One limestone slab logged every day 40 royal tomb builders missed work, and why. The reasons were written in red ink. Some are hard to believe.

Ostracon BM EA 5634, now in the British Museum, is an absence register from Deir el-Medina, the village of the royal tomb builders on the west bank of Thebes (modern Luxor). It covers 280 working days in Years 39–40 of Ramesses II (19th Dynasty, New Kingdom, c. 1250 BC), with each worker's name in black and each reason in red hieratic: "ill", "the scorpion bit him", "brewing beer", "with his boss", "his wife was bleeding", "wrapping the corpse of his son". The crew worked a ten-day week in the Valley of the Kings, sleeping in stone huts on the ridge between shifts. Rations continued through sick days, and the crew included a designated physician (swnw) paid extra to make medicine.

DISCLAIMER: This video discusses archaeological and anthropological research for educational purposes. The absence entries are quoted from translations of the ostracon itself; reading clusters of dates as festivals or a possible outbreak is our interpretation, not an established finding. Some interpretations remain actively debated. Narration and artwork are AI-assisted; the script is written by a human. Sources below.

Sources:
The ostracon: Demarée, 2002 (British Museum Press). "Ramesside Ostraca"
Absences from work: Gräßler, 2016 (CSMC Manuscript of the Month 54). "'Stung by a scorpion' and other notes about absences from work in ancient Egypt"
Sick pay and physicians: Austin, 2015 (Journal of Near Eastern Studies 74). "Accounting for Sick Days: A Scalar Approach to Health and Disease at Deir el-Medina"
Absence records: Janssen, 1980 (Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 8). "Absence from Work by the Necropolis Workmen of Thebes"

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