The Workmen's Huts and Stratigraphy in the Valley of the Kings

Abstract

It is well known that at various locations and at various depths around the Valley are foci of workmen's huts. As in some cases it is possible to date the hut horizons, these horizons themselves are extremely useful for recovering the stratigraphy of the Valley, especially the Central Area, in what otherwise would have been an unrecorded mass of levels. In a previous paper the writer described a flash flood that hit the Valley roughly around the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty.¹ From the stratigraphy presented here, it is now possible to date this flood to an actual king's reign. Correlation of excavations in the Valley also allows the construction of a new Stratigraphic Section of the Central Area with surprising consequences.