The scribes of Ancient Egypt are a class of officials, trained to read and write, who mastered the art of hieroglyphic and hieratic writing. The scribes were men, they did business at the court of the pharaoh, in the army and in temples. Scribes were employed in all branches of the economic and administrative life of Egypt: under their supervision, the erection of monuments took place; they recorded the decrees of the pharaoh; stories that circulated orally among the lower classes of Egyptian society, the stories of strangers. They were in charge of the buildings of the temple (from the technical side) and the management of its land property. Their special training corresponded to this: knowledge of hieroglyphs and external decorations of the temple, orientation of parts of the latter, drawing, astronomy, geometry, geography of Egypt, description of the Universe. All this obligatory knowledge was stated in ten books that belonged to the hermetic ones.
Wise scribes
Didn't build themselves pyramids
And headstones made of bronze …
Their pyramids are books
Their child is a reed feather.
And the memory of that
written in the book, eternal.
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(From the textbook: Korovkin F. P. History of the ancient world. - M., 1985, p. 57).
The position of scribe was highly valued in Ancient Egypt, as evidenced by the fact that it was one of the few professions that were designated by a special pictogram. She depicted a palette - a writing tool. Professional scribes had a calligraphic handwriting and had extensive knowledge in a wide variety of fields.
The profession of a scribe was considered prestigious, they were part of the court of the pharaohs and were exempted from paying taxes and serving in the army. Together with artisans and artists, scribes took an active part in decorating tombs, houses, relics, statues, and furniture with hieroglyphs. The post of scribe did not pass by inheritance, it could become a native of the social bottom, who mastered the literacy and proved his suitability in the apparatus of state administration.
There was no such noble class in Egypt that an ordinary person could not get into it. The son of a poor peasant could reach a higher place, become a rich landowner, a nobleman, own thousands of serf farmers - the same as his father was. But, of course, all this is easier to achieve for the son of not a peasant, but an educated person.
And, as a rule, the sons of scribes were initially brought up with the expectation that after several years of study in schools they would take a place next to their fathers. Egyptian scribes preserved and copied ancient texts, worked in libraries and archives that were located at temples. The activities of the so-called "houses of life" are associated with the scribes, where texts of religious, magical content, dream books, medical, astronomical texts, and the titles of kings were compiled.
The patron saint of knowledge and writing was the god of the moon and wisdom Thoth. The scribes were also patronized by the goddess Seshat. In Egyptian art, a stable tradition has developed in the depiction of scribes: he sits on the floor with crossed legs and with papyrus unfolded on his knees. The writing tool was reed brushes; used not only black, but also other paints. The beginning of new chapters or individual phrases was written with red paint. Paints were made from coal, soot, red ocher, blue and green minerals that were ground and diluted with water.
Scribes' schools operated at the court of the pharaoh, at government institutions, at temples. The training consisted mainly of reading and rewriting texts, solving mathematical problems, students were introduced to geography and music. The content of the rewritten texts was varied, but most often these were "teachings" in which it was proved how good it is to be a scribe. Severe discipline was practiced in schools, and excellent hard work was required from the student. A number of teaching aids have survived for the study of writing, including reference books with lists of names and concepts. The scribe's profession was highly respected, and the Egyptian texts retained the names of many scribes.
In religious processions, they ranked third with feathers on their heads, and in their hand a book, a ruler, ink and a writing stick. According to Clement of Alexandria, the scribes of Ancient Egypt are the third class of the Egyptian priestly caste.
Hardly any people respected literacy more than the Egyptians, and it is unlikely that anywhere else the ability to read and write changed the fate of a person and his family to such an extent as in Egypt. Literacy from a slave made a person independent and powerful.
In one of the ancient papyri that have survived to this day, instructions to a young scribe are captured: “Be a scribe! This will free you from taxes, protect you from all kinds of work, remove you from a hoe … and you will not carry a basket … You will not be under many rulers and numerous leaders."
