Profit or Exploitation? The Production of Private Ramesside Tombs Within the West Theban Funerary Economy

Abstract

AbstractExisting economic models for Egyptian craft activity are currently dominated by theories of state redistribution, to the extent that market driven economic systems, as evidenced in the ancient texts themselves, may have been overlooked. This article examines New Kingdom textual material from western Thebes, reconsidering how private tomb production might fit updated economic models – models that allow for private sector, pre-modern and pre-capitalist market activity within any redistributive state economic context.