Papyrus Stories

Everyday Stories from the Ancient Past

The Powers of Hell: A Deadly Curse from Medieval Egypt

Dec 27, 2019

*Guest post by Korshi Dosoo; see his bio here. Somewhere in Upper Egypt, around the tenth century CE, someone wanted to destroy a man named Haron. They took a pair of rib bones from a large animal, perhaps a cow or a camel, still wet with gristle, and they wrote a curse three times, on … More The Powers of Hell: A Deadly Curse from Medieval Egypt

A Stingy Boss and a Lack of Beer

Dec 23, 2019

Deir el-Medina in western Thebes was home to a community of skilled workers, who were responsible for constructing and decorating the royal tombs of the period, in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. One draftsman from the village, Prehotep, perhaps after a particularly hard shift, just wanted to relax with … More A Stingy Boss and a Lack of Beer