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

openculture.com

341–350 of 421 posts

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

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the scorpion must have been on the wall.

Who pees that close to a wall though? Yikes

My guess: someone who is attempting to pee on the scorpion. We are talking about a 10 year old, after all.

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

#343
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more likely that the men had to take over household tasks while their wives were on the rag.

Hm. Why would they have to take over? Women on their period are not invalids. Though maybe the weren't allowed to do household tasks?

Some women are completely disabled by their period pains. I can imagine the husband coming home to attend to her, the kids, the animals, and the house

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

#344
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more likely that the men had to take over household tasks while their wives were on the rag.

Hm. Why would they have to take over? Women on their period are not invalids. Though maybe the weren't allowed to do household tasks?

Now imagine women without modern feminine hygiene products. It’s a very different story.

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

#345

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…

Babylonians knew 7 planets and named each day of the week as ruled by a planet...

It had also been subdivided into planetary hours...

https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/days/7-days-week.html

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

#346

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…

Khonsu must be an important guy

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

#348

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…

Something that hasn’t changed in 3200 years is inconsistent labelling of data.

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

#349
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm. Why would they have to take over? Women on their period are not invalids. Though maybe the weren't allowed to do household tasks?

Probably considered unclean -- some religions still believe this (Islam, Judaism). You can't clean and cook if you're unclean? I don't know.

In Islam and Judaism women can still do housework. It's a ritual purity, not an actual physical one.
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