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ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCRIBES
Ancient Egyptian scribe
Being a scribe in ancient Egypt was a high-status position in ancient Egypt, especially since only 1 percent to 5 percent of the ancient Egyptian population could read and write, according to the University College London. The ancient Egyptians believed that writing was invented by the ibis headed god Thoth and that words had magical powers.
Scribes belonged to a caste. When students were being taught by the fathers they practiced their hieroglyphics on stones and potsherds before they wrote on papyrus. Describing the importance of the profession one ancient Egyptian poet wrote: "It's the greatest of all calling/ Thee is none like it in the land/Set your heart on books!/...There's nothing better than books!" "See, there's no profession without a boss/ Except for the scribe ; he is the boss." [Source: David Roberts, National Geographic, January 1995]
One papyrus, translated by Miriam Lichtheim, says, ''Happy is the heart of him who writes; he is young each day ... Be a scribe! Your body will be sleek, your hand will be soft ... You are one who sits grandly in your house; your servants answer speedily; beer is poured copiously; all who see you rejoice in good cheer.''
Work Done by Scribes in Ancient Egypt
In Ancient Egypt writing — and also reading — was a professional rather than a general skill. Professional scribes prepared a wide range of documents, oversaw administrative matters and performed other essential duties. They played an important role in making society run. For example, they recorded the work performed by laborers and figured out how much they would be paid and decided where their income would come from.
Scribes achieved high status for their for the ability to write. They carried out administrative work and worked as “the liaison between the community and the higher authorities,” according to experts at the Australian Museum. The scribes kept track of village activities, wages, the use of resources and the workforce, and they served as magistrates and witnesses in local courts. [Source: Moira Ritter, Miami Herald, November 8, 2023]
Vanessa Thorpe wrote in The Observer, “Being a scribe at a temple was regarded as a relatively good job because they were well fed and respected. This sense of self-worth among scribes is clear in the frequent appearance of Thoth, the god of writers, within the papyri. He is shown holding his pen and palette, just as the scribes themselves did. The scribes also liked to sneer at manual workers, like potters, and they also looked down on the class of foreign slaves that carried out much of the hard labour, breaking rocks and constructing buildings.[Source: Vanessa Thorpe, The Observer, October 24, 2010]
Scribe: A Good Job in Ancient Egypt
Being a scribe was considered a good job. Dr. Carol R. Fontaine, an assistant professor of Old Testament at the Andover Newton Theological School in Massachusetts, told the New York Times, that, according to papyri that have been translated, the scribes regarded writing as a good way to make a living, much better than being potterymakers (who were ''smeared with soil, like one whose relations have died''), merchants (who spent all their time in river travel), watchmen (who suffered bad hours), shoemakers (who forever had ''red hands'') and soldiers (who drank bad water, marched up hills a lot and ran the risk of getting killed).
The scribes were highly prized by both the pharaoh and the priesthood, so much so that in some of the pharaoh's tombs, the pharaoh himself is depicted as a scribe in pictographs. The scribes were in charge of writing magical texts, issuing royal decrees, keeping and recording the funerary rites (specifically within The Book of The Dead) and keeping records vital to the bureaucracy of Ancient Egypt. The scribes often spent years working on the craft of making hieroglyphics, and deserve mentioning within the priestly caste as it was considered the highest of honors to be a scribe in any Egyptian court or temple. +\ [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]
Scribe School
The boy who was intended for the profession of scribe was sent when quite young into the instruction house, the school, where, even if he was of low rank, he was “brought up with the children of princes and called to this profession. "' In old times the school for scribes was attached to the court; ' the schools of the New Kingdom must have been organised differently, for it seems that the various government departments, such as the house of silver, etc., had their own schools, in which the candidates for the respective official positions were educated. [Source: Adolph Erman, “Life in Ancient Egypt”, 1894]
From various passages in the school literature we know that the individual training of the young scribes was carried on by one of the higher officials of the department to whom they were assigned as pupils and subordinates. One of these pupils writes to his tutor: “I was with thcc since I was brought up as a child; thou didst beat my back and thy instructions went into m\ car. " '' From this we may assume that there was no disconnection at all between the early teaching and the later higher instruction; it seems that the same old official who initiated his disciple “into his duties, had also to superintend his work when he had to learn the first elements of knowledge.
