Scribe facts for kids
A scribe is an ancient occupation. A scribe's job involved reading and writing, especially during the Renaissance. Being a scribe meant writing letters, and historical records for kings, nobility, and temples. It was an important job when few people could read and write. Later, it changed into being secretaries, clerks: public servants, journalists, accountants and lawyers. Today, there are no scribes, but there are still authors and writers.
Egyptian scribes
The Ancient Egyptian scribe was an important job. Ancient Egypt also had its painters and artisans who decorated tombs, buildings, furniture, statues, and other relics with pictures and hieroglyphics. In Ancient Egypt, only males could be scribes. This was so in many civilisations, because most official positions were exclusively male.
The scribes had to be able to write not only the hieroglyphs, but also the hieratic (priestly) script, and they had to know arithmetic. They used a type of paper called papyrus, made from reeds, and wrote with reed pens and ink.
Related pages
Images for kids
-
Modern scribes with typewriters outside post office, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India, 2010
-
Wooden tomb model of a Granary with Scribes
-
Ancient Egyptian scribe's palette with five depressions for pigments and four styli
-
This early New Kingdom statue commemorates the scribe Minnakht ("Strength of Min") and demonstrates how ancient scribes read papyri – in a seated position on the floor with the text on their lap.
-
Jewish scribes at the Tomb of Ezekiel in Iraq, c. 1914
-
Monastic scribes copying manuscripts. Miniature from the manuscript "Werken", manufactured by Jan van Ruusbroec in Bergen-op-Zoom. Published in 1480.
.jpg)
See also
In Spanish: Escriba para niños