The path to education in Egypt was not easy - they taught extremely harshly. Education took a lot of work. Pupils at the school were engaged from early morning until late at night. The teacher had unlimited power over his students. The most diligent diligence was required. The teacher did not let go of the cane - the negligent were severely punished. To achieve academic success, students sacrificed worldly joys. Here is what you can read in one of the papyri, as a teacher instructs his student:
“Get up in your place! The books are already in front of your comrades. Read the book diligently. Love the scripture and hate the dance. Write with your fingers all day and read at night. Do not spend your day idly, otherwise woe to your body. Ask for advice from someone who knows more than you. They tell me that you abandon learning, you indulge in pleasures, you wander from street to street, where it smells of beer. And beer seduces the soul. You are like a prayer house without God, like a house without bread. You are taught to sing to the flute. You are sitting in front of a girl and you are anointed with incense. Your wreath of flowers hangs around your neck. I will tie your feet if you roam the streets and you will be beaten with a hippo whip."
Schools arose at temples, palaces of kings and nobles. They taught children from 5 years old. At first, the student was taught to read and write correctly and beautifully, then - to draw up business papers, observing the appropriate style. To master the literacy, the student had to memorize about 700 hieroglyphs, distinguish between fluent, simplified and classical writing. As a result, he had to master the business style - for secular needs and the charter - for the compilation of religious texts.
The scribes and schoolboys had a kind of writing device: a cup for water, a wooden plate with indentations for paint made of soot and ocher, as well as a reed stick for writing. Almost all of the text was written in black paint. Red paint was used to indicate punctuation and highlight individual semantic phrases.
Writing in Egyptian was indeed very difficult. And then it was necessary to master several handwritings - analogous to modern printed and handwritten ones - and all this required writing by hand.
The future scribe filled his hand for several years, then learned the syllable, how to compose various papers and letters. Then exams were passed and the student turned into a clerk.
But for success in life this is not enough - you need to get a place, you need someone's patronage. And all this was acquired with almost the same difficulty as the comprehension of the profession of a clerk. Here you need to be able to please who you should, and the Egyptian father gave his son the following instructions:
“If you follow in the footsteps of a noble, then you yourself will acquire wealth. If a dignitary arrives where you serve, do not dare contradict him. Let his every word be a law for you. A respectful scribe will always be distinguished from others.
If he is respectful and active, he will soon come forward. This is what your ancestors did, and you teach the same to your children.”
The clerks did just that. One of them, named Amten, himself told how he became a great man from nothing. His story, on his behalf, was written by descendants on his grave as a lesson to all sensible people.
He began very modestly, was a screamer-tester at the clerk, - he shouted out how much bread the villagers brought, - and the clerk wrote down. Much depended on the screamer: he could press the farmer and help him.
The authorities found that Amten was doing the right thing, and they began to raise him. He received an important position - overseer of linen business in the estates of the pharaoh. This meant watching the fabrics on the dress for the king himself and his family.
Soon Amten received the right to carry a cane, that is, just a stick. For the Egyptians, this is a sign of higher power, a clerk with a stick is an official with a high rank, even a nobleman is not far from a nobleman.
And it was already easy for Amten to reach the highest degrees, to become the boss over a vast area, the king gave him one estate after another, of course, with peasants. Amten managed to attach his only son to the king's court and died in the midst of honors, praised as a wonderful person. The title of clerk and the ability to please the bosses meant so much!
And one father urged his son to become a clerk. The father lists in detail all the benefits of this activity to his son.
First, everyone respects the clerk. Then - the clerk is free from black manual work. Whoever works with his hands is not honored by anyone. His most work is extremely unpleasant, and the worker himself is like a donkey with a load on his back.
The clerk, on the other hand, is a white-handed person. Servants do everything for him, but he only fulfills the orders of his superiors and is himself the boss.
Scribes were not only civilian officials, but also priests - persons even more important than ordinary scribes, and even nobles.
Ancient Greek writers used the word harpedonaptos to refer to them, which means "pulling the rope." The name apparently came from the use of measured ropes both when measuring land plots and when constructing a rational right-angled triangle with sides proportional to the numbers 3, 4, 5.
From the ancient Egyptian scribes, he is known as the compiler of the Rinda papyrus, Agamez, or Ahmes, who lived under the king of the second dynasty of the Hyksos Ra-a-usa, whose other name was Apepa (Apophis among the Greeks), between 2000 and 1700 BC. e.