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Industry : Workshops
Workshops
The craftsmen did not work as independent agents. From earliest times they were employed in specialist workshops or were attached singly to wealthy households. The most important industries were either state or temple monopolies, which employed many people. In the Old Kingdom kings set up workshops at the capital (then Memphis) and there were others on estates throughout the country where crafts-men produced both essential and luxury items. Subsequently each provincial governor developed workshops in his local city, and temples also had their own production centers where goods were made for use in the temple ceremonies. Great workshops existed at the Temple of Ptah at Memphis (Ptah was the patron god of craftsmen) and at the Temple of Amun at Karnak where almost every type of craft specialization was practiced, and even local temples employed considerable numbers of craftsmen. Tomb scenes almost always show men engaged in various arts and crafts working in specialized groups, and this is probably an accurate reflection of their physical organization. Where production of some items such as jewelry, furniture, and vases required the skills of several specialists, however, they appear to have worked near to each other and sometimes to have shared a workshop. Other workers were itinerant and moved to the required location; stonemasons would travel to a building site, boat builders erected temporary workshops along the Nile or canals, and those who mummified the dead probably set up their places in the necropolis area. Thus, the workshops were flexible in terms of their individual organization and location. Some crafts such as sculpting and goldsmithing were particularly lucrative, and the leaders of these workshops held important positions in the government. Sculptors and goldsmiths built themselves fine tombs at Memphis and Thebes; in the Theban tomb of Nebamun and Ipuky (sculptors who lived in late Dynasty 18) scenes showing carpenters, goldsmiths, and jewelers provide useful information about crafts and techniques. .
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Industry : Workshops
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