Hieroglyphic Facts ...
- The most famous of all ancient Egyptians scripts
is hieroglyphic.
- Over the period of 3,000 years the ancient Egyptian
civilisation there were at least 3 other scripts that were used for different
purposes.
- Students in an ancient Egyptian scribe school
used to spend hours copying hundreds of signs until they could make them well
enough to make their teachers happy.
- One of the first jobs that scribes have after
the ancient Egyptians have finished school was counting crops and animals in
the fields.
- Writing was a very important part of tomb
decoration. The writing on the walls in a pharaoh's tomb helped that pharaoh get
to his afterlife.
- Military leaders were first trained as scribes,
so they would be able to read messages that were sent to them.
- Scribes usually wrote on papyrus with reed
brushes dipped in ink.
- The ancient Egyptians made ink by grinding
brightly coloured minerals into powder, then mixing the powder with liquid so
that it was easier to apply.
- It could take four to five years for a person to
go through scribe school.
- Most often it was the children of scribes who
became scribes.
- Students spent a lot of time practising the
signs by copying them onto sheets of papyrus, old pieces of pottery or flakes
of limestone.
- Scribes were usually male Egyptians who learnt how
to read and write.