Part II A powerful Technology
Literacy in ancient Egypt
http://jfbradu.free.fr/egypte/HIEROGLYPHES/LE%20SCRIBE/LE%20SCRIBE.php3
It is impossible to know the exact percentage of literate people in ancient Egypt, but we believe that the majority of the Egyptians were illiterate. The learned people were the elite of the country constituted of the Pharaoh and his family, followed by the Vizier, the priests, the architects and the physicians and finally the scribes. The others social groupings were the craftsmen, the peasants and the other workers. It's clearly the writing that divided the society in two. Like in most of the ancient cultures, men were more literate than women, although we have examples of literate women, some of them were even physicians and we know that many noble women used to receive and send letters. Scribes were usually scribe's schildren. It was a profession that was handed down from
generation to generation. If some crafstmen may have sent their children to school, it must have been rare. To become a scribe, boys had to follow long studies in a school related to institutions like temples, the House of the Books, the Mansion of Life or courthouses. It seems that they did not receive an oral teaching but rather courses focused on writing. Their daily activities consisted of copying texts on clay pieces. They all learned another kind of writing called hieratic, an easier and faster way of writing than the traditional hieroglyphs. Only some of them, probably the best, could study how to write in hieroglyphs. Once they had ended their studies, they entered the beaucratic system, which characterized the ancient Egyptian society. They would spend their life working for the administration, writing down everything possible that they were asked by the state or by illiterate people needing their knowledge. Thus, they contributed to strengthen Egypt's amazing bureaucracy.
generation to generation. If some crafstmen may have sent their children to school, it must have been rare. To become a scribe, boys had to follow long studies in a school related to institutions like temples, the House of the Books, the Mansion of Life or courthouses. It seems that they did not receive an oral teaching but rather courses focused on writing. Their daily activities consisted of copying texts on clay pieces. They all learned another kind of writing called hieratic, an easier and faster way of writing than the traditional hieroglyphs. Only some of them, probably the best, could study how to write in hieroglyphs. Once they had ended their studies, they entered the beaucratic system, which characterized the ancient Egyptian society. They would spend their life working for the administration, writing down everything possible that they were asked by the state or by illiterate people needing their knowledge. Thus, they contributed to strengthen Egypt's amazing bureaucracy.
An economic advantage
http://lyricsdog.eu/s/scribes%20of%20ancient%20egypt
When we think about ancient Egypt, one of the first things that comes to mind is its amazing longevity. It's hard to find any other Empire or civilization which had such a long duration. The Egyptian civilization lasted for many centuries, remaining stable, easily overcoming only three periods of trouble. No other state in Middle East has never had such a history. The particular geography of Egypt probably contributed to its stability, but it does not explain everything. To remain strong and stable, the Egyptians needed to build a very organized and hierarchical society. Robert C. Allen studies the circumstances of the unification of Egypt. He believes that the reasons that led the leaders of Upper Egypt to take the control over the North is closely related to agriculture and to the hierarchy of the Southern society. The lag between the start of agriculture and the formation of a state took 5,000 years in Palestine and Syria while it must not have taken more than 1,000 in Egypt. During the predynastic period, there was more land available than inhabitants. Allen thinks that the culture of the South started to have its own leaders who owned pieces of lands and workers who were working on the lands. To be allowed to cultivate their owner's land, peasants had to pay taxations. But since there were lots of lands available, it was easy for them to more to another area before paying the taxations. Allen says it probably encouraged the leaders to create a local state in Upper Egypt, owning all the available lands to prevent workers from escaping. According to Allen, it's much possible that the peasants gradullay migrated to the North in order to avoid the social inequalities of the South. This would explain the necessity for the Southern leaders to control the North, in order to control the work force. Once the country was unified, The first Pharaohs built a very centralized state, with local representatives in every region of Egypt, known as " nomes ", reinforcing the hierarchy of the society. The Egyptian bureaucracy was born, and the writing technology surely played a very important role. The taxation problem we have seen could not exist without agriculture nor without writing. To count the number of workers, the amount of the taxations, to record everything, The Egyptians needed a writing system and skilled people to do the job. An oral language only would not have been enough. The writing technology contributed to the first social inequalities and the unification of the country. Egyptians had probably the most bureaucratic society of their time. They wrote down everything possible. The main things we know from the people whom we have excavated the tombs are their titles. Every educated individual who had a job held one or many titles to describe his status.