It was quite possible for a boy to enter a different profession from that for which he was educated at school; Bekenchons the high priest of Amun relates that, from his fifth to his sixteenth year, he had been ''captain in the royal stable for education," and had then entered the temple of Amun in the lowest rank of priesthood. After serving as a cadet, as we should say, he entered the ecclesiastical profession. The stable for education must have been a sort of military school, in which boys of rank who were intended to be officers in the army became as a rule “captains of the stable. " '"
See Separate Article: SCHOOLS IN ANCIENT EGYPT africame.factsanddetails.com
Instruction Letter to an Ancient Egyptian Scribe
scribe Lepsius Neferhotep
Nebmare-nakht, a royal scribe and chief overseer of the cattle of Amen-Re, King of Gods, wrote the following instructions in letter-writing for his apprentice, the scribe Wenemdiamun: “[The royal scribe] and chief overseer of the cattle of Amen- [Re, King of Gods, Nebmare-nakht speaks to the scribe Wenemdiamun]. [Apply yourself to this] noble profession.... Your will find it useful.... You will be advanced by your superiors. You will be sent on a mission.... Love writing, shun dancing; then you become a worthy official. Do not long for the marsh thicket. Turn your back on throw-stick and chase. By day write with your fingers; recite by night. Befriend the scroll, the palette. It pleases more than wine. Writing for him who knows it is better than all other professions. It pleases more than bread and beer, more than clothing and ointment. It is worth more than an inheritance in Egypt, than a tomb in the west. [Source: Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), I, pp. 168-173]
“Young fellow, how conceited you are! You do not listen when I speak. Your heart is denser than a great obelisk, a hundred cubits high, ten cubits thick. When it is finished and ready for loading, many work gangs draw it. It hears the words of men; it is loaded on a barge. Departing from Yebu it is conveyed, until it comes to rest on its place in Thebes. So also a cow is bought this year, and it plows the following year. It learns to listen to the herdsman; it only lacks words. Horses brought from the field, they forget their mothers, Yoked they go up and down on all his majesty's errands. They become like those that bore them, that stand in the stable. They do their utmost for fear of a beating. But though I beat you with every kind of stick, you do not listen. If I knew another way of doing it, I would do it for you, that you might listen. You are a person fit for writing, though you have not yet known a woman. Your heart discerns, your fingers are skilled, your mouth is apt for reciting.
“Writing is more enjoyable than enjoying a basket of [?] and beans; more enjoyable that a mother's giving birth, when her heart knows no distaste. She is constant in nursing her son; her breast is in his mouth every day. Happy is the heart [of] him who writes; he is young each day. The royal scribe and chief overseer of the cattle of Amen- Re, King of Gods, Nebmare-nakht, speaks to the scribe Wenemdiamun, as follows. You are busy coming and going, and do not think of writing. You resist listening to me; you neglect my teachings.
“You are worse than the goose of the shore that is busy with mischief. It spends the summer destroying the dates, the winter destroying the seed-grain. It spends the balance of the year in pursuit of the cultivators. It does not let seed be cast to the ground without snatching it.... One cannot catch it by snaring. One does not offer it in the temple. The evil, shape-eyed bird that does no work! You are worse than the desert antelope that lives by running. It spends no day in plowing. Never at all does it tread on the threshing-floor. It lives on the oxen's labor, without entering among them. But though I spend the day telling you "Write," it seems like a plague to you. Writing is very pleasant!....
“See for yourself with your own eye. The occupations lie before you. The washerman's day is going up, going down. All his limbs are weak, [from] whitening his neighbor's clothes every day, from washing their linen. The maker of pots is smeared with soil, like one whose relations have died. His hands, his feet are full of clay; he is like one who lives in the bog. The cobbler mingles with vats. His odor is penetrating. His hands are red with madder, like one who is smeared with blood. He looks behind him for the kite, like one whose flesh is exposed. The watchman prepares garlands and polishes vase-stands. He spends a night of toil just as one on whom the sun shines.
