site and may have been patrolled by police to create a border around it. The Stone Village also has a cemetery of simple chamber tombs, tucked away on a side spur. Only a few tombs have yet been identified here. On the north and west faces of this spur there are several other features, some of which are quarries for marl, in at least one case converted into a possible silo. Elsewhere around the site there are occasional small clusters of stones that might be the remnants of simple emplacements such as jar-stands, while the ground bears scatters of potsherds and other materials, such as flaked basalt, occasionally in distinct clusters. There is no sign of a well. The extramural area at the Stone Village is much less developed than that at the Workmen Village, where excavations have revealed chapels, garden beds and animal pens.

**Left:** Structures II and III, built into the roadway circuit. **Right:** Structure III, a possible guardpost.

Results: The function of the site

It remains difficult to pinpoint the role/s of the Stone Village, although the location of the site suggests that it was connected with activity on the desert outskirts of Akhetaten and an association, at least in part, with tomb work seems likely. It perhaps housed labourers tasked with more menial roles than those living at the Workmen’s Village, or workers brought in to fill a shortfall of tomb labour brought on by a quick succession of deaths in the royal family. Another possibility is that it played a role in supplying desert-based workers, perhaps taking on some elements of the network of support staff attested for Ramesside Deir el-Medina. It is not clear when, during the occupation of Akhetaten, it was established and how long it functioned. Its seemingly small cemetery might point to a short occupation period, although evidence of modification to the layout of the Main Site could indicate some of depth of time. It is certainly not a place that has seen only ephemeral use, like a temporary encampment. It is conceivable that the site was an early foundation that supported workers during the establishment of Akhetaten. Its role could also have changed over time. The site has sometimes been paralleled in its form and function with the ‘huts on the col’ at western Thebes, and the two sites do have something in common in falling somewhere between formal housing and ‘huts’, and ostensibly lying between the main workers’ settlement and the royal cemetery, but there are also important differences between them, such as the presence of a cemetery at the Stone Village.

Anna Stevens

Pottery study

The ceramic assemblage is being studied as part of an on-going research project, funded by the Egypt Exploration Society’s Fieldwork and Research Budget. The aim of this project, entitled: ‘Understanding a New Kingdom Worker’s Community through its Pottery Assemblage’, is to document, analyse and publish the pottery excavated as part of the Amarna Stone Village Project, in order to clarify in more detail the function of the Stone Village, the experiences of the people who lived there, and its links with other parts of Amarna.

The rich contextual data of the Stone Village pottery, and the fact that it is securely dated, provides – like ceramic studies at Amarna as a whole – an opportunity for ceramic research beyond dating alone: a chance to use pottery to explore themes of industry, trade and exchange across Amarna and beyond, and social themes including status, community identity and, in the case of the Stone Village, non-elite experience.

Anna Garnett

Stone Village Survey

Results: The layout and nature of the site

Results: The function of the site

Pottery study

Further reading