抄録
Deir el-Medineh is one of the few ancient villages which have been preserved and our knowledge about the daily life in pharaonic Egypt comes to us mostly from this village. It housed the highly skilled craftsmen who were responsible for digging and decorating the kings' tombs, whose subsistence goods were supplied by the king. Then in this paper in order to understand better the condition under which the artisans lived, I focused on the rations of the workmen usually called “díw” consisted of supplies of grain, from which the two chief staples of Egyptian diet, bread and beer, were made.
In the beginning I tried to classified all the texts now available concerning “díw” so as to comprehend their real meaning and then I analysed all these texts to show 1) when 2) by whom 3) where from 4) to what extent 5) how much these rations were delivered.
There are two types of ration texts, first of which is the real type of grain ration and second of which is so-called turnus lists or Necropolis diary. In the second type of these documents the rations are described as a special mention and are not included detailed record of “díw”, so they have only secondary importance in so far as “díw” concerned.
In the course of research the abbreviated writing _??_ was to be turned out. It must be read ídní “to share”.
In studying these texts the “díw” was supplied by the hand of the scribe from the “htm”. The records of the day when the rations were made are varied. It is probable that the foremen and scribes received higher payments than other workmen. But the fact is nowhere near the supposition. These facts suggest that “díw” is a kind of salary or wages which was paid for their work, rather than rations.
