Scribes: Did you mean...?

Who were the scribes that wrote in Sumerian and Akkadian in ancient Mesopotamia? Dr. Josh gives an introduction to these ancient bureaucrats and their craft. This series is based on the entertaining and engaging book, 'Ancient Mesopotamia...

Mesopotamian education was invented by the Sumerians following the creation of writing circa 3600/3500 BCE. The earliest schools were attached to temples, but later schools were established in separate buildings, in which the scribes of ancient...

Seshat (also given as Sefkhet-Abwy and Seshet) is the Egyptian goddess of the written word. Her name literally means "female scribe" and she is regularly depicted as a woman wearing a leopard skin draped over her robe with a headdress of...

Thoth is the Egyptian god of writing, magic, wisdom, and the moon. He was one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt alternately said to be self-created or born of the seed of Horus from the forehead of Set. As the son of these two deities...

The Prayer to Thoth for Skill in Writing is a literary piece dated to c. 1150 BCE from the latter period of the New Kingdom of Egypt (c. 1570- c. 1069 BCE) in which a young scribe prays for inspiration to Thoth, god of wisdom and writing...

For the ancient Egyptians, life on earth was only one part of an eternal journey which continued after death. One's purpose in life was to live in balance with one's self, family, community, and the gods. Any occupation in Egypt was considered...

Script is the written expression of a language. Cuneiform, the first script, was invented in Sumer, Mesopotamia, circa 3600/3500 BCE; hieroglyphics sometime prior to the Early Dynastic Period in Egypt (circa 3150-2613 BCE); and Sanskrit in...

Ancient Egyptian literature comprises a wide array of narrative and poetic forms including inscriptions on tombs, stele, obelisks, and temples; myths, stories, and legends; religious writings; philosophical works; wisdom literature; autobiographies...

The Hyksos were a Semitic people who gained a foothold in Egypt c. 1782 BCE at the city of Avaris in Lower Egypt, thus initiating the era known in Egyptian history as the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1782 - c. 1570 BCE). Their name, Heqau-khasut...

Nisaba (also Naga, Se-Naga, Nissaba, Nidaba, and associated with Nanibgal) is the Sumerian goddess of writing, accounts, and scribe of the gods. Although her name is commonly given as Nidaba, noted scholar Jeremy Black points out that "the...