Calling in Sick to Party With a God 3200 Years Ago
Exploring the work culture of ancient Egypt and the first recorded labor strike
Remember the last time you called in sick to work?
What was the reason?
I am sure you weren’t feeling well. But let us face it, we all skipped work when we needed a break! Maybe you wanted to take your kids to the amusement park. Or maybe you had a date that couldn’t wait. Perhaps your favorite sports team was in town.
But is skipping work a recent phenomenon? You’ll be surprised to know that over 3,000 years ago, workers in ancient Egypt called in sick! The excuses were sometimes genuine and at other times dubious. Not different from today!
Egyptians had paid employees during a time when slaves performed most of the world’s labor. Calling in sick to work is an ancient practice. Employers maintained attendance records. One such document reveals the explanations given by employees for skipping work. The reasons ranged from being stung by a scorpion to brewing beer.
Let us look at some excuses workers gave for skipping work in ancient Egypt. But before we discuss why people called in sick, we need to understand the Egyptians' work culture.
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Work Culture in Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt had a centralized government in charge of all economic activity. Farmers, fishermen, and artisans had to deliver their goods to the temple, which was managed by priests and government officials. The scribes recorded the inventory.
Goods were redistributed among the people based on their needs and social status.
There were some comfortable, well-paying jobs, just as there are today. Scribes, physicians, and astrologers were the most sought-after professions. Bureaucrats and architects oversaw enormous building projects, such as the pyramids. The military was responsible for border security and preventing domestic unrest.
You may wonder, “Who did all that heavy lifting?”
Egypt differed from other ancient societies, such as Greece, Rome, and Persia, in that it paid its workers a wage. Laborers earning a salary were unheard of in ancient times. Slaves did not build the pyramids, as the Exodus story claims. Far from using slave labor, the workers in ancient Egypt were provided with several state-sponsored facilities.
You may be astonished to learn that the workmen who built and painted ancient Egypt's royal tombs were not ordinary laborers, but rather expert craftsmen. These men were not paid to lug stones under the hot sun; instead, they were treated well as trained professionals.
Take the workers at Deir el-Medina, a village of craftsmen in the Valley of the Kings, for example. The Egyptian government took great care of them. They received a monthly income (in grain, the ancient equivalent of a wage), comfortable quarters, and even attendants to perform tasks such as laundry, grinding grain, and fetching water. Their families were also allowed to live in the community and enjoy the same benefits. Everyone profited, including their wives and children. Essentially, if you were talented enough to work on a pharaoh's tomb, you lived pretty well.
This sounds like a fantastic deal to me.
Of course, being a mason was not as prestigious as being a writer. The Satire of the Trades is a Middle Kingdom-era( 2040 BC to 1782 BC) manuscript in which a father tells his son in exaggerated detail about all the “miserable” jobs. The father's goal was to help his son excel in school so that he could become a royal scribe and lead a comfortable life.
According to the manuscript, the farmer “cries out forever,” the weaver is “wretched,” and a washerman’s kids don’t want to go near him because he is wading in the filth of others. The papyrus also discusses dangers at work, such as the risk that a crocodile may attack a fisherman or a washer.
But was it that bad?
Historians believe the Satire of Trades deliberately misrepresented the working conditions of other professions to deter children from pursuing less esteemed trades. As we saw at Deir el-Medina, labor-intensive work was also valued.
The Egyptian rulers ensured that their workers received a better deal than those in other areas of the ancient world, as well as more benefits than many modern societies. However, this did not deter many employees from not turning up for work. Physicians were assigned to care for the ailing laborers. Yet, sometimes the workmen didn’t show up to work for a variety of reasons, which may seem trivial to us.
An attendance register from 1250 BC, dating to the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II, presents a unique perspective on work-life balance in ancient Egypt that may not be expected.
Let’s review the records of this register and examine whether the excuses for calling in sick sound genuine or not. We’ll also learn about the first recorded labor strike in history and what happened in ancient Egypt when the employee-employer relationship broke down.
Let’s dive in!
