Hieroglyphics and Writing

Who invented the first form of paper?

Being able to read and write was essential for a career in the Egyptian civil service. Not much is known about Egyptian schools. Some temples ran schools but many boys seem to have studied with local scribes (trained writers).
Reading, writing and mathematics were the basic subjects. Pupils learned by copying out texts in the two main scripts, hieroglyphic and hieratic. They wrote with pens made from reeds on wooden tablets, pieces of pottery, or scraps of papyrus. Surviving school texts show pupils' spelling mistakes and teachers' corrections. Discipline was strict: "A boy's ear is on his back, he listens when he is beaten."

SCRIBES

Scribes were employed to write official or private letters and to draw up legal documents. Other common tasks were recording the progress of all kinds of work and making lists of goods. Educated people read for pleasure so scribes wrote or copied out literature such as proverbs, stories and love poems.

*PAPYRUS

    The Egyptians invented writing paper. This paper was made from the pith of papyrus, a common marsh plant. The tall stems were cut down and carried off in bundles.
    Each stem was stripped of it's rind and cut into short pieces. These pieces were then cut lengthwise into narrow strips. It was essential to keep the papyrus pith moist.
    Two layers of strips at right angles were put on a hard surface and beaten until they fused. The papyrus sheets were polished and then glued together to make scrolls.

HIEROGLYPHICS

The hieroglyphic script was mainly for royal or religious texts carved in stone. Simplified (cursive) hieroglyphs were used for writing religious texts on papyrus. Letters, records, textbooks and literature were written in hieratic, a kind of shorthand hieroglyphic. In the 7th century BC an even more abbreviated script called demotic was introduced.

The hieroglyphic script has about 750 signs. Most are pictures of people, animals, plants or objects. To emphasize and protect royal or holy names, the Egyptians wrote then in a frame called a cartouche.

There are two main types of sign: sound-signs and sense-signs. Sound-signs can represent from one to four consonants. The vowels were not written out. A sense-sign can be used to write a word or placed after a word to show the area of meaning. For example, verbs of motion have a pair of legs attached.

THE ROSETTA STONE

The Rosetta Stone dates to 196 BC. It is inscribed with royal decree written in two different scripts, hieroglyphic and demonic and Greek. This helped the French scholar J.F.Champollion to decipher the hieroglyphic script.