Advise to an Ancient Egyptian Scribe
The letter from the royal scribe Nebmare-nakht to his apprentice Wenemdiamun goes: “The merchants travel downstream and upstream. They are as busy as can be, carrying goods from one town to another. They supply him who has wants. But the tax collectors carry off the gold, that most precious of metals. The ships' crews from every house [of commerce], they receive their loads. They depart from Egypt for Syria, and each man's god is with him. [But] not one of them says: "We shall see Egypt again!" The carpenter who is in the shipyard carries the timber and stacks it. If he gives today the output of yesterday, woe to his limbs! The shipwright stands behind him to tell him evil things. His outworker who is in the fields, his is the toughest of all the jobs. He spends the day loaded with his tools, tied to his toolbox. When he returns home at night, he is loaded with the toolbox and the timbers, his drinking mug, and his whetstones. [Source: Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), I, pp. 168-173]
scribe palette
“The scribe, he alone, records the output of all of them. Take note of it! Let me also expound to you the situation of the peasant, that other tough occupation. [Comes] the inundation and soaks him..., he attends to his equipment. By day he cuts his farming tools; by night he twists rope. Even his midday hour he spends on farm labor. He equips himself to go to the field as if he were a warrior. The dried field lies before him; he goes out to get his team. When he has been after the herdsman for many days, he gets his team and comes back with it. He makes for it a place in the field. Comes dawn, he goes to make a start and does not find it in its place. He spends three days searching for it; he finds it in the bog. He finds no hides on them; the jackals have chewed them. He comes out, his garment in his hand, to beg for himself a team.
“When he reaches his field he finds [it?] broken up. He spends time cultivating, and the snake is after him. It finishes off the seed as it is cast to the ground. He does not see a green blade. He does three plowings with borrowed grain. His wife has gone down to the merchants and found nothing for barter. Now the scribe lands on the shore. He surveys the harvest. Attendant are behind him with staffs, Nubians with clubs. One says [to him]: "Give grain." "There is none." He is beaten savagely. He is bound, thrown in the well, submerged head down. His wife is bound in his presence. His children are in fetters. His neighbors abandon them and flee. When it is over, there is no grain.
Being a Scribe Is Better Than Being a Peasant
The letter from the royal scribe Nebmare-nakht to his apprentice Wenemdiamun goes: “If you have any sense, be a scribe. If you have learned about the peasant, you will not be able to be one. Take note of it!.... Furthermore. Look, I instruct you to make you sound; to make you hold the palette freely. To make you become one whom the king trusts; to make you gain entrance to treasury and granary. To make you receive the ship-load at the gate of the granary. To make you issue the offerings on feast days. You are dressed in fine clothes; you own horses. Your boat is on the river; you are supplied with attendants. You stride about inspecting. A mansion is built in your town. You have a powerful office, given you by the king. Male and female slaves are about you. Those who are in the fields grasp your hand, on plots that you have made. Look, I make you into a staff of life! Put the writings in your heart, and you will be protected from all kinds of toil. You will become a worthy official. [Source: Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), I, pp. 168-173]
“Do you not recall the [fate of] the unskilled man? His name is not known. He is ever burdened [like an ass carrying things] in front of the scribe who knows what he is about. Come, [let me tell] you the woes of the soldier, and how many are his superiors: the general, the troop-commander, the officer who leads, the standard-bearer, the lieutenant, the scribe, the commander of fifty, and the garrison-captain. They go in and out in the halls of the palace, saying: "Get laborers!" He is awakened at any hour. One is after him as [after] a donkey. He toils until the Aten sets in his darkness of night. He is hungry, his belly hurts; he is dead while yet alive. When he receives the grain-ration, having been released from duty, it is not good for grinding.
“He is called up for Syria. He may not rest. There are no clothes, no sandals. The weapons of war are assembled at the fortress of Sile. His march is uphill through mountains. He drinks water every third day; it is smelly and tastes of salt. His body is ravaged by illness. The enemy comes, surrounds him with missiles, and life recedes from him. He is told: "Quick, forward, valiant soldier! Win for yourself a good name!" He does not know what he is about. His body is weak, his legs fail him. When victory is won, the captives are handed over to his majesty, to be taken to Egypt. The foreign women faints on the march; she hangs herself [on] the soldier's neck. His knapsack drops, another grabs it while he is burdened with the woman. His wife and children are in their village; he dies and does not reach it. If he comes out alive, he is worn out from marching. Be he at large, be he detained, the soldier suffers. If he leaps and joins the deserters, all his people are imprisoned. He dies on the edge of the desert, and there is none to perpetuate his name. He suffers in death as in life. A big sack is brought for him; he does not know his resting place.
models of granary scribes
“Be a scribe, and be spared from soldiering! You call and one says: "Here I am." You are safe from torments. Every man seeks to raise himself up. Take note of it! Furthermore. [To] the royal scribe and chief overseer of the cattle of Amen-Re, King of Gods, Nebmare-nakht. The scribe Wenemdiamun greets his lord: In life, prosperity, and health! This letter is to inform my lord. Another message to my lord. I grew into a youth at your side. You beat my back; your teaching entered my ear. I am like a pawning horse. Sleep does not enter my heart by day; nor is it upon me at night. [For I say:] I will serve my lord just as a slave serves his master.
