Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

openculture.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 421 posts

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#221

Post by naijaboiler »

wesleywt wrote: post #210
jamesfisher wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cat excuses | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn 67 ILL 49 WITH HIS BOSS 17 BREWING BEER 13 WITH AAPEHTI 8 WITH THE SCRIBE 6 MAKING REMEDIES FOR THE SCRIBE’S WIFE 5 WRAPPING (THE CORPSE OF) HIS MOTHER 5 OFFERING TO THE GOD 5 HIS WIFE WAS BLEEDING 5 FETCHING STONE FOR THE SCRIBE 4 WITH KHONS MAKING REMEDIES 4 SUFFERING WITH HIS EYE 4 OFF ABSENT 4 HIS DAUGHTER WAS BLEEDING 3 WITH HOREMWIA 3 WITH HIS BOSS DITTO 3 LIBATING TO HIS…

Who knew that Egypt was so progressive that guys can take off when their wife or daughter has a period.

they really are putting modern day US employers to shame

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#222

Post by silentsea90 »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #120
leephillips wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She can probably manage it herself.

One in four women suffer pain severe enough to result in absenteeism from regular activities. > Menstrual pain is a very common problem, but the need for medication and the inability to function normally occurs less frequently. Nevertheless, at least one in four women experiences distressing menstrual pain characterized by a need for medication and absenteeism from study or social activities https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.…

If it helps, the richest of men suffer from baldness, cancer etc and haven't "solved" it yet, but I agree with the take in that it might have made things better if not cured.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#223

Post by spiralx »

jamesfisher wrote: post #198
blakesterz wrote: post #54

The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634

cat excuses | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn 67 ILL 49 WITH HIS BOSS 17 BREWING BEER 13 WITH AAPEHTI 8 WITH THE SCRIBE 6 MAKING REMEDIES FOR THE SCRIBE’S WIFE 5 WRAPPING (THE CORPSE OF) HIS MOTHER 5 OFFERING TO THE GOD 5 HIS WIFE WAS BLEEDING 5 FETCHING STONE FOR THE SCRIBE 4 WITH KHONS MAKING REMEDIES 4 SUFFERING WITH HIS EYE 4 OFF ABSENT 4 HIS DAUGHTER WAS BLEEDING 3 WITH HOREMWIA 3 WITH HIS BOSS DITTO 3 LIBATING TO HIS…

A lot of those are related to death:

5 WRAPPING (THE CORPSE OF) HIS MOTHER 2 WRAPPING (THE CORPSE OF) HIS SON 1 EMBALMING HORMOSE 1 EMBALMING HIS BROTHER 1 MOURNING HIS SON 3 LIBATING TO HIS FATHER 13

and I suspect most of these:

8 WITH THE SCRIBE 1 OFF ABSENT WITH THE SCRIBE 5 FETCHING STONE FOR THE SCRIBE 2 FETCHING STONE FOR QENHERKHEPSHEF 1 LIBATING FOR HIS SON 1 LIBATING FOR HIM 1 LIBATING 2 BURYING THE GOD 21

and there's a bunch making remedies and/or looking after wives and female relatives:

6 MAKING REMEDIES FOR THE SCRIBE’S WIFE 5 HIS WIFE WAS BLEEDING 4 WITH KHONS MAKING REMEDIES 4 HIS DAUGHTER WAS BLEEDING 2 HIS MOTHER WAS ILL 21

Some ones that seem work-related by the use of names:

49 WITH HIS BOSS 3 WITH HIS BOSS DITTO 3 WITH HOREMWIA 13 WITH AAPEHTI 68

Then there's some actual stuff the worker was doing - mostly brewing beer:

17 BREWING BEER 5 OFFERING TO THE GOD 1 WITH HIS GOD 1 STRENGTHENING THE DOOR 1 BUILDING HIS HOUSE 25

A few unknowns:

4 OFF ABSENT

And finally the actual illness and injury, including scorpion guy!

67 ILL 4 SUFFERING WITH HIS EYE 1 THE SCORPION BIT HIM 72

Seems that brewing and DIY were the only hobbies around - unless you count making remedies or embalming!

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#224

Post by throwawayboise »

ARandomerDude wrote: post #70
blakesterz wrote: post #54

The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634

Interesting that the dates are "Month 3 of Summer, Day 24" etc. The curious bit to me being the enduring use of 4 distinct seasons, when there are obviously other ways to mark a year. Is anyone aware of a culture that did/does not have exactly 4 seasons?

Astronomically it seems to make the most sense, you have two solstices and two equinoxes dividing the year into four parts.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#225

Post by naijaboiler »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #143
LanceJones wrote: post #12

We really are the same people. No measurable difference in IQ (as well as that can be "measured"). Only knowledge (some gained for us; some lost, too) and context are different. The tablet is a cool reminder of this.

Well, IQ tests given in the 1930's and 40's(?) had the results re-scaled today, and the average IQ was 70. Note, that we're all trained today in taking IQ tests. E.g. one question asked "There are no Elephants in Germany. Munich is in Germany. How many Elephants are in Munich?" with possible answers of 0, 1, 2, 12. Back then a layman might think "Munich is a big city; I bet there's one or two in the zoo there!" and a…

IQ tests measure something, but it sure isn't intelligence it is measuring

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#226

Post by naijaboiler »

dylan604 wrote: post #82
brightball wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more history I read, the more I realize this is true. Technology changes but people don't.

Too bad evolution doesn't install basic learning as part of the default system. Humans at this point should just be a new container being launched with a default level of software pre-installed. Would we be more advanced as a species if we didn't have to constantly teach each new instance 1+1=2 so that each new instance already new multiplication tables from 1 to 25 type of thing?

we do have collective memory that outlives us. It is called culture

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#227

Post by KSPAtlas »

divbzero wrote: post #124
ARandomerDude wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that the dates are "Month 3 of Summer, Day 24" etc. The curious bit to me being the enduring use of 4 distinct seasons, when there are obviously other ways to mark a year. Is anyone aware of a culture that did/does not have exactly 4 seasons?

Another phenomenon I’ve found curious is the cross-cultural definition of a week as roughly a quarter moon, and correlated names for days of the week. [1] Sunday Sun Sōlis Hēlíou 日曜日 Monday Moon Lūnae Selḗnēs 月曜日 Tuesday Mars Mārtis Áreōs 火曜日 Wednesday Mercury Mercuriī Hermoû 水曜日 Thursday Jupiter Iovis Diós 木曜日 Friday Venus Veneris Aphrodítēs 金曜日 Saturday Saturn Sāturnī Krónou 土曜日 [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N…

Polish doesn't use those names, but a different system:

Poniedziałek (lit. After not working) Wtorek (not sure) Środa (also not sure) Czwartek (lit. the fourth) Piątek (possibly means drinking day?) Sobota (not sure) Niedziela (Not working)

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#228

Post by dhzhzjsbevs »

the_af wrote: post #220
wesleywt wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who knew that Egypt was so progressive that guys can take off when their wife or daughter has a period.

Maybe they, like in some Abrahamic religions to come later, considered women "impure" when they had the period, and this somehow translated to the men in the household? Wild speculation, of course.

Calm down. It's just a PMS joke.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#230

Post by MonkeyClub »

the_af wrote: post #220
wesleywt wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who knew that Egypt was so progressive that guys can take off when their wife or daughter has a period.

Maybe they, like in some Abrahamic religions to come later, considered women "impure" when they had the period, and this somehow translated to the men in the household? Wild speculation, of course.

That's what I thought as well, though I would expect that'd appear in higher frequency - unless the bosses sent people to check.
Post reply on HN