Since many ostraca from the environs of Deir el-Medina lack specific regnal year dates, dating them precisely is a tricky business. This volume attempts to provide comparative datings for 78 ostraca (and papyri) from the late XIX^th dynasty. The method draws explicitly on the division of the gang into two sides and, crucially, makes full use (for the first time) of the specific ordering of workmen’s names to be found in documentation from this period.

The archaeological context of the important body of late XIX^th dynasty material from the Valley of the Kings is investigated and it is shown that the datings proposed here on comparative grounds correlate strongly with the grouping of the ostraca by excavation and find-site.

The work is supported by a comprehensive index of the workmen by source and a concordance comparing the datings suggested here with those from other standard reference resources.