We might think of state supported health care as an innovation of the 20th century, but it's a much older tradition than that. In fact, texts from a village dating back to Egypt's New Kingdom period, about 3,100 - 3,600 years ago, suggest that in ancient Egypt there was a state-supported health care network designed to ensure that workers making the king's tomb were productive.
Health care boosted productivity on the royal tombs
The village of Deir el-Medina was built for the workmen who made the royal tombs during the New Kingdom (1550 - 1070 BCE). During this period, kings were buried in the Valley of the Kings in a series of rock-cut tombs, not the enormous pyramids of the past. The village was purposely built close enough to the royal tomb to ensure that workers could hike there on a weekly basis. Read more...
More about Us World, Ancient Egypt, and History
EmoticonEmoticon