“I shall build a new mansion for you [on] the ground of your town, with trees [planted] on all its sides. There are stables within it. Its barns are full of barley and emmer, wheat, cumin, dates, ...beans, lentils, coriander, peas, seed-grain, ...flax, herbs, reeds, rushes, ...dung for the winter, alfa grass, reeds, ...grass, produced by the basketful. Your herds abound in draft animals, your cows are pregnant. I will make for you five aruras of cucumber beds to the south.”
Tomb of Wah; What It Says About the Life of a Scribe
Catharine H. Roehrig of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote: “Just over 4,000 years ago, in about 2005 B.C., a boy named Wah was born in the Upper Egyptian province of Waset, which took its name from the city better known today by its ancient Greek name—Thebes. At that time, Thebes was the capital of all Egypt, and Nebhepetre Mentuhotep, founder of the Middle Kingdom, was nearing the end of his long reign. Nebhepetre was a member of the Theban family that had controlled a large part of Upper Egypt for several generations. Early in the third decade of his reign, about twenty-five years before Wah's birth, the king reunited Upper and Lower Egypt after a period of civil war and took the Horus name Sematawy—Uniter of the Two Lands. For his accomplishment, Nebhepetre was forever honored by the Egyptians as one of their greatest pharaohs. [Source: Catharine H. Roehrig Department of Egyptian Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2004, metmuseum.org \^/]
“While growing up, Wah undoubtedly heard tales of the difficult time when there had been no supreme leader ruling over the two lands of Egypt, and Thebes was cut off from trade with the foreign lands to the northeast. He must have been told countless times of the heroic deeds of Nebhepetre and his supporters, who had fought to reunite the Nile valley in the south with the delta in the north. But in Wah's lifetime there was peace, and prosperity was returning to the land. \^/
“Early in his life, probably when he was six or seven, Wah began studying to become a scribe . Learning the art of writing was a long, painstaking process, accomplished primarily by copying standard religious texts, famous literary works, songs, and poetry. Wah may have mastered both formal hieroglyphic and the cursive hieratic scripts, memorizing hundreds of signs and learning which had specific meanings in themselves; which represented sounds and could be used to spell out words; which were determinatives, or signs that give clues as to the meaning of a word; and which could be used in more than one of these ways. He would have practiced forming signs , learning their correct size and spacing in relation to one another. He would also have learned to mix ink and to make brushes from reeds, for Egyptian handwriting was a form of painting, and the finest scribes developed personal hands that were calligraphic in style. \^/
“Sometime in his youth, perhaps quite early in his scribal training, Wah went to work on the estate of Meketre, a wealthy Theban who had begun his career as a government official during the reign of Nebhepetre and eventually rose to the exalted position of "seal bearer," or treasurer—one of the most powerful positions at court. A man of Meketre's importance probably owned a great deal of land, and his private domain would have been virtually self-sufficient, with tenant farmers, artisans and other specialized laborers, scribes, administrators, and servants all living and working on the estate. Wah probably began his service as one of the lower-level scribes, keeping accounts and writing letters. Ultimately, he became an overseer, or manager, of the storerooms on the estate. \^/
“We can speculate about some of Wah's duties thanks to a set of wooden models that were probably made during his lifetime as part of the burial equipment of his employer, Meketre. These small scenes, which form one of the finest and most complete sets of Middle Kingdom funerary models ever discovered, can be interpreted on more than one level. All of them have symbolic meanings connected with Egyptian funerary beliefs, but they also provide a picture of the day-to-day tasks that were performed on an ancient Egyptian estate. The basis of Egypt's economy was agriculture, and the grains, fresh fruits, and vegetables raised on Meketre's lands would have been his most important assets. A large portion of the crops would have been dried or processed into oil and wine, stored, and used throughout the year in the estate's kitchens . Some of the produce was set aside for taxes and salaries. Anything left over could be traded for raw materials or luxury items not available on the estate. \^/
