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A high priest of Amun (First page of the Book of the Dead of Panedjem II
Writing
In scribe school
that it was important to record and communicate information about religion and government. Thus, they invented written scripts that could be used to record this information. The most famous of all ancient Egyptian scripts is hieroglyphic. However,
schools had many things to learn. Since it was important for them to learn how to record information correctly, they had to read and write well. They spent hours copying hundreds of signs until they could make them well enough to please their teachers. This was hard work, and many students did not like the work they were given. Sometimes they were punished for skipping classes or not doing their work.
In the fields
In tombs
In the army
important part of tomb decoration. The writing on the walls in a pharaohs tomb helped him get to the afterlife.
Scribes wrote the spells on the walls of tombs before they were carved. Then, the craftsmen decorating the tomb carved the In government hieroglyphs or painted them. Finally, the head scribe checked over he government Hieroglyphic writing from the tomb of Sethos II the work that had of ancient Egypt been done to make kept records about the country. sure it was correct. This helped them work out Remember, the craftsmen could not important facts about how the always read what they were carving on country was running. the walls, and a missed line or sign could For example, by looking at mean that the spells would not work. records from past years they could see how much grain or how many animals were collected in taxes.
Egyptians went to battle against their enemies they used writing to communicate with each other. Military leaders were first trained as scribes, so they would be able to read messages that were sent to them.
Government officials were scribes who had been promoted to higher positions. One scribe named Horemheb who was a high government official actually became pharaoh.
In temples
and goddesses. The walls were decorated with writing and pictures that showed the pharaohs respect for the gods and goddesses. Priests who worked in the temples were scribes.
They were the people who performed the sacred rituals that were necessary to keep the gods and goddesses happy. Thus, they needed to be able to read the instructions for the rituals that were written on papyrus scrolls and carved into the temple walls.
Scribes
To become a scribe, you had to attend a special school for scribes. At this school you would learn how to read and write hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts. This was hard work. These scripts are complicated, and there were many signs to learn. Students spent a lot of time practising the signs by copying them onto sheets of papyrus, old pieces of pottery or flakes of limestone. It could take four to five years for a person to go through scribe school. Not anyone learned to be a scribe. Most often it was the children of scribes who became scribes. Although some craftsmen were able to get their sons into the school for scribes, it was very rare. Scribes usually wrote on papyrus with reed brushes dipped in ink. The ancient Egyptians made ink by grinding brightly coloured minerals into powder, then mixing the powder with liquid so that it was easier to apply.
writing on it in two languages (Egyptian and Greek), using three scripts (hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek). The Rosetta Stone is written in three scripts because when it was written, there were three scripts being used in Egypt. The first was hieroglyphic which was the script used for important or religious documents. The second was demotic which was the common script of Egypt. The third was Greek which was the language of the rulers of Egypt at that time. The Rosetta Stone was written in all three scripts so that the priests, government officials and rulers of Egypt could read what it said. The Rosetta Stone was carved in 196 BC and was found in 1799 in a small village in the Delta called Rosetta (Rashid) by French soldiers who were
to read and write in Statue of a scribe ancient Egypt. Only one group of people called scribes was allowed to have this knowledge. Scribes were people in ancient Egypt (usually men) who learned to read and write. Although experts believe that most scribes were men, there is evidence of some female doctors. These women would have been trained as scribes so that they could read medical texts.
rebuilding a fort in Egypt. It is called the Rosetta Stone because of the place of discovery.
a group of priests in Egypt to honour the Egyptian pharaoh. It lists all of the things that the pharaoh has done that are good for the priests and the people of Egypt. Many people worked on deciphering hieroglyphs over several hundred years. However, the structure of the script was very difficult to work out. After many years of studying the Rosetta Stone and other examples of ancient Egyptian writing, JeanFranois Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs in 1822.
Champollion could read both Greek and coptic. He was able to figure out what the seven demotic signs in coptic were. By looking at how these signs were used in coptic he was able to work out what they stood for. Then he began tracing these demotic signs back to hieroglyphic signs. By working out what some hieroglyphs stood for, he could make educated guesses about what the other hieroglyphs stood for.
common object. Hieroglyphs could represent the sound of the object, or they could represent an idea associated with the object. Hieroglyphs were written in rows or columns without spaces between words.
Alphabet
Overview
English is based on
26 characters, letters. Letters are combined into words and then into sentences which tell the story. Ancient Egyptian writing used over 2,000 hieroglyphic characters. Each hieroglyph represented a
Biliterals
Conventions
were substituted in place of pairs of alphabet characters. The sound of the biliteral hieroglyph is the same as the sound of the the alphabet characters it replaces. Biliterals streamline writings by eliminating large numbers of simpler characters.
Hieroglyphic writing was written in columns or rows. Reading direction is determined by the direction that human and animal figures faced. Reading starts from the direction that figures face and continues in the opposite direction.
Determinatives
characters which clarified a statement. They were not spoken but carried a distinct meaning. The appearance of a determinative put the writing in context based on its meaning.
Limestone relief from the Temple of Ramesses II: List of the Kings of Egypt