Ancient Egyptians Took Attendance at Work, Their Excuses Are Like Ours

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A limestone ostracon, listing personnel and their factors for being absent on selected debates, mark dLabelled ‘Year 40′ of Ramses II, circa 1250 BC. (Image: © The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.)

Calling in sick to work is evidently an ancient tradition. Irrespective of whether its the sniffles or a scorpion chunk, somedays you just can not make it. As it turns out, Ancient Egyptian employers kept keep track of of staff days off in registers created on tablets. A pill held by The British Museum and dating to 1250 BCE is an unbelievable window into ancient get the job done-existence stability. The 40 employees listed are marked for each individual working day they skipped, with motives ranging from health issues to relatives obligations.

The tablet, acknowledged as an ostracon, is manufactured of limestone with New Egyptian hieratic script inked in pink and black. The times are marked by time and selection, these kinds of as “month 4 of Winter, working day 24.” On that date, a worker named Pennub missed do the job since his mother was unwell. Other personnel have been absent thanks to their own illnesses. A single Huynefer was routinely “suffering with his eye.” Seba, in the meantime, was little bit by a scorpion. Several employees also had to take time off to embalm and wrap their deceased kinfolk.

Some motives may look weird to modern-day ears. “Brewing beer” is a typical excuse. Beer was a everyday fortifying consume in Egypt and was even linked with gods such as Hathor. As this sort of, brewing beer was a pretty essential activity. Fetching stones or helping the scribe also took time in the workers’ life. An additional purpose is “wife or daughter bleeding.” This is a reference to menstruation. Obviously adult males have been necessary on the dwelling front to decide on up some slack during this time. Whilst one’s wife menstruating is not an excuse a person hears nowadays, absolutely the ancients look to have had a similar get the job done-lifetime juggling act to conduct.