The Coffins of Pa-debehu-Aset - Memorial Art Gallery - University of ...

T H I S I S T H EH I E R O G L Y P HFORpapyrusÊPapyrus grewalong the banks ofthe River Nile.Reading andWriting inAncient EgyptMost people in ancient Egypt could not read andwrite. That skill was learned and practiced by a smallnumber of people called scribes. Scribes were importantand respected members of Egyptian society.They trained for many years,beginning around the age of nine.T H I S I S T H EH I E R O G L Y P HF O R T H E G O DThothHere Thothappears in theform of an ibis.10”This is Thoth, the god of scribes,wisdom, and the moon. He isshown here with the body of a manand the head of an ibis—a belovedbird to the ancient Egyptians.Find Thoth onPa-debehu-Aset'sshrine coffin.The ancient Egyptians used acomplicated system of writing called hieroglyphs.Hieroglyphs were symbols that represented sounds,ideas, people or objects found in ancient Egyptian life.Sometimes they were painted on wood or papyrus—a type of paper made from the papyrus plant—andsometimes they were carved into stone. There wereover 700 different hieroglyphic signs. Imagine trying tolearn that many!ÅThis is the hieroglyph for a scribe's toolkit. Itshows the container that holds one circularcake of red ink, and another of black. Thehieroglyph also includes pictures of a smallwater jar and a brush used for writing.When you combine the hieroglyph for a“scribe's toolkit” with the hieroglyph for“man,” you get the hieroglyph for “scribe.”ÅÍ