Ancient Egyptian Scribes: A Cultural Exploration

✍ Scribed by Niv Allon; Hana Navratilova

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 217
• Series: Bloomsbury Egyptology
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The modern view of the ancient Egyptian world is through the lens of a scribe: the trained, schooled, literate individual who was present at many levels of Egyptian society, from a local accountant to the highest echelons of society. And yet, despite the wealth of information the scribes left us, we know relatively little about what underpinned their world, about their mentality and about their everyday life.
In Ancient Egyptian Scribes, ten figures are examined, all of whom claimed the title of ‘scribe’ at some point during their career. These are the Egyptians who ran the state and formed the meritocratic system of local administration and government. Case studies look at accountants, hieroglyphic draughtsmen, scribes with military and dynastic roles, the authors of graffiti and the scribes who interacted in different ways with Pharaohs and other leaders. Assuming no previous knowledge of ancient Egypt, the various roles and identities of scribes are presented in a concise and accessible way, offering structured information on their cultural identity and self-presentation, and providing readers with insight into the making of Egyptian written culture.
Tracing ten key biographies, Ancient Egyptian Scribes examines how these figures kept both the administrative life and cultural memory of Egypt running. Together, they present a rich portrait of what it was to be a scribe in the New Kingdom Egypt.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover page
Halftitle page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Map
Introduction: Exploring the Social Figure of the Scribe
Prologue – Writing Tools and Hands
1 Paheri
A tomb in context
Writing in Paheri’s tomb
In a wider view: Writing in the tomb complex
Concluding remarks
2 Senenmut
A man of importance
Queen and king, the court and the literato
A man for all seasons?
Historical communication
3 Tjanuni
The New Kingdom war machine
Tjanuni’s modest origins
Military, scribes and military scribes
Writing history
Concluding remarks
4 Amenemhat
Setting the scene: Writing on the wall
An Eighteenth Dynasty collection of Amenemhats
A graffiti maker’s background: The city
A writer in the desert
Graffiti etiquette
The scribe and the woman
5 Tutankhamun
Meritaten’s palette: Literacy among women of the elite
Tutankhamun and royal literacy
Concluding remarks
6 Haremhab
on the wall: Scribal titles in the tomb of Haremhab
on the shoulder: Haremhab’s scribal statues
on the stela: Haremhab’s writing laws
Concluding remarks
7 Dedia
Artists in ancient Egypt
History and memory writing
The memory maker
Workmen in Dedia’s service
Is an outline scribe also a scribe?
8 Inena
The copyist
Leaving one’s name
Beginnings of an administrator and of a literato
Teachers and students
Institutions and practices for text preservation and text production
Working with texts
9 Hori
A much copied letter
Skill and record
Three and four mathematical problems
Courage and knowledge
Scribal literature
Concluding remarks
10 Djehutimose Tjaroy
Victims or traitors?
Times of change
Suspicions
A line of scribes
Letters, business and private life
A tough superior, a brusque correspondence, an all-purpose scribe?
Glimpses of a personality
Epilogue
Glossary
Chronology
Notes
Bibliography
Index