The Written Word

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Ancient Egyptian: The Written Word

Hieroglyphics

1. The word hieroglyphics means ‘Sacred carving’ in Greek.

2.The Early rulers of Egypt couldn’t read or write. So they depended on their scribes to read and write for them.

3. Numbers in hieroglyphs were later developed to calculate mathematical problems.

4. Hieroglyphics is mainly written in pictures or symbols.

5. Only 1% of the ancient egyptian population could read or write.

Scribes

1. The scribes’ main tool is called kalamos. This tool was made from six inch reed.

2. Ancient scribes used many colour inks from plants and minerals.

3. The scribes wrote while standing or kneeling. It wasn’t until 2000 BC that the scribes used the desks.

Papyrus

1. Papyrus was the first example of paper the scribes used instead of clay tablets. The clay was hard to transport and hard to write.

2. The papyrus was dated from 3000 BC, about the Egyptians began to write.

3. In  Egyptian, papyrus meant ‘Property of Pharaoh’.