In ancient Egyptian society, scribes were highly respected. People believed that written language made words true. The care with which the scribes followed the harvest is evident in the paintings from the tomb of Menna, a scribe of the domains of Thutmose III, to Sheikh Abd el-Qurna (18th dynasty). Here we see them writing down the numbers provided by the surveyors for the area of a standing crop with the board in hand, so they can estimate the yield for later comparison with the actual amount harvested. Meanwhile, her master, probably Menna herself, climbed a pile of sheaves to get a better view. Elsewhere, scribes note the number of bags farmers empty into the granary—one of many numbers that, when added up, will have allowed senior administrators to know how many were in the state`s granaries. Discipline in an ancient Egyptian school was strictly enforced, with some tutors resorting to the stick. This harsh discipline is emphasized by the fact that the way of the word “teach” (“seba”) also means “to beat.” Thoth was the patron saint of scribes and was generally credited with the development of hieroglyphics. He was often portrayed as a scribe and was responsible for recording the result of the “weighing of the heart” in courtrooms. Seshat was the goddess of writing (and either the wife or daughter of Thoth). She recorded the life of each person on the leaves of the sacred tree of Persea and was the official biographer of the pharaoh.
Many influential positions within the administrative hierarchy of ancient Egypt required training as scribes, those who could neither read nor write could use the services of a scribe. Many correspondences contain the phrase “May you be healthy when you hear this,” which strongly implies that in some cases a scribe would actually read the documents to its recipient – which would certainly be necessary when such a small portion of the population can read or write. Papyrus was the old version of paper and is actually the root of the word “paper”. It was made by cutting the yellowish-white pith of the papyrus reed leaf into long strips and arranging them in horizontal and vertical layers to form a carpet. This is the standard position in which we see the most writers in all of Egypt. The Greeks called the ancient Egyptian pictorial script hieroglyphic, meaning holy. For when they first arrived in the country and saw that it was used on tombs and temple walls, they assumed that it had a secret religious significance. It evolved from a system of simplified and carefully stylized images of real objects.
The original hieroglyphic symbols, with some new symbols added over time, have been used in monumental inscriptions throughout the history of ancient Egyptian civilization, and as temple or funerary sculptures have survived centuries beyond. Most evidence of female scribes in Rome in the early Middle Ages is epigraphic. Eleven Latin inscriptions have been discovered in Rome, which identify women as scribes. In these inscriptions we meet Hapate, who was known as a stenographer of the Greek and lived until the age of 25. Corinna, who was known as a warehouse clerk and clerk. Three were identified as literary assistants; Tyche, Herma and Plaetoriae. There were also four women identified with the title of Libra. Libraria is a term that refers not only to scribe or secretary, but especially to literary copyists. These women were Magia, Pyrrh, Vergilia Euphrosyne and a liberated woman who remains anonymous in the inscription. To the inscriptions and literary references we can add a last piece of Roman testimonies for women scribes: a marble relief from the early 2nd century of Rome, which preserves an illustration of a scribe. The woman is sitting on a chair and seems to be writing on some kind of tablet, she faces the butcher cutting meat at a table. [30] The Sofers (Jewish scribes) are among the few scribes who still practice their craft by hand and write on parchment.
As renowned calligraphers, they produce the scrolls of the Hebrew Torah and other sacred texts. Although women are forbidden to transcribe Torah scrolls for ritual purposes, it is known that some Jewish women copied other Hebrew manuscripts between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. They learned the craft of male scribes with whom they were related and were unusual because women did not usually learn Hebrew. The knowledge of these scribes comes from their colophon signatures. [33] Scribes were usually sons of scribes and only a few members of other professions or even their descendants managed to penetrate the group. Perhaps to make his calling even more appealing to his son Pepi, who had just left his hometown in the delta to attend the palace school for scribes in the capital, Khety wrote his famous instruction, also known as satire on the professions, in the early 12th dynasty. Khety successively paints the dark side of various appeals to highlight the fame and benefits of hers. Because it`s the most important of all professions, he says. There is no one else like him in the whole country. And above all, there is no work without a supervisor other than that of the scribe: he is the overseer.
So, if you can write, you will be better off than in the professions I told you about. Equal importance was given to the work of scribes in craft shops, especially those dealing with metal. In the Egyptian Museum in Cairo there is a relief from the 5th century. Dynasty of Saqqara, on which an official weighs material in a hand scale, a steel court. One pan contains the weights, the other a series of long objects, probably the raw material. A scribe notes the figures on a scroll. After treatment, further weighing followed so that the author could compare the two results and determine if the waste was within the approved limits. Only a very small part of the population was literate, and the scribes in the villages were therefore busy recording accounts and legal matters. They also worked for the army, recording campaigns (you can see them leaning back from a battle and noting events) and then counting the enemy`s deaths.
It is therefore perhaps not surprising that one of the most respected titles in ancient Egypt was “sesh” – “scribe”. The terms are more correctly translated as “draw” or “create” rather than simply “write” or “read”. The profession of scribe is also one of the first professions. There are depictions of scribes (identified by the traditional cross-legged scribe pose and their writing equipment) dating back to the Old Kingdom.