Scribe

The Scribe in Ancient Egypt


 * Egyptian Name:**

//Sesh//


 * Hieroglyphics:**



The majority of the Egyptian people were illiterate - knowledge of hieroglyphics was considered sacred to the deities Thoth and Seshat and usually only royalty, priests, military leaders, and scribes were taught how to read or write. People hired scribes to tally their crops, write letters, and draw up business and marriage contracts for them. Scribes also collected taxes, settled legal arguments, and designed and organized the construction of public buildings. Each department of the government had its own special scribes: army scribes, navy scribes, treasury scribes, business scribes, and accountant scribes. The hieroglyphic for "writing" were the tools of the scribe - a brush-holder, water pot, and palette.

In the era of the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom, about 800 Egyptian hieroglyphics existed. By the Greco-Roman period, they numbered more than 5,000. Because the language was so complex, young scribes - almost always boys from wealthy or royal families - would attend school for many years to become adept at writing and reading hieroglyphics. Scribes learned not only reading and writing, but history, poetry, surveying, architecture, and accountancy as well. A scribe was expected to master all the details of administration, what rations a solider should be given, how many bricks were need to build a ramp, how many men were needed to pull and erect a statue, etc.

And the training was rigorous - starting at ages four to seven, boys labored for twelve years to learn hieroglyphics, mathematics, and record keeping. However, the rewards were well worth it - scribes had very high prestige in ancient Egyptian society. Scribes were exempt from active military service, land taxes, and any kind of physical labor.

In fact, several statues of scribes show them with rolls of fat around their bellies, indicators of their wealth and prosperity. An Egyptian proverb states: "What you gain in one day at school is for eternity. The work done there lasts as long as mountains." A scribal text enjoins youngsters to "Plunge into a book as you would into a clear pool of water."

Another scribal text says: "Be a scribe, and be spared from soldiering. Be a scribe, and your body will be sleek, your hands will be soft. By day write with your fingers; recite by night. Befriend the scroll and the writing palette. It pleases more than wine. Writing for him who knows it is better than all other professions. It is worth more than an inheritance, more than a tomb in the West. Man decays, his corpse is dust. All his kin have perished. But a book preserves his memory through the mouth of its reciter. Better is a book than a well-built house, than a well-built tomb."

Although the majority of written Egyptian hieroglyphics are on papyrus, they also wrote on leather, bronze, gold, ivory, bone, clay tablets, slices of limestone, and bits of pottery. For schoolwork, young scribes had wooden writing boards, overlayed with a kind of gesso substance, which could be washed and re-used indefinitely. Young scribes practiced their art by copying classical texts, didactic exercises, and the religious stories that made up Egyptian mythology. Scribal exercises form one of the largest categories of surviving writings from ancient Egypt.

Thoth was the patron god of scribes, who were know as the “Followers of Thoth" - hieroglyphics were the "Tools of Thoth." He was the patron of all areas of knowledge, and written treatises of all kinds fell under his care - scriptoria and libraries were attached to his temples. According to one hymn, the "eye of Thoth" watched out for scribes who took advantage of their skill by using it for self-gain.

Thoth was, naturally, particularly venerated by scribes, who made a small libation to the god by pouring a drop of water out of the pot in which they dipped their brushes at the beginning of each day. Many scribes had a painting or a picture of Thoth in their “office,” and amulets of Thoth were especially popular with scribes. Scribes are sometimes shown carrying about a woven basket with a lid - their "briefcase" of important documents. In their tombs, scribes were buried with rolls of papyrus paper and their tools, as well as amulets of a writing tablet.

Although being a scribe was a profession dominated by men, the priestesses of Seshat, usually royalty, were some of the very few women in ancient Egypt to receive training in hieroglyphics, mathematics, and architecture. These women formed an essential part of the founding, building, and expansion of sacred structures. The goddess Seshat was the patron of builders and was thought to have invented mathematics, which was held to be sacred knowledge.


 * Quotes from the Book of the Dead and other sources:**

Scribe's Proclamation

Important Terminology