There's a wonderful collection of similar (and older) tablets in San Jose:
They have lots of receipts + contracts. One of my favorites confirms a goat (sheep?) was eaten by wolves, and is therefore not taxable.
3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
321–330 of 421 posts
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
As I find always interesting, we are as far to the Romans in history as the Romans were from the construction of the pyramids.
I know people generally consider "Roman history" to be around the time of Julius Caesar, but the empire itself spanned over 1000 years.
What people usually refer to the Roman Empire is the unified empire which was only around for 4 centuries.
Heck pretty much past 286 AD is when the Roman Empire is no longer the classical Roman Empire. (Rome was no longer the capital, eastern / western split begins).
Even a bit earlier if you want to consider the shift to the monotheism (not yet Christianity) of Sol as the line of demarcation.
If you want to be utterly pedantic then yes the Eastern Roman Empire survived until 1453 aka the Fall of Constantinople. So more like 1500 years in total.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's some ... but I think it misses two really important ones (and this is just off the top of my head): 1. The Romans had an eight day "week"; and, 2. The mesoamericans had a 260 day "week" (or, at best, interlocking 13 and 20 day "weeks"). I think the 7-day week is more of a statement about how effective the Judeo-Christian culture has imposed a modern week on the rest of the world.
>The Romans had an eight day "week"; and, The Beatles were Romans!
So were the B-52's, but only if you wanted to.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
With his boss: It's a little buried (on mobile) but: > ... the next most frequent is being away with one's superior doing private work for him, a practice that was not forbidden if done in moderation.
While definitely a legal grey area in these modern times, foremen borrowing a truck/excavator and a bloke or two to sort out something at the foreman's house still seems to happen.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#325The 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?
Can't we use Structured Equation Modeling or ML to cluster seasons based on actual data?
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#326There's a wonderful collection of similar (and older) tablets in San Jose: https://egyptianmuseum.org/ They have lots of receipts + contracts. One of my favorites confirms a goat (sheep?) was eaten by wolves, and is therefore not taxable.
No post body was provided.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#327Excuses, Beer and Wife problems. 3,200 years and we still have the same complaints. :)
Couldn't get the camel started
Sandals were in the shop
Stone obelisks blocked traffic
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#328The 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?
Thailand has 3 seasons. Hot, cold and rainy season. The emerald buddha has three different sets of clothing to match the seasons.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
Build software to ~harass~ track warehouse workers. "Anyone can learn to code bruh" 170k base + 300k RSU "man I can't afford anything in [high COL area]" "Therapy is really useful y'all" - average SWE
So what's the alternative? Move to a LCOL area, get a worse job, and watch as inflation turns it into a HCOL area?
Work remote, move to middle of nowhere, raise livestock, and actually enjoy life.
Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work
#330Earlier 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?
Probably considered unclean -- some religions still believe this (Islam, Judaism). You can't clean and cook if you're unclean? I don't know.