LITERACY

The most valued skill in ancient Egypt was literacy.  Record keeping played a major role in the civilisation from the point of view of land holdings, crop yields and taxes.  From a religious point of view there were the religious texts that had to be written and copied in temples and on funerary equipment and papyrus.
 

Nonetheless, only a couple of percent or less of the population may have been able to read and write. In the Old Kingdom, the princes were instructed in reading and writing while the sons of high officials probably benefited as well. However, schools are not mentioned. By the Middle Kingdom there are references to "Houses of Instruction" associated with temples and others were probably connected with the palace, treasury and army. One of the most prized jobs in ancient Egypt was that of a scribe. Being able to read and write opened up many opportunities, such as working in government and temple administrations, or perhaps involvement with the writing of inscriptions in tombs. Having a father who was a scribe could be of assistance, but the learning path was still not easy. To learn to read and write hieroglyphs required many years of hard schooling and if students were lazy they could be beaten.

Statue of a crouching scribe. Old Kingdom. Painted limestone. (Louvre collection, Paris)

Some of the exercises involved copying stories and many examples of student exercises have been found, particularly near the town of Deir el-Medina, home for many of those who worked on the construction of the New Kingdom's royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

Students would write on ostraka, flakes of limestone or potsherds (fragments of pottery), as papyrus was too expensive. A scribe's kit would have included a number of reeds which they dipped in black or red ink cakes moistened with water from a small pot.

PAYMENT FOR SERVICE AND PRODUCTS

And how did one pay for all of the services and products mentioned? Well, there was no money. Rather it was essentially a system of barter. People's wages were often paid in the form of food. Standard weights were used for weighing goods to evaluate the value of particular products.

Of course, the good thing was that for the Egyptians, you could take all these possessions with you in the afterlife - that is, if you could afford to barter for a good funeral and burial!

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Copyright © 2000 Mark T. Rigby