Accounts of workforce salaries

Middle Kingdom
ca. 1961–1917 B.C.
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 107
The fragmentary papyrus contains accounts of grain and dates given as salaries to a workforce. The account specifies the amounts given on specific days, ranging from day 20 of the last month of the year through the epagomenal days into the beginning of the new year. The verso of the papyrus mentions dates in the shemu-season (summer).

This papyrus was found in a tomb together with another fragmentary papyrus and a few ostraca. These were originally believed to belong to the funerary servants of Harhotep who is buried nearby, but no servant is mentioned in their inscriptions, and the handwriting differs from one text to another.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Accounts of workforce salaries
  • Period: Middle Kingdom
  • Dynasty: Dynasty 12
  • Reign: reign of Senwosret I
  • Date: ca. 1961–1917 B.C.
  • Geography: From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Deir el-Bahri, Tomb of Harhotep (TT 314, MMA 513), MMA excavations, 1921–22
  • Medium: Papyrus, ink
  • Dimensions: 8 11/16 x 4 15/16 in. (22 x 12.5 cm)
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1922
  • Object Number: 22.3.527
  • Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art

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Accounts of workforce salaries - Middle Kingdom - The Metropolitan Museum of Art