Tag: dailylife

Writing and Education

aaravg417 4 Comments

Writing and Education

Aarav Gupta

What functions did scribes fulfill in the Ancient Egyptian society?

  • Egypt’s official record keepers
  • Performed various governmental and religious rituals
  • Administered laws
  • Collected taxes
  • Traveled with court members to keep an official record of events

How were the writing systems used in Egypt?

      • Only men became scribes but women learned to read and write
      • Most important part of the scribe school curriculum was reading and writing of
      •  hieroglyphs
      • Egyptians used hieroglyphs to record laws, business contracts, songs, jokes, and tales
      • It took Years to master hieroglyphics
      • Many students learned a simpler cursive writing system called hieratic script used for everyday tasks like record keeping
ca. 1490-1436 B.C. --- Hieratic script from the Tomb of Thutmose III. The tomb is located in the Valley of the Kings, Thebes, Egypt and dates from the Eighteenth Dynasty. | Located in: Tomb of Thutmose III. --- Image by © Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis
ca. 1490-1436 B.C. — Hieratic script from the Tomb of Thutmose III. The tomb is located in the Valley of the Kings, Thebes, Egypt and dates from the Eighteenth Dynasty. | Located in: Tomb of Thutmose III. — Image by © Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis

What was the school like for scribes?

          • School day sometimes lasted from dawn to dusk
          • Schoolmasters treated students harshly and if they weren’t willing to learn, they were scolded and physically beaten
          • Four years copying hieroglyphs on a slate to be trusted with writing on papyrus. [Papyrus is a plant that Egyptians turned into their version of paper]

What happened to scribes once they finished their training?

          • They worked alongside experienced scribes to learn about record keeping
          • Kept track of tax records in cities and villages
          • Kept track of food and grain supply in cities and villages and to help prevent a famine
          • Kept census, measured rise of Nile with Nileometers, traveled with military expeditions. [A Nileometer is a set of stairs, a pillar, or a well that marks the height of the water]

Nileometer pic

Picture Sources

      • [Image]http://www.euratlas.com/Atlas/egypt_nile/aswan_nilometer.html.September 16, 2015.Web.
      • [Image] http://www.corbisimages.com/images/Corbis-IH020076.jpg?size=67&uid=72c74a00-0f52-4fe8-adf3-19b9fc11fdc1.September 16, 2015.Web.