Their civilization was obsessed by organization and writing. And it's again writing that allowed them to build the fantastic monuments we still can visit today. Let's take the example of the pyramids. If it is true that the Egyptians would have never been able to build them without the massive blocks of Limestone existing in Egypt, they would not have been able to do so without writing either. Egyptologists now agree that the pyramids were built by peasants, and not by slaves as we could have previously thought. During the annual floods, thousands of pesants were out of work. The state decided to benefit from this potential work force for great building projects. Every year, the workers were sent to the location where the pyramids had to be built. They were housed in villages, and paid daily. A real army of scribes organiazed the work. Scribes were needed to count the workers, indicate who was present and who was absent and why, divide them into different teams, write all the necessary material and calculate the salary of everyone. The Egyptians had not invented the money system and they used to pay their workers in beer and bread loaves. To do so, they had to count the number of workers, the number of bread loaves and jars of beer needed by everyone, then calculate the number of bakers and brewers necessary to prepare the food, the amount of raw material they needed ( this suppose to calculate very precisely the amount of the taxations and so the number of workers in the country ), the number of workers needed to make the the jars, the build the bakeries, etc... Other scribes teams were writing down the number of tools the workers needed, the amount of row material, the number of people able make the tools and their salaries... Others had to write and calculate where to find the raw material for tools and the limestone blocks, the number of blocks needed, the number of workers per block, the number of hours per block, the number of ropes needed to pull the block, of people able to make the ropes, etc... The building of the pyramids was a huge project, perhaps biggest . No civilization would have been able to build them without very organized teams of scribes and workers. It's impossible to calculate and memorize all this information without using the writing technology. In addition, it's impossible to build them without genial knowledge in mathematics. Again, this requires a very sophisticated writing system. The excavations conducted on the Gizah plateau revealed lots of information about the hierachy of the pyramids builders. Hundred of seals were discovered. The Egyptian scribes held many titles according to their functiuns and used seals to secure the places and objects they deemed valuable. Another aspect of a bureaucratic society. The numerous temples, tombs and palaces that follow the pyramids were all the fruit of a genius knowedge in mathematics, science and writing. We can estimate the level of sophistication by looking at the age of these monuments, built for eternity and which are still in place. Egypt based its stability and economic power on many things, but the main one is most probably the writing technology. I previously said that the Egyptians wrote down everything. Indeed, they wrote down everything possible except few things : how they built the pyramids as well as the other monuments and tombs, and the process of mummification. We know how they mummied people and animals only by studing the mummies. No text helped the Egyptologists to understand it. We can only speculate about how they did to build templed and pyramids, how they did to lift blocks weighing several tons. But we cannot know exactly. They wrote enough to transmit information about their history and enough to keep with them their mysteries.
( the picture shows the sribes calculating the taxes that the peasants must pay )
Their civilization was obsessed by organization and writing. And it's again writing that allowed them to build the fantastic monuments we still can visit today. Let's take the example of the pyramids. If it is true that the Egyptians would have never been able to build them without the massive blocks of Limestone existing in Egypt, they would not have been able to do so without writing either. Egyptologists now agree that the pyramids were built by peasants, and not by slaves as we could have previously thought. During the annual floods, thousands of pesants were out of work. The state decided to benefit from this potential work force for great building projects. Every year, the workers were sent to the location where the pyramids had to be built. They were housed in villages, and paid daily. A real army of scribes organiazed the work. Scribes were needed to count the workers, indicate who was present and who was absent and why, divide them into different teams, write all the necessary material and calculate the salary of everyone. The Egyptians had not invented the money system and they used to pay their workers in beer and bread loaves. To do so, they had to count the number of workers, the number of bread loaves and jars of beer needed by everyone, then calculate the number of bakers and brewers necessary to prepare the food, the amount of raw material they needed ( this suppose to calculate very precisely the amount of the taxations and so the number of workers in the country ), the number of workers needed to make the the jars, the build the bakeries, etc... Other scribes teams were writing down the number of tools the workers needed, the amount of row material, the number of people able make the tools and their salaries... Others had to write and calculate where to find the raw material for tools and the limestone blocks, the number of blocks needed, the number of workers per block, the number of hours per block, the number of ropes needed to pull the block, of people able to make the ropes, etc... The building of the pyramids was a huge project, perhaps biggest . No civilization would have been able to build them without very organized teams of scribes and workers. It's impossible to calculate and memorize all this information without using the writing technology. In addition, it's impossible to build them without genial knowledge in mathematics. Again, this requires a very sophisticated writing system. The excavations conducted on the Gizah plateau revealed lots of information about the hierachy of the pyramids builders. Hundred of seals were discovered. The Egyptian scribes held many titles according to their functiuns and used seals to secure the places and objects they deemed valuable. Another aspect of a bureaucratic society. The numerous temples, tombs and palaces that follow the pyramids were all the fruit of a genius knowedge in mathematics, science and writing. We can estimate the level of sophistication by looking at the age of these monuments, built for eternity and which are still in place. Egypt based its stability and economic power on many things, but the main one is most probably the writing technology. I previously said that the Egyptians wrote down everything. Indeed, they wrote down everything possible except few things : how they built the pyramids as well as the other monuments and tombs, and the process of mummification. We know how they mummied people and animals only by studing the mummies. No text helped the Egyptologists to understand it. We can only speculate about how they did to build templed and pyramids, how they did to lift blocks weighing several tons. But we cannot know exactly. They wrote enough to transmit information about their history and enough to keep with them their mysteries.
