"Day 14: Hauling stones; spends the night in Tura South"
May 5, 2025 4:09 AM Subscribe
The star of the Red Sea Scrolls is undoubtedly a man called Merer, a mid-level official or inspector who oversaw a team of forty men transporting limestone for Giza on a ship named The Uraeus of Khufu Is Its Prow—In Gold and Lapis Lazuli is an essay [archive] by archeologist Robert Cioffi about the Diary of Merer, the logbook of a crew working on the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was part of a cache of the oldest papyri yet discovered, uncovered by archeologist Pierre Tallet and his team at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor on the Red Sea coast.
It's mindboggling that these survived, untouched, for 4,600 years. It doesn't sound like they were intentionally preserved, they weren't part of a grave or a library or a museum. They were left in the corner of what was essentially a warehouse when work finished.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:18 AM on May 5 [1 favorite]
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:18 AM on May 5 [1 favorite]
The LRB is the best subscription I have. Looking forward to reading this when it drops through my letterbox
posted by The River Ivel at 7:34 AM on May 5 [1 favorite]
posted by The River Ivel at 7:34 AM on May 5 [1 favorite]
I love this discovery. We have such weird ideas about ancient Egypt, mostly driven by 19th and 20th C orientalism, of the Egyptians as a gloomy death-obsessed people struggling in huge slave-gangs to build incomprehensible monoliths while cowering under the grandiose gaze of gods and god-kings, and it’s just not true.
The ancient Egyptians imagined an afterlife because they liked being alive. They struggled, loved, yearned, and worked like we do today, just in a different setting. There’s a live poem with the line “when I’m with you, I am happy, even without beer,” which is just so… human and funny.
And this discovery shows us a glimpse of Merer, a hard-working mid-level bureaucrat recording his crew’s work in a matter of fact way. I don’t have great hopes, but maybe this can put a stake in the heart of “the Egyptians couldn’t have built the pyramids; it must have been aliens or psychic powers” canard. Nope, it was a bunch of clever careful people figuring shit out, just like humans have done since we’ve been humans.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:42 AM on May 5 [13 favorites]
The ancient Egyptians imagined an afterlife because they liked being alive. They struggled, loved, yearned, and worked like we do today, just in a different setting. There’s a live poem with the line “when I’m with you, I am happy, even without beer,” which is just so… human and funny.
And this discovery shows us a glimpse of Merer, a hard-working mid-level bureaucrat recording his crew’s work in a matter of fact way. I don’t have great hopes, but maybe this can put a stake in the heart of “the Egyptians couldn’t have built the pyramids; it must have been aliens or psychic powers” canard. Nope, it was a bunch of clever careful people figuring shit out, just like humans have done since we’ve been humans.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:42 AM on May 5 [13 favorites]
BtW, it’s a love poem, not a live poem, but that’s Autocorrect for you. F-ing scribes!
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:00 AM on May 5 [4 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:00 AM on May 5 [4 favorites]
GenjiandProust: I don’t have great hopes, but maybe this can put a stake in the heart of “the Egyptians couldn’t have built the pyramids; it must have been aliens or psychic powers” canard
I regret to inform you that you calibrated your hope accurately. Though to be fair, from that discussion it seems that people on the margins have been swayed.
posted by Kattullus at 8:01 AM on May 5 [5 favorites]
I regret to inform you that you calibrated your hope accurately. Though to be fair, from that discussion it seems that people on the margins have been swayed.
posted by Kattullus at 8:01 AM on May 5 [5 favorites]
Diary Of A Pyramid Labourer // Oldest Papyrus Discovered 2550 BC "Diary of Merer" // Primary Source - YouTube. Voices of the Past will read it to you...
posted by zengargoyle at 10:45 AM on May 5
posted by zengargoyle at 10:45 AM on May 5
I really enjoyed Voices of the Past’s reading. I fell asleep to it. The comments are also pretty funny.
This is between a ship’s log and a timesheet, and I for one would feel sorry for any archaeologist reading the timesheets I have written for insight into society and political economy. It might help, but I would still feel sorry for them.
Consider how many work-adjacent papers are lying in attics or basements today, awaiting the day that their owner passes and they are shoveled into recycling bags or shredders. If these scrolls had been in the family home, Mrs. Merer would probably have reused them for mats, shoes, or other household needs. Papyrus was always in demand.
posted by Countess Elena at 11:43 AM on May 5 [1 favorite]
This is between a ship’s log and a timesheet, and I for one would feel sorry for any archaeologist reading the timesheets I have written for insight into society and political economy. It might help, but I would still feel sorry for them.
Consider how many work-adjacent papers are lying in attics or basements today, awaiting the day that their owner passes and they are shoveled into recycling bags or shredders. If these scrolls had been in the family home, Mrs. Merer would probably have reused them for mats, shoes, or other household needs. Papyrus was always in demand.
posted by Countess Elena at 11:43 AM on May 5 [1 favorite]
The Uraeus of Khufu Is Its Prow
A generation ship from deep time!
posted by unearthed at 12:11 PM on May 5 [3 favorites]
A generation ship from deep time!
posted by unearthed at 12:11 PM on May 5 [3 favorites]
Holy moly! Is this real? Could I be happier to read this? I could not! Between the two elections (Canada and Australia) and this, and spring! I am feeling a strange sense of... could it be hope? Nevermind, a lot of coffee this morning.
posted by jokeefe at 12:39 PM on May 5 [4 favorites]
posted by jokeefe at 12:39 PM on May 5 [4 favorites]
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posted by mhoye at 6:51 AM on May 5 [10 favorites]