A 3200-year-old Sick Leave Register
If you visit the British Museum, you will see a piece of limestone with red and black writing on it. The tablet, known as an ostracon, dates back to 1250 BC and is written in New Egyptian hieratic, the official script of the New Kingdom (1550 BC to 1069 BC).
A list of 40 people who called in sick is on the tablet. The date of the employee’s absence and the reason for it can be found.
One of the most common reasons was to brew beer. Sounds shocking. How does someone not get fired for staying at home and brewing beer? Do you think calling in sick to brew beer would be okay with employers today?
But back then, things were different, and making beer was a serious business. Clean water wasn’t always available, and beer could be the difference between life and death. It’s easy to see why bosses were okay with workers taking time off to brew beer if we put it into perspective of ancient times.
Who would put their employees’ health at risk?
Some reasons for calling in sick were quite serious, like being “stung by a scorpion” or “suffering in the eye.” Illness was a typical justification for missing work. A worker named Pennub didn’t show up because his mother was sick.
Another reason was “wife or daughter bleeding,” which, as you might guess, is a reference to menstruation. Because women had to stay home during their periods, the men had to take over the household chores.
A religious holiday was another excuse for a sick day. One worker had to “drink with Khonsu.” Khonsu was an Egyptian god who got milk, wine, and other drinks as part of a ceremony. That sounds like a legitimate reason to call in sick. What better way to spend the day than partying with the god of beverages!
Some reasons were quite flimsy, such as “reinforcing the door.” Several workers took time off to “fetch stones for the scribe.” Helping scribes could be a royal decree, and the worker might not have much choice.
One reason for not going to work was that the person was “making remedies for the scribe’s wife,” which sounds fishy. Egyptian priests did not teach medical cures to the average worker. What was he doing with the scribe’s wife?
I’ll let you be the judge.
Mummies are an essential part of any discussion of ancient Egypt. One of the most common reasons for missing work was to embalm a relative who had recently died. Egyptians took the funerary rites seriously.
Hence, we can imagine this was a legitimate reason for not showing up.
From the records, we can see that the Egyptians accepted sick days for reasons that we wouldn’t consider legitimate in the modern world. However, things weren’t always rosy between the employers and the workers.
A hundred years after the documentation of the sick leave register, we find evidence of the first recorded labor strike in history.
What led to the breakdown in relations between the workers and the Egyptian authorities?
History’s First Labor Strike
Egypt’s fight against the Sea Peoples, following the collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations around 1177 BC, depleted the royal coffers. But it also created a problem that the Pharaoh (Ramses III) refused to acknowledge: Egyptian casualties exceeded those reported by official sources.
There was a significant reduction in the number of workers. There were fewer merchants, farmers, and laborers available.
Ramses wanted to restore balance and ensure the smooth functioning of the government. He went on a tour of the countryside and commissioned several repair works.
He dispatched a military expedition to Punt to fund the projects. The Land of Punt, a kingdom in Central Africa, was last visited by the Egyptians during the reign of the charismatic female Pharaoh Hatshepsut, one of the few female Pharaohs in Egyptian history. During Hatshepsut’s reign ( c. 1479-1458 BC), Egypt’s economy grew at an unparalleled rate because of the abundance of resources flowing in from Punt.
Ramses’ mission was a disaster. Besides the loss of human capital and the depletion of royal funds, corruption plagued Egypt. Many unscrupulous officials misused the state’s collections for their benefit.
By 1159 BC, Egypt was facing labor scarcity, a revenue crisis, and widespread corruption. Ramses was approaching a significant landmark in his rule. He was three years away from completing thirty years at the helm. The Pharaoh wanted a lavish party to commemorate his three decades in power.
However, conducting grand celebrations during an economic downturn was a huge mistake.
The artisans and workers at Deir el-Medina did not receive their wages on time in 1159 BC. Their paycheck was a month late. The officials arranged a temporary food distribution for the employees, but this did not resolve the issue of unpaid salaries.
