Lesson 10: Sections 3 & 4

Priests (Part 1)

Like government officials, priests were powerful and highly respected in society. A large network of priests served under the pharaoh, who was considered the highest-ranked priest of all. 

The Duties of Priests: Priests had different jobs. While the High Priest advised the pharaoh and oversaw all religious ceremonies, temple priests were in charge of the temples scattered throughout Egypt. Other priests handled more common concerns and requests, such as giving advice and performing healings. 

Women were allowed to be priestesses in Egypt and were generally regarded as equal to male priests. This became less common over time but women continued to hold important religious positions. Their main duty was to oversee temples that were devoted to music and dancing.

Priests (Part 2)

Temple priests played an extremely important role in Egyptian religion. Every temple was home to one or more Egyptian gods. A temple priest's primary job was to take care of his or her temple's special god in a variety of ways. 

A temple's god was thought to live in a statue that was housed in a holy room called a sanctuary. Only a priest who was purified, or cleansed, could enter the sanctuary. There were many requirements for a priest to be purified, one of which was to avoid certain foods, such as fish, that were associated with the lower classes. Additionally, priests had to cleanse their bodies by bathing in holy pools three or four times a day. They also had to shave off their body hair. Because animal products like leather and wool were considered unclean, priests could only wear clothes made of linen cloth. Once purified, a priest could perform his sacred duties.

Priests (Part 3)

The Priests' Role in Burial Practices: Priests had a special role to play in burial practices. Egyptians believed in a life after death. Since Egyptians thought that in the afterlife a person's body remained with his or her dead spirit, they used a method called embalming to preserve bodies from decay. Priests oversaw this sacred ritual.

The embalming process had many steps. First, the embalmers removed the body's organs, such as the brain, lungs, and liver. They used hooks to extract the brain through the nostrils. Only the heart remained in the body, for Egyptians believed that the gods used the heart to judge a dead person's soul.

Next, the organs were preserved in jars. A special salt called natron was applied to the organs and body that dried them out.

Priests (Part 4)

After about 70 days, the embalmers washed and oiled the body before wrapping it in hundreds of yards of linen. The embalmers decorated the wrapped body, or mummy, with pieces of jewelry and protective charms, and often placed a mask over the head. Finally, they spread a black, gooey gum over the body and wrapped it a final time.

The mummy was finally prepared for burial. First, it was placed in a wooden box, which was then stored inside a large stone coffin called a sarcophagus. Because the ancient Egyptians believed that the afterlife was similar to life in this world, they buried other items along with the box or coffin, including food and drink, furniture, statues, jewelry, gold, clothes, games, and mirrors.

Not all Egyptians could afford such complicated burials. However, even poor Egyptians wrapped their dead in cloth and buried them with loaves of bread and other items they thought would be needed in the afterlife.

Scribes (Part 1)

In the social pyramid, scribes, Egypt's official writers and record keepers, were one level below priests. They were highly respected and well paid. Most scribes worked for the government, while others worked for priests or nobles.

Only men were allowed to be scribes, but they came from all classes of society. Becoming a scribe was one of the few ways that men could rise above their parents' social class.

Scribe Schools: Boys who wanted to become scribes had to attend scribe schools run by priests. Most students came from artisan or merchant families, and very few came from the peasant class.

Scribes (Part 2)

Starting around the age of 5, students typically spent 12 years or more learning hieroglyphs, the symbols used in the Egyptian system of writing. Because this writing system was very complicated, most students first mastered a simpler form of writing before progressing to hieroglyphs.

Students were required to memorize over 700 hieroglyphs. They spent as many as four years repeatedly copying the signs. They practiced their writing on pieces of wood, flakes of stone, and even broken bits of pottery. As their skills improved, students were permitted to write on papyrus, a type of paper made from the papyrus plant. Egyptians preferred writing on papyrus more than on clay tablets, which were used in Mesopotamian culture.

Students in scribe schools did not have an easy life since classes sometimes lasted from sunrise until sunset. Teachers were strict and often treated their students harshly, punishing them for being lazy or distracted. Beatings were common. One stern schoolmaster wrote, "A youngster's ear is on his back; he only listens to the man who beats him."

Scribes (Part 3)

The Work of the Scribes Ancient Egyptians kept all kinds of records, so scribes held a wide variety of jobs. They recorded accounts of the grain and food supply and even documented the results of the government census, which reported the size of Egypt's population. Some scribes calculated and collected taxes. Legal scribes recorded court cases and helped enforce laws, while military scribes kept track of the army's soldiers and food supply, and the number of enemies killed in battle.

Every scribe used the same tools. For pens, a scribe used finely sharpened reeds. For paper, he used a sheet of papyrus laid on a writing tablet. Made of wood or stone, each tablet contained two wells, one for black ink and one for red. A small container held water that was used to wet the ink.

Scribes (Part 4)

A scribe carried his tools with him wherever he traveled. His tablet hung from a cord slung over his shoulder. Attached to the tablet were leather bags and cases that contained his other tools.

Scribes also carried rolls of paper made from papyrus, a noteworthy Egyptian invention. The Egyptians made this paper by first cutting the inner part of the papyrus plant into strips. These strips were soaked in water for several days until they were soft. The soft strips were laid out in a crisscross pattern, and then pressed between two sheets of cloth until they absorbed all the water. Finally, the papyrus strips were pressed one more time to form a sheet of paper.