Workers in perpetuity? Notes about the mrt workers of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom based on the stela CG 20516.

ROSELL PABLO MARTÍN

Trabajos de Egiptología. Papers on Ancient Egypt

Centro de Estudios Africanos. Universidad de La Laguna

Año: 2018 vol. 9

1695-4750

This paper aims at studying a social group of Egyptian workers called mrt workers and it is based on their representation in epigraphic, funerary and literary sources of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom.The stela CG 20516 is especially important for our research since it shows one of the few iconographic representations of these mrt workers. This stela is essential since it represents the mrt workers performing their tasks and serving their deceased owner in an exceptional way. Such representation suggests a personal link in perpetuity between these workers and their masters.Therefore, the mrt workers? social and legal status is reconsidered by studying whether these workers were forced to work periodically or were dependent workers in perpetuity.