Egyptian life

Chapter 5

Schooling started around the age of five. Students typically spent
12 years or more learning hieroglyphs, the symbols used in the
Egyptian system of writing. This writing system was quite
complicated. Most students first mastered a simpler form of
writing and then worked their way up to hieroglyphs.
Students had to memorize over 700 hieroglyphs. They spent as
many as four years copying the signs, over and over. They
practiced their writing on pieces of wood, flakes of stone, and even
broken bits of pottery. As their skills improved, students were
allowed to write on papyrus, a type of paper made from the
papyrus plant.
Students in scribe schools did not have an easy life. Classes
sometimes lasted from dawn until sunset. Teachers were strict and often treated their students harshly. Teachers
punished students for being lazy or for not paying attention. Beatings were common. One stern schoolmaster wrote,
“A youngster’s ear is on his back; he only listens to the man who beats him.”
The Work of the Scribes Ancient Egyptians kept all kinds of records, so scribes held a wide variety of jobs. They
recorded accounts of the grain and food supply. They wrote down the results of the government census, which
counted the people living in Egypt. Some scribes calculated and collected taxes. Legal scribes recorded court cases
and helped enforce laws. Military scribes kept track of the army’s soldiers and food supply, and the number of
enemies killed in battle.
Every scribe used the same tools. For pens, a scribe used finely sharpened reeds. For paper, he used a sheet of
papyrus laid on a writing tablet. The tablets were made of wood or stone. Each tablet contained two wells, one for
black ink and one for red ink. A small container held water that was used to wet the ink.
A scribe carried his tools with him wherever
he traveled. His tablet hung from a cord
slung over his shoulder. Attached to the
tablet were leather bags and cases that held
his other tools.
Scribes also carried rolls of papyrus. This
paper was a remarkable Egyptian invention.
The Egyptians made paper by first cutting
the inner part of the papyrus plant into strips.
These strips were soaked in water for several
days until they were soft. The soft strips
were laid out in a crisscross pattern, and then
pressed between two sheets of cloth until all
the water was absorbed. Finally, the papyrus
strips were pressed one more time to form a
sheet of paper.