Striking at the Heart of the Pharaoh
A couple of years before he celebrated his jubilee, Ramesses III was beset by internal problems. A great king who had combated vicious enemies from all corners and was deified by his subjects for his decisiveness; he was cast into a cauldron of unpopularity for a brief while, when a seemingly innocuous protest about delayed wages by elite artisans from Deir el-Medina turned into a commentary on corruption and social injustice which led to the world’s first recorded strike.
