“Ostracon with record of attendance at work. Labeled ‘Year 40’ of Ramesses II, it presents the record of workers for 280 days of the year. There are twenty-four lines of modern Egyptian hieratic on the front and twenty-one lines on the back. A list of forty names is arranged in columns in the right margin on each side, followed on the left by dates written in black in a horizontal line. Above most of the dates, there is a word or phrase in red, indicating the reason for the individual’s absence from work that day.”
3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet reveals record of attendance and absences from work of dozens of workers from 1,250 BC
An Egyptian tablet, around 3,200 years old, shows us that the ancient Egyptians were not that different from us: they already “skipped” work, with excuses that are surprisingly familiar to us.
The artifact, dating from around 1250 BC and today preserved in , records the absences of workers, indicating the reasons, ranging from illness to… mummification of a family member.
The object is a ostracum (fragment of stone used as a writing support), made of limestone and inscribed in late Egyptian hieratic script, with red and black ink. In the registry there are approximately 40 workersidentified over several days, with notes on who was absent and why. The dates appear organized by season and day, in formulas such as “month 4 of winter, day 24”.
That day, apparently, a worker named Pennub was absent because his mother was sick. Other records refer to absences due to illness of the workers themselves. Huynefer, for example, appears several times complaining of eye pain. Seba was absent because she was stung by a scorpion.
Today we can also perfectly understand the justification given by Neferabu for not appearing in the workplace. His beloved brother passed away, but the excuse he gave his boss would never go away today: he missed work to embalm him. The next day, he also missed it, this time to libar (drink or pour it, in honor of the gods, a central ritual in Egyptian funerary practices).
Among the most blatant justifications (at least, for a current reader) is “brewing beer” — appears quite frequently. In the Egyptian context, beer was a daily drink and had religious importance, associated with deities such as Hathor.
Other absences were linked to tasks such as carrying stone or helping the scribe. There are also references to “bleeding wife or daughter”an expression associated with menstruation, which suggests that men took on tasks at home when women were “that time” of the month.
Tomás Guimarães, ZAP //