A letter from the scribe Neferhotep to the Pharaoh highlights the desperate situation:
"We are exceedingly impoverished. All supplies for us that are (from) the treasury, that are from the granary, and that are (from) the storehouse have been allowed to be exhausted. Not light is a load of dn-stone. Six oipe (an Egyptian unit of measurement) of grain have been taken away from us besides to be given to us as six oipe of dirt. Let our lord make for us a means for keeping alive. Indeed we are dying besides. We do not live at all. It (i.e., the means of keeping alive) is not given to us in (the form of) anything whatsoever.”
The inability to pay wages was not an isolated incident. On two additional occasions, the officials neglected to pay the workers what they were owed. After the third time, the workers waited for eighteen more days beyond their payday. Then they decided it was time to call it quits.
They left behind their tools as they marched to the temple of Ramses III and chanted, “We are hungry!”
Following the protest at the temple of Ramses III, the laborers proceeded to the temple of Thutmose III and sat in protest of their non-payment of salaries. Egyptian authorities were taken aback.
Such a situation had never occurred in Egypt’s history. Egyptian employees were well-compensated when most of the work was being done by slaves across the world.
It’s reasonable, though, to presume that workers were less demanding of their rights in the past. They did, however, expect their payments to be deposited on time.
As the protests intensified, officials ordered pastries to be given to the workers to pacify them. The authorities could not dupe the workers. They returned to the demonstrations the following day after going home with the pastries.
After breaking into the central granary, the employees demanded to speak with the officials. Montumes, the police head, was summoned. He tried to persuade the workers to leave, but he was powerless to do so.
Finally, the officials and the laborers reached an agreement, and the outstanding payments were made. The workers, on the other hand, had a hunch that something was up. In the village, it occurred to them that they would not be paid again.
Following their realization that they were being fooled, the workers resorted to a drastic measure.
The next day, they barricaded the Valley of the Kings, which housed the tombs of the Egyptian rulers. By doing so, they ensured that no priests or family members of the deceased could visit the holy spot.
A grave sin was committed in Egypt because the blockade was tarnishing the memory of those who had died.
One official threatened the employees with physical violence. The employees vowed to damage the tombs in retribution.
The workers made the tombs, hence they had quite a bit of leverage here. Who would make them if the authorities injured or jailed them?
Both parties were at a standstill.
The strike lasted three years, until the Pharaoh’s jubilee festivities in 1156 BC. Workers would protest, refuse to work, and threaten to block roads. The authorities paid their debts but refused to pay them on time again. The vicious cycle of protest and non-payment of wages continued.
We see history’s first recorded breach of contract and a deadlock that hurt the Egyptian economy. The authorities were afraid to inform the Pharaoh about the strike, fearing execution for failing to fulfill their duties.
In Egypt, there was an unwritten custom that the Pharaoh compensated the laborers. Due to prevalent corruption, scholars believe the money may not have been released.
Following the jubilee celebrations in 1156 BC, a resolution was reached between the officials and the laborers. But the trust between the workers and the government was shattered.
You might wonder how we know this?
As you would have guessed, the officials suppressed the information about the strike. However, Amennakht, a scribe, documented the protest. Thanks to his writings, we know about the first labor strike in history.
It’s incredible to think that ancient people were just like us. Even though they lived in a different world, many of them exhibited behaviors similar to ours. In a time when paid work was almost unheard of, those lucky enough to have a job sometimes called in sick.
Like modern times, ancient Egyptian workers experienced breaches of contract. Lacking a sophisticated labor law and unions to defend their rights, they resorted to strikes to get their demands met.
The work culture in ancient Egypt was truly ahead of its time.
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References
J.J. Janssen(1980) ‘Absence from work by the necropolis workmen of Thebes’, in ‘Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur’ 8.
David, A. Rosalie (1997). The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt : a Modern Investigation of Pharaoh's Workforce. Taylor & Francis.
Ezzamel, Mahmoud (2012). Accounting and Order. Routledge.
Brier, B. & Hobbs, H( 2013). Ancient Egypt: Everyday Life in the Land of the Nile. Sterling Publishing.
Shaw, I. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, 2006.
Cline, Eric H. (2014). 1177 B.C.The Year Civilization Collapsed. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
First Recorded Strike, Guinness Book of World Records.
British Museum, Ostracon EA5634