Download Writing in Ancient Egypt

Writing and scribes
The Egyptian writing was one of the oldest in history. It started to be written on pottery and
ceramics, then it moved to paper and to walls (e.g. walls in tombs as they wrote spells to protect
the dead and to forsake the robbers). They believed that the recording and communication of
information was very important especially if it referred to religion and government. They
invented scripts to make writing possible. The hieroglyph was the most common script used.
Scribes were label to record or write anything thanks to these scripts. Ancient Egyptian scribes recorded everything from stocks, taxes, magic spells, legal contracts and
medical procedures. Scribes were the only men (or women there has been evidence deriving from
artefacts) in Egypt who knew how to read and write and
they taught the smaller kids. Scribes were the centre of
Egyptian culture and it is thanks to them that today we
have a vast knowing of Ancient Egypt. Scribes had to
go through a vast apprentice before being able to
acquire the capacity of reading and writing. In society
they had a higher ranks. To write a scribe needed a certain equipment:
Wooden or stone palette Red and black ink
Leather bag full of water
Reed brushes
Papyrus
Pigments (were produced by mineral compound made
into power and then mixed with a liquid to produce a
type of paint)
The paint was then applied with brushes and the lines
were made using wooden sticks. Draftsmen were a type
of scribes who were specialized in drawing and
producing tomb paintings. At first, to become a scribe you had to go to a special school for scribes. There you would learn to
read and write hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts. Then the students would practice by copying the
signs onto papyrus of limestone. A scribe then had to teach other children. Scribes were mostly
the children of other scribes or children coming from a very rich background. Thot was the god
of scribes. He had a ibis-shaped head just like the bird near the Nile river. He had a long black
beak that seemed black like ink. This is why he was the god of scribes.
The Rosetta Stone is a written stone. It was carved around 196 B.C.
The scripts used were hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek. These were
the three scripts used in Egypt. Hieroglyphic: religious script, demotic:
common script and Greek was the language of the Egyptian rulers at
that time. It was written in three scripts so that government, scribes
and priests could read it. It wasn't until 1799 that it was found by some
French soldiers who were building a fort. Immediately, it was classified
as one of the most important Egyptian artefacts. The Rosetta Stone
was found Rosetta from where it takes its name. The text is about the
good things that the pharaoh did. A group of priests wrote this to
honour their pharaoh. The first one to decipher the hieroglyphs was
François Champollion. Hieroglyphs and papyrus
1. Alphabetic signs: single alphabetical sound.
2. Syllabic signs: two or three consonants 3. Word-signs:pictures of objects to use to call the object. 4. A determinative: picture that helps the reader.
During the Byzantine Empire, the emperor made all pagan temples close. Egyptians lost their
hieroglyphs until the Rosetta Stone was found. The word "paper" comes from the word "papyrus" which means:
that which belongs to the house. About the same time Egyptians
invented a new writing system and used this paper to write on.
The papyrus is made using a plant that grows on the Nile river.
The study of papyrus is called Papyrology. The Nile doesn't only
offer water, fertile mud and stones. The Nile also offers a type of
plant that grows on its banks. This plant is called Papyrus. With
this plant you could make baskets, hats and paper. To make paper
they had to cut the stem and remove the inner pith. Then they
had to cut the pith into thin strips and put each layer one on top
of the other. Then, you had to beat the layers into a single sheet.
After, they trimmed the edges and the paper was made. Bibliography
http://www.classic-play.com/welcome-to-egypt-hieroglyphics/
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/home.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28876/28876-h/files/17327/17327-h/v7b.htm
http://www.luxorcommittee.org/discovery-of-the-tomb-of-tutankhamen-in-luxor/
http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egcw05e.shtml
http://www.katapi.org.uk/BAndS/EgyptianScribe.htm
http://jdownsrosetta.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/returning-the-rosetta-stone-to-egypt/
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