3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work • Hacker News Board

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

#361

Post by londons_explore » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 5:34 AM UTC

spiralx wrote: post #223

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…

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 a…

Remember this is translated by archaeologists, and most of them go into the profession thinking about mummies.

I suspect whenever they come across a symbol they don't understand to translate, they might just assume it means "ooh, it must mean wrapping my father"!

TL;DR:. Translator bias could be hitting hard...

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

#362

Post by gtsop » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 5:44 AM UTC

It seems to me like the concept of emploee/employer is way to modern in our civilization to apply to ancient egypt. Are we too triggered to call these people masters and slaves or were there some legit emploee/employer relationships there?

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

#363

Post by noisy_boy » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 5:53 AM UTC

revicon wrote: post #353

mr_toad wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Hard to implement a drop down menu on a stone tablet :)

You would think after couple of years they will have blocks for WITH BOSS that can just be pressed on the clay.

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

#364

Post by sydthrowaway » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 5:53 AM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #20

I feel sorry for the poor guys who never missed a day of work and gave their all to building that damn pyramid, 3200 years later nobody even knows who they were.

Huh? They were clearly not of terrestrial origins

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

#365

Post by throwaway383jf » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 5:55 AM UTC

rpmisms wrote: post #333

throwaway383jf wrote: post #160

This is pleasantly surprising how ancient times valued women. Atleast they acknowledged the value women brought day to day lives. Looks likes only during the 600's A.D women were more oppressed.

It seems like the devaluing of women is an oft-exaggerated historical trope. Women have always been valuable to society, after all, the men don't have babies. We'd see a lot of it as sexist today, but when manual labor was pretty much the only option, you could take a look at any couple and have a pretty good idea which one would be better for working in the fields.

In many parts of the world women carry babies to the fields and make a cradle in the trees near to fields and during work breaks(there is no strict schedule ofcourse) they feed the baby.

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

#366

Post by noisy_boy » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 5:57 AM UTC

sethammons wrote: post #35

gcheong wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My family lived in Texas for a time when my sister was younger and she stepped out of the shower one day and was stung on the head by a scorpion that was in her towel. Hearing that story I was certainly very vigilant, even paranoid perhaps, about checking my shoes and such when we went to visit family there when I was a kid.

A buddy grew up in Mexico. When he was 10 or so, he pissed on a wall and got stung in just about the worst place imaginable. I don't live around scorpions and now I keep an even larger distance between me and peeing-surfaces lol

Absent (PEED ON SCORPION)

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

#367

Post by dotancohen » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 6:05 AM UTC

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #216

dotancohen wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I always like to imagine what life would be like if weeks were 3 days long. Or 11. I just love this topic. I especially like that you chose prime numbers. A week composed of a prime number of days will remain the smallest indivisible group of days that a culture will have.

Agreed, glad you called this out! I was thinking about rambling about this, but this is a topic I can go on and on about, and I was already off to a slow start today...

Please ramble! I've actually though much about this as well. It kind of forces a "holy day" because without one nothing fits into one week with any period other than "every day" or "every week" - be that week 5 or 7 or 11 days. I've heard that the seven day week was independently developed at least three times in ancient times across disparate cultures as well.

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

#368

Post by leaflets2 » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 6:16 AM UTC

pugets wrote: post #352

leaflets2 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are these for a single person, or for many people? If the latter, then, seems their parents (mother) died a lot (5) in comparison to how often they themselves were ill (67)

Sorry boss, can’t come in today. My mother died again.

What if this:

"5 WRAPPING (THE CORPSE OF) HIS MOTHER"

took 5 days? If it included other ceremonies?

(Still, that's a bit much I guess.)

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

#369

Post by jamiek88 » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 6:23 AM UTC

leaflets2 wrote: post #368

pugets wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry boss, can’t come in today. My mother died again.

What if this: "5 WRAPPING (THE CORPSE OF) HIS MOTHER" took 5 days? If it included other ceremonies? (Still, that's a bit much I guess.)

Your momma so fat it took you 5 days to wrap her corpse.

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

#370

Post by isbvhodnvemrwvn » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 6:23 AM UTC

revicon wrote: post #353

mr_toad wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Hard to implement a drop down menu on a stone tablet :)

Tell that to my toes