Writing and Education
Rohan Phadke
What functions did scribes fulfill?
- Scribes kept records for Ancient Egypt
- They would travel along with court members to record events
- Would collect tax from
- Scribes would be in charge of laws
How were scribes educated?
- Priests taught the scribal students
- Curriculum featured learning to read and write hieroglyphics
- They used a reed pens to write on broken pieces of pottery
- Only after they mastered writing on broken pottery, they could write on tablets and then papyrus
- Many scribal students were taught a much simpler system called hieratic script
- Scribes were taught to use hieratic script on daily basis for everyday tasks
Why was school life not easy for scribal student?
- School days were long and sometimes went on from sunrise to sunset
- Strict schoolmaster who treated students harshly
- Students who did not want to learn were harshly punished and even physically beaten
- Students learning to be scribes spent almost 4 years out of seven years of school learning to write the 700 hieroglyphic signs
- What would scribal students learn when they accompanied more experienced scribes?
- Would learn to keep track of tax records
- Learned to record the rise of the Nile River
- They would be taught to track the supply of grain and food supply to ensure that there would not be a shortage of food.
[Image] http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/detail.aspx?id=80. September 16, 2015. Web.
[Image] http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/detail.aspx?id=4576. September 16, 2015. Web.