When Egypt's Royal Tomb Workers Walked Out

In the twenty-ninth year of Ramesses III, the crew who cut and decorated the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings stopped working. Their wages were paid in grain, and the grain had stopped coming. This documentary follows that dispute through the records that survive: the Turin Strike Papyrus, written by the scribe of the Tomb, Amennakht; an ostracon in Berlin that records a delay in rations in the same year; and, from a different reign, a British Museum roster that shows how closely workers' absences could be tracked. We look at who these workers were, how a grain-based wage worked, what the crew said and asked for, how officials responded, and where the documents stop. Some details, including exact dates and one disputed number, are translated differently by different sources, so we leave them out rather than pick a side. These were not pyramid builders and not slaves. They were skilled state workers from the village of Deir el-Medina, and their protest is one of the earliest labour disputes we can follow in written records. Chapters 00:00 "We Are Hungry" 02:17 The Crew and Their Village 04:12 Paid in Grain 06:52 A World of Paperwork 09:51 Past the Guard Posts 12:13 "Not Because We Hungered" 15:00 What the Papyrus Can't Tell Us Nilebound Stories: Ancient Egypt through the lives people lived and the choices they faced.