Scribes
The first and foremost qualification for office was the ability to read and write. With
the "invention" of the hieroglyphic writing system and its handwritten
counterpart, hieratic, the Egyptian state was administered by scribes; top officeholders,
including the pharaoh--even if they employed scribes for daily work-- had to be literate.
It has been estimated that roughly 1 percent of the population belonged to the literate
class.
In order to write well, Egyptian scribes needed to know some seven hundred hieroglyphs
and be able to draw them clearly. In documents on papyrus, the scribe wrote from
right to left.
Haremhab as a scribe
Haremhab was a general of the army under King Tutankhamun--a very high position.
That he chose to be portrayed as a scribe indicates the importance of literacy in Egypt. |
 Granary
Here scribes seated with writing boards and papyrus scrolls are recording the measures of
grain as they were brought in from the field. Such records allowed administrators to
calculate available supplies. Grain was a basic foodstuff and essential for the production of bread
and beer. Specific amounts of grain were used to determine the value of goods. |