( the picture shows the sribes calculating the taxes that the peasants must pay )
A sacred art
http://jfbradu.free.fr/egypte/LA%20RELIGION/LES%20DIEUX/thot.php3
But writing in ancient Egypt has not only an economic meaning. Knowledge is associated to spirituality and magic. Knowing the mathematics, writing, and science is a key to access to a higher spiritual level. As we previously saw, according to the purpose of a text, a specific type of writing would be used. The hieroglyphs have a sacred meaning, and are not used to write anything and must be written only on certain surfaces. In addition, only a few scribes were taught how to read and write them, all the other scribes knowing only hieratic. In the Egyptian religion, writing is symbolized by the god Thot, who can be repsented by a baboon, an ibis, or a man-headed baboon, or a man-headed ibis. Those two animals were conferred a certain intelligence and a spiritual role associated to knowledge and especially writting. Thot was the master of the writing, the mathematics, the healing arts and other disciplines related to knowledge. He was the most revered god of the scribes. Perhaps the Egyptians associated the ibis because of his long beak that he continuously thrusts into the ground, which makes think of a kalam ? Bus that does not explain why the baboon was also associated to writing. The words and the writing seem to have had a great veneration in ancient Egypt. Every temple walls, every tombs are decorated of hieroglyphic texts giving precious historical indications. Writing was everywhere. Writing was the key that allowed the Egyptians to keep track of their most important religious text, the Book of the Dead, which had to be put beside the deceased in order to escort him in the Afterworld. If pictures illustrate the Book of the Dead, writing remains its most important component. This book relates the different steps of the deceased's trip in the Aferworld, giving him advice to succeed in his perilous adventure. The texts of his tomb walls can discuss about his life and also contain magic spells. This picture illustrates the sacred meaning of writing for the Egyptians. We can see the god Thot on the left, during the judgement scene. When the deceased has finished his trip, he arrived in front of Isis, Osiris and Horus who will decide wether he can access to Paradise or not. But before, he heart will be weighed and compared with the leather of Maat ( the Truth, the right way, also incarnated by a godess ). If no sin is detected in the heart of the deceased, he will be introduce to te Isis, Osiris and Horus and will normally access to the Eternal life. Otherwiise, the monster Ammit beside Thot in the picture, is ready to eat the heart and maybe the deceased alive. The role of Thot is to write down the result of the weighing. This shows how important is writing in religion. Writing is necessary to the judgment of the deceased and to allow him the access to Paradise. As you can also notice, the Book of the Dead is written on papyrus and the kind of writing used here is cursive hieroglyphs.
The Egyptian literature
The Egyptians did not only wrote down religious texts and the amount of taxations. They also greatly liked to write their autobiographies usually engraved into the walls of their tombs giving uslots of details about their society and daily life. This custom started during the Old Kingdom until the Ptolemaic period. Records from temples and private familial archives are also sources of information and sometimes we can find texts talking about trials that really took place. The Egyptians also sent a lot of personal letters. One of the most famous letters is the one sent by the Pharoh Pepy II who wrote to Herkouf, the army general, who had conducted an expedition in Africa and who had brought a pygmy to the Pharaoh. Pepy II was fascinated by the pygmy and expressed his gratitue in his letter to Herkouf. Later, literate people sent more and more letters Ptahotep, Vizier of King Djedkâre Isesi ( Old Kingdom ), is the author of one of the most famous collection of maxims. Ptahotep shares his wisdom in his texts and give important advice about how to behave and life in order to follow the right way. But most of the novels, poetry, and texts about the right behavior to adopt were written during the Middle Kindgom, when the language evolved to become what we now call Classical Egyptian. But many novels and tales come from the New Kingdom and some of them were rewritten during the Late Period. For example, the adventures of Khaemouaset, a son of Ramses II, constitue a collection of texts written in demotic that show him huting old and mysterious books, facing terrible dangers. Khaemouaset really existed and was really fond of ancient monuments, spirituality and science. He is considered as the first true egyptologist of the History. The New Kingdom saw the appearance of the romantic poetry which has nothing to see with the other kind of Egyptian poetry. It has its own characteristics and even has a punctuation, which does not exist in the hieroglyphic system, and follow very precise rules. In addition to all those types of texts, the Egyptians wrote several medical papyri and mathematical texts. Some of them, such as the Ebers Papyrus and many other were found and are now preserved in museums.