11/19/2023 0 Comments Egyptian scribe placeced in niche![]() Reading, writing, and speaking foreign languages must have been an important skill for some scribes. Ptahhotep, a sage who perhaps lived in the Old Kingdom (circa 2675-2130 b.c.e.), believed that “Proper speech is more hidden than green stone, yet may be found among maids at the grindstones.” The farmer who is the hero of the text called “The Eloquent Peasant” spoke so impressively that the king himself wrote down his words.įoreign Languages. ![]() The writers who discuss proper speech sometimes claim that it was not limited to the educated elite. Though the exact definition of proper speech was never described, known examples are extremely involved couplets and triplets that repeat the same thought more than once. Attention to “proper speech” was an intense concern in the advice given to students. Perhaps there is some confirmation of this theory in the way the Egyptians spoke of hieroglyphs, which they called god’s words ( medu netjer), rather than god’s signs. Spelling mistakes made by school boys suggest that they were taught to write whole words rather than individual hieroglyphic or hieratic signs. Unlike English, the order of conjugation is “I, he, you (singular), we, they, you (plural).” One exercise from Dynasties 19 (circa 1292-1190 b.c.e.) or 20 (circa 1190-1075 b.c.e.) reveals a student’s attempt to conjugate verbs. Egyptian students were taught the elements of proper grammar. The content of the letter followed and could concern personal matters or business. The introduction was a greeting that recommended the receiver to the gods. Letters followed a standard format with three parts. Though learning to write was the most important skill for scribes, other subjects formed part of their education, including letter-writing formulae (epistolography), grammar, orthography (spelling), rhetoric, foreign languages, onomastics (lists), geography, arithmetic, and geometry. Source: “The Instructions of Any,” translated by Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, edited by Lichtheim (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), p. Study-all the writings, put, them in your heart, The sage Any, during Dynasty 18 (circa 1539-1295/1292 B.C.E,), advised students that: Yet, ostraca were sometimes used by poorer people for writing legal documents. Ostraca that have survived display handwriting that is much more difficult to read than that found on papyrus and also have more mistakes in spelling and grammar. ![]() After a student had reached mastery, he was permitted to write on the more-expensive papyrus. Students learned to write on limestone flakes called ostraca, which were abundant near the edge of the desert. The only word meaning “to read” in Egyptian is the same as the one used for “to recite aloud.” The average scribe was expected to learn and recite texts such as the epic Story of Sinuhe and religious texts. Student scribes first learned to write, and at the same time memorize, the great classics of Egyptian literature. The ordinary scribe had little need to learn to write theĮlaborate hieroglyphs found on temple and tomb walls, a task limited to artists, but surely they could read these wall texts. Hieratic writing bases its signs on hieroglyphs but omits all detail and often joins one sign to another. They then progressed to hieratic, the equivalent of handwriting in English. Students first learned cursive hieroglyphs, which are a simplified writing of the elaborate signs seen on temple and tomb walls. Other people paid village scribes to write letters and help them with other sorts of business that required writing. A larger number of craftsmen and artisans most likely could write their names, or recognize the names of kings in hieroglyphs, without being fully literate. How Many Scribes? Though some scholars have estimated that only 1 percent of the Egyptian population was literate, this number probably applies only to the percentage of Egyptians who were fully educated. In all periods, scribal education was the key to success in Egyptian society. ![]() ![]() Thutmose III (circa 1479-1425 b.c.e.) used scribal education as a means to “Egyptianize” conquered foreign rulers. Egyptian education was available to the sons of foreign rulers during Dynasty 18 (circa 1539-1295/1292 b.c.e.). Some sort of scribal education was also available to artisans at Deir el Medina. The only exception was during the Middle Kingdom (circa 1980-1630 b.c.e.) when a shortage of scribes led to the possibility of upward mobility. In most periods scribal education was available only to male children of the elite. Scribal education was designed to train supervisors for overseeing work in administration, construction, and temples. ![]()
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