Ancient Egyptian Scribe
The Scribe
The Ancient Egyptian scribe was an
extremely good career or job. Anyone, whatever their background, could
undertake this profession, if they had the right education and training.
An Ancient Egyptian scribe had the opportunity rise to high ranks and
even become a royal scribe bringing him wealth, land and power. An
Ancient Egyptian scribe was exempt from the daily toil of physical labor
and was viewed with respect by society. In Ancient Egypt it was
traditional and common place for a
father to teach his profession to his son, so many scribes were the sons
of scribes.
The Roles of the Scribe
The roles Ancient Egyptian scribe
revolved around work relating to the government of Egypt. Scribes could
be described as the civil servants of Egypt. Scribes worked in the
following roles:
-
Tax Collectors
-
Law
administrators
-
Writing letters
and legal documents such as marriage contracts
-
Recording
harvests, food supply and distribution
-
Documenting
rainfall and water levels of the Nile
-
Controlling the
food supply and distribution
-
Conducting census of the population
-
Overseeing the
construction of buildings including planning, surveying and
supervising
Additional
roles for scribes who advanced and were promoted
included the roles of engineers, priests, judges,
doctors and teachers. One
of the most famous scribes was called Imhotep became a
vizier of Egypt and was eventually deified as as the Son
of Ptah, the Lord of all Builders. Whenever scribes
started work they would sprinkle a drop from their
water bowl in honor of Imhotep.
The Scribe Schools
The Ancient Egyptian schools were run by scribes and therefore called
the Scribe Schools. The most able scribes taught the future Pharaoh at
the Prince's school. Lessons taught by scribes included the following
subjects:
This list of
subjects provides and indication of the breadth of
knowledge which was acquired by the Ancient Egyptian
scribes.
The Art of the
Scribe - Writing
The scribes had to be conversant with different styles of writing which
included Hieroglyphics, hieratic writing and in later years of the
Egyptian periods the Demotic script.
The scribes sat Indian style holding his writing board in his lap.
-
Scribes used
Hieroglyphics a system of picture writing which used symbols
(hieroglyphs) instead of letters or words. Hieroglyphics use a
combination of logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements. The
original hieroglyphs represented sounds and there were over 700
hieroglyphs which could used in numerous combinations to give
specific meanings. Hieroglyphics were used by scribes for writing
memorials on great monuments
-
A simplified version of hieroglyphics was devised
by scribes known as 'hieratic' writing which lost the pictorial
aspect of hieroglyphs. The hieratic version of writing was used to
create various types of papyrus documents
-
By the Late Period and
even more fluent script was devised by scribes for compiling
documents and lists which was called Demotic script
Scribes - Thoth,
the God of Wisdom and Scribe of the gods
The god Thoth was revered as the God
of Wisdom and was also the scribe of the gods and the inventor of
writing. Thoth had an important role in the Underworld in the judgment
of the dead in the Hall of the Two Truths where he was the scribe who
recorded the confessions of the dead and also kept a record of the souls
who progressed into afterlife.
Ancient Egyptian Scribe
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