“Artisans on the estate produced ceramic vessels in which to store beer and wine; carpenters made and repaired furniture, doors, windows, and perhaps even coffins and other funerary equipment, when necessary; weavers wove the hundreds of yards of linen used in every aspect of life and for wrapping mummies after death. In his adult years, Wah probably oversaw the output of all of the artisanal shops, as well as the storage of agricultural produce, the paying of taxes, and the doling out of wages in grain, cloth, and other products for work done on the estate. \^/
“As a young man, Wah must have been an imposing individual; at nearly six feet, his height far exceeded that of most of his contemporaries. However, at some point he seems to have injured both of his feet, and his duties as a scribe and overseer probably allowed him to maintain quite a sedentary lifestyle. Perhaps as a result of these circumstances, by his mid-twenties Wah had become obese—a sign of great prosperity, but also perhaps of poor health, for he died before he was thirty. \^/
Suffering of Royal Scribes in Egypt
A study published in the journal Scientific Reports in June 2024 found that scribes in Ancient Egypt suffered hip, spine and shoulder problems that may have been caused by doing repetitive tasks while sitting cross-legged with their head bent forwards for hours on end. The study of male skeletons said the positions that scribes in while working may have led to degenerative skeletal changes including, indentations on both kneecaps and a flattened surface on a bone in the lower part of the right ankle, say scientists. Study leader Dr Petra Brukner Havelkova and her colleagues examined the skeletal remains of 69 adult males, 30 of whom were scribes, buried in the necropolis at Abusir, in Egypt, between 2700 B.C. and 2180 B.C. [Source: The Telegraph, June 28, 2024]
Dr Havelkova, of Charles University, Prague, in the Czech Republic, said: The degenerative skeletal changes “were in the joints connecting the lower jaw to the skull, the right collarbone, the top of the right humerus where it meets the shoulder, the first metacarpal bone in the right thumb, the bottom of the thigh where it meets the knee, and throughout the spine, but particularly at the top. Other skeletal features that were more common among scribes were an indentation on both kneecaps and a flattened surface on a bone in the lower part of the right ankle.”
The Telegraph reported: The research team also identified bone changes that could be indicative of physical stress caused by repeated use in the humerus and left hip bone, which were more common among scribes than men with other occupations. The researchers suggest that the degenerative changes observed in the spines and shoulders of scribes could result from them sitting for prolonged periods in a cross-legged position with the spine flexed, and their arms unsupported. Dr Havelkova said: “Changes to knees, hips, and ankles could indicate that scribes may have preferred to sit with the left leg in a kneeling or cross-legged position and the right leg bent with the knee pointing upwards in a squatting or crouching position.”
such a writing position may have caused a variety of physical problems
The team say statues and wall decorations in tombs have depicted scribes sitting in both positions, as well as standing, while working. Dr Havelkova said: “Degeneration to the jaw joints could have resulted from scribes chewing the ends of rush stems to form brush-like heads they could write with, while degeneration to the right thumb could have been caused by repeatedly pinching their pens.” She added: “The findings provide greater insight into the lives of scribes in ancient Egypt during the third millennium B.C..”
In November, 2023, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities revealed that a scribe who lived 2,500 years ago whose tomb was unearthed at the Abusir pyramid complex suffered from a variety of ailments and perhaps died relatively young because of them. Moira Ritter wrote in the Miami Herald: The man had severe bone fragility, and after spending so much time sitting, he ended up with spinal erosion that ultimately contributed to his death at just 25 years old. At least that’s the story his mummy tells, according to experts.[Source: Moira Ritter, Miami Herald, November 8, 2023]
The man, whose name translates to “Johoti Em Hat”, was a previously unknown royal scribe who died sometime around the middle of the first millennium B.C., officials said. His richly decorated tomb was found beneath a well. Archaeologists said Johoti Em Hat’s coffin was covered with intricate hieroglyphics depicting texts from the Book of the Dead and images of various gods and goddesses. The walls of his burial chamber also displayed hieroglyphics of religious texts, hymns, ritual offerings and other images.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except men splitting papyrus, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated July 2024