Numerous workmen's marks known from ostraca found at the village of Deir el-Medina as well as in the Valley of the Kings are also attested on objects from the tombs around the Deir el-Medina settlement. This paper presents some preliminary results of the research project 'Symbolizing Identity: identity marks and their relation to writing in New Kingdom Egypt' at Leiden University, and considers the significance of the marks in pre-Amarna tombs. For the majority of these tombs, the owners are still unidentified. The presence of workmen's marks proves that the anonymous tomb owners were in contact with the individuals working on the royal tomb, and perhaps even belonged to that group. Noteworthy is the fact that very few pre-Amarna tombs around Deir el-Medina contained inscribed material, and that the forthcoming inscriptions are often incorrectly or oddly written. The combined occurrence of marks and erroneously written inscriptions could indicate that the tomb owners were only limitedly literate.