Household or Cottage Industries: Modelling Industrial Diversity in New Kingdom Houses and Courtyards

Both O45.1 at Amarna and IA1 at Gurob, discussed in Chapter 6, can be said to have been purpose-built and to some extent specialized, with the presence of kilns indicating a somewhat focused set of activities. By contrast, the smaller houses, or groups of the same in New Kingdom settlements have been observed to be generally less industrially focused or specialized on all levels. The present chapter therefore discusses a number of case-studies demonstrating artefact diversity in a range of houses, showcasing their variety both in appearance and in functionality. These case-studies include a range of houses in the Main City at Amarna and a comparison of the artefactual evidence they contained of relevant industrial activities in addition to Site J at Malqata. Excavations at Site J in the 1970s have revealed a series of small ovens, the purpose and locations of which will be discussed together with associated objects. This and the artefactual data from the houses at Amarna will provide an insight into the organization of industrial activities on a household-level. In the course of the spatial analysis undertaken for the Main City North (MCN) at Amarna (see Section 2.4), it has become apparent that thirty-four buildings, dispersed throughout this suburb, contained evidence not only of one industrial activity discussed in this book, but of several. The houses, each of which contains evidence of more than one industry, cover a range of varying sizes. While most of these thirty-four houses had a smaller ground area (less than 900m²), some larger ones also contained evidence of multiple industries. Eight of the thirty-four had an area of less than 100m², while a total of sixteen covered between 100 and 900m², the remaining ten houses being larger than 900m² including their courtyards. While most of the larger houses measured between 900 and 3,000m², three houses are even larger than this, with the largest property, R44.2, which measured over 10,000m², belonging to a ‘Steward of Akhenaten’. Table 7.1 demonstrates the combinations of industries queried with the GIS that were in operation in a number of buildings.