Did you know: the ancient Egyptians did not use money?

Did you know: the ancient Egyptians did not use money?
Coins weren't introduced until late in Egypt's history. Before that, goods and labour were used as payments. One of the most important goods was grain which was used as a tax to temples and a payment for work of different kinds. Storing grain in large magazines on estates and in temples meant that when times were tough, people could have a reliable food source and wages.

During the Middle Kingdom, tombs were simple, with little wall decoration, but often included wonderful wooden models of daily life for the tomb owner to take with them to the Afterlife. This wonderful model of a granary comes from the tomb of Meketre, a Middle Kingdom official under a number of kings. Meketre's scribes are keeping a careful count of the amount of grain coming in and out of his store house.
It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

"Description
This model of a granary was discovered in a hidden chamber at the side of the passage leading into the rock cut tomb of the royal chief steward Meketre, who began his career under King Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II of Dynasty 11 and continued to serve successive kings into the early years of Dynasty 12. The four corners of this model granary are peaked in a manner that is sometimes still found in southern Egypt today presumably to offer additional protection against thieves and rodents. The interior is divided into two main sections: the granary proper, where grain was stored, and an accounting area. Keeping track of grain supplies was crucial in an agricultural society, and it is noteworthy that the six men carrying sacks of grain here are outnumbered by nine men taking care of measuring and accounting. Of the four scribes two are using papyrus scrolls, two write on wooden writing boards. All the accessible rooms in the tomb of Meketre had been robbed and plundered already during Antiquity; but early in 1920 the Museum's excavator Herbert Winlock wanted to obtain an accurate floor plan of the tomb's lay out for his map of the Eleventh Dynasty necropolis at Thebes and, therefore, had his workmen clean out the accumulated debris. It was during this cleaning operation that the small hidden chamber was discovered filled with twenty four almost perfectly preserved models. Eventually, half of these went to the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, the other half to the Metropolitan Museum in the partition of finds."
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/u/0/asset-viewer/model-granary-from-the-tomb-of-meketre/AAEKmJarWp7a-Q

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