{"id":12038,"date":"2024-05-24T09:29:35","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T09:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=12038"},"modified":"2024-05-24T09:29:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T09:29:35","slug":"ancient-tablet-discovered-to-reveal-bizarre-sick-day-excuses-used-by-workers-building-the-pyramids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=12038","title":{"rendered":"Ancient tablet discovered to reveal bizarre sick day excuses used by workers building the pyramids"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A 3,200-year-old tablet has revealed some of the wild reasons Ancient Egyptians gave for not coming into work<\/h2>\n

An over 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet has exposed some of the gobsmacking reasons given by workers when they were absent from work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turns out we’re not the only ones who skive off work, but the\u00a0Ancient Egyptians<\/a>\u00a0were at it too.<\/p>\n

While building pyramids is certainly a lot more physically gruelling than most of our 9-5 office desk jobs, a tablet has since revealed some of the impressive reasons some Egyptians used to take a day off work.<\/p>\n

The limestone tablet –\u00a0known as<\/a>\u00a0ostracon – is in the possession of The British Museum, which has identified it as dating back to 1250 BCE.<\/p>\n

The tablet holds the records of forty employees’ attendance in New Egyptian hieratic script written in red and black ink and counts every day each\u00a0employee missed work\u00a0<\/a>and a reason they allegedly gave as to why.<\/p>\n

And if you thought excuses like, ‘My dog ate my homework’ at school or ‘I overslept’ were pretty outrageous, just wait until you hear the imagination of a workforce of Ancient Egyptians.<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/div>\n

The tablet documents absences of Ancient Egyptian employees ( The Trustees of the British Museum)<\/cite><\/div>\n

On ‘month four of Winter, day 24,’ as quoted by My Modern Met, one employee named Pennub missed work.<\/p>\n

His reason? His\u00a0mother\u00a0<\/a>was ill – which is fair enough really.<\/p>\n

Other employees were also\u00a0sick<\/a>\u00a0that day, listing their own illnesses – once again, very valid – however, it’s when the scroll gets to a worker named Seba when the reasons get a bit spicier.<\/p>\n

Seba, well, Seba was bitten by a scorpion – a wild reason to say the least.<\/p>\n

Other reasons were listed such as collecting stones and helping the scribe.<\/p>\n

And they just get more peculiar – at least by today’s standards – from there.<\/p>\n

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\"There<\/div>\n

There are some pretty wild reasons (Khaled DESOUKI \/ AFP) (Photo by KHALED DESOUKI\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

The most outlandish reason of them all – many workers gave the reason for their absence from work as ‘brewing beer’ – clearly a group of employees with their priorities straight.<\/p>\n

Despite how most of our employers would laugh us out the office should we even dare try to use such an excuse, ‘brewing beer’ takes on a lot more significance in Ancient Egyptian times.<\/p>\n

The British Museum\u00a0explains<\/a>: ” In ancient Egypt, beer was so essential it was treated principally as a type of food \u2013 it was consumed daily and in great quantities at religious festivals and celebrations.<\/p>\n

“Beer was an essential for labourers, like those who built the pyramids of Giza, who were provided with a daily ration of 1\u2153 gallons (over 10 pints). Yet it still had divine status, with several gods and goddesses associated with beer.”<\/p>\n

Some employees said they stayed home to help their ‘wife or daughter bleeding’ and no, this doesn’t mean they’d got in an accident, but needed help while menstruating – which I could definitely get behind.<\/p>\n

Oh and many workers listed their reason as ’embalming relatives,’ which is basically just like when we take time off for a funeral.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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