Daily Life-Writing and Education

Cameron Wood

What is a scribe?

Scribes are the people who record data for the pharaohs.
Scribes were the men who helped administer laws, collect taxes, and supervise government projects.
They were Egypt’s official record keepers
The scribes were usually men, but sometimes, there were some women scribes.
The scribes wrote and read things from business contracts, to jokes and songs.
Sometimes they would work at the pharaoh’s palace, but other times they would travel with the members of the court to keep track of official data.
The scribes achieved high rank and honors, there job was highly respected and often financially rewarded.

Hieroglyphics

The written language that the Egyptians used in this period of time was hieroglyphics.
The written pieces and objects that are found today, are 5,000 years old.
When the people used to use hieroglyphics, there were over 700 different symbols to memorize.
Because it was such a complicated course to go through, only about 1 percent of the population could literate.
Some hieroglyphic symbols are used to make sounds, and some are used to make words, and some are 2 put together to form a different word.
Mot all hieroglyphics were written on walls, buildings, and papyrus, a paper made from the papyrus plant.

Scribes Education

The scribes were taught by priests.
The education was very strict for the students.
If there was any sign of misbehaving or not wanting to learn, the student would be scolded, or even physically beaten.
Sometimes the school day would last from sun-rise to sun-set.

Scribes Profession

After the Scribes complete their course in education, they go off to do different things, to improve their profession.
They would go off with more experienced scribes, to learn even more about record keeping.
Soon after that, the pharaoh would send the scribes out to cities and villages to keep track of tax records.
The scribes would then record the grain, so there wasn’t a famine, and then record the Nile River, so there wouldn’t be a flood.