A miniature granary invites the eye to follow the people carrying grain. Look again and another kind of work becomes visible: measuring, recording and keeping track. The model gives administration a place inside the scene.
Follow the museum’s description
The Met’s record for model 20.3.11 distinguishes a storage section from an accounting area. It describes six grain carriers and nine figures involved in measuring and accounting, including scribes using different writing surfaces.
The model belonged to the funerary equipment associated with Meketre. Its purpose and context matter when interpreting the activities it represents.
Read the arrangement before generalising
Open the museum’s views and make a simple plan of the two areas. Mark where an activity is described in the catalogue and where you are still trying to identify a figure. This keeps observation separate from confident-looking guesswork.
The count of figures in one model is not a statistical sample of all Egyptian workplaces. Avoid turning its proportions into a claim about the size of an entire ancient workforce.
Ask a question about the relationship
Why represent storage and records together? The object can lead into that research question without answering every aspect of grain administration by itself.
The illustration on this page is not the model. See the museum source for its actual arrangement, then explore a scribal palette as a writing tool.