An Inside View: The Meket-ra Granary Model
An ancient model of an Egyptian granary, recovered from the tomb of Chancellor Meket-ra of the XIth Dynasty (2040–1991 B.C.E.), provides a parallel to the granary at Tel Hadar. The model, a portion of which appears below, depicts 16 men at work, including a doorkeeper, scribes, an overseer, administrative personnel and workmen. A flight of steps leads to a roof-level catwalk from which the contents of the grain sacks were dumped into the chambers below. Doorways linking the chambers would have been used by staff to remove grain as needed.
At Tel Hadar, in fact, the space in the granary chambers would have been most efficiently utilized if the grain was poured into the rooms through openings in the roof and withdrawn through the doorways at first-floor level. In the granary and pillared storage building at Tel Hadar there must also have been a sizeable administrative staff of scribes and other officials in charge of recording, administering, protecting and inventorying incoming and outgoing grain and other goods.