For centuries, children in Ancient Egypt learned to read using a text known as The Satire of the Trades, a document dating back to around 2400 BCE.
This educational text presents advice from a father to his son, encouraging him to pursue the profession of a scribe by describing the physically demanding nature of various other professions. The aim of the text was to persuade students that becoming a scribe was the most esteemed career, offering a life of relative comfort and respect.
In The Satire of the Trades, also referred to as The Instructions of Dua-Kheti, a father takes his son to school and, along the way, vividly describes the challenges faced by other workers, such as farmers, carpenters, and fishermen. He underscores the hardships these laborers endure, emphasizing their physical strain and lower social status.
The peasant spends all day lamenting, his voice as hoarse as the cawing of a crow. His fingers and arms ooze and stink excessively. He is worn out from being in the mud, rags and rags are his clothes. He is as bad as one who is among lions: sick, he must lie down on the marshy ground. When he leaves the camp and arrives home late in the evening, he is completely exhausted by the march.
The Satire of the Trades
In contrast, he presents the life of a scribe as privileged, with intellectual pursuits bringing recognition and an easier lifestyle. He exclaims:
It is the best of professions. There is nothing like it in the whole country. Dedicate yourselves body and soul to books! There is nothing better than books! Look, there is no profession without a boss. Except that of a scribe. He’s the boss.
The Satire of the Trades
Judith Jurjens, a doctoral researcher, has studied the educational methods of Ancient Egypt, focusing on how The Satire of the Trades was used in practice. According to her research, the text was central to the curriculum for nearly a thousand years.
Even though the language of the text was centuries old by the time it was used, children still learned to read and write by memorizing and copying it, much as students today study classical works like Shakespeare.
Jurjens explains that the widespread use of the text is evident because numerous copies of it have been found, many riddled with mistakes. These errors indicate that students were struggling with the antiquated language and unfamiliar contexts of the professions described. She points out that these texts were as distant from the lives of young Egyptians as Elizabethan English might be for today’s readers.
The actual classroom practices of Ancient Egypt, however, have been less clear. Through her research, Jurjens examined nearly a hundred sources, many of which had been previously overlooked. These sources reveal fascinating details about the teaching methods. For example, students often included the date on their work, which suggests that lessons did not follow a fixed schedule—there might be a gap of days or even weeks between sessions, with no formal weekend breaks.
Jurjens also discovered that while it was previously known that teachers would write out literary texts for students to copy, some new evidence shows a different approach. In one case, a teacher would write the first part of a passage from The Satire of the Trades and then ask the student to complete the rest from memory. The differences between the teacher’s elegant handwriting and the student’s uneven scrawl reveal the difficulties faced by young learners.
This ancient text survives today in its entirety in the Papyrus Sallier II, preserved in the British Museum. It remains a subject of debate among Egyptologists, some of whom question whether the text is truly satirical. Others wonder if the same author may have also written The Instructions of Amenemhat, another instructional text from the period.
Jurjens plans to continue her research into ancient Egyptian education, with many more texts still waiting to be studied. She reflects on the strange possibility that, much like the Egyptian scribes, the exam papers of her own students might one day be examined by scholars thousands of years from now.
SOURCES
Myrthe Timmers, Education in Ancient Egypt: ‘Everyone Used the Same Text’(Universiteit Leiden)
Wikipedia, Sátira de los oficios
- Share this article:
Discover more from LBV Magazine English Edition
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Qian Xuesen, the Scientist Expelled from the United States Who Brought China Into the Space Race
On October 31, 2009, an elderly man, nearly a century old, passed away in Beijing. His name was Qian Xuesen, and in China, he is considered a national hero for…
Two Wines Dominated the Market in Late Antiquity in the Mediterranean: Gaza and Cilician
A recent study has brought to light interesting details about the distribution and consumption patterns of two of the most important wines in the eastern Mediterranean during Late Antiquity. These…
Farnese Atlas, the First Known Representation of the Celestial Sphere
Atlas was one of the Titans in Greek mythology, son of Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene, and brother of Prometheus. After the war against the Olympian gods, Zeus condemned him…
Orsippus of Megara, the First Athlete to Compete Naked in the Olympic Games
A quick glance at any artwork from Ancient Greece gives an idea of the almost religious importance of nudity, and if we interpret the images literally, how widespread its practice…
Sandby Borg, the Place where Archaeologists Found a Chilling Iron Age Scene Frozen in Time
The isolated island of Öland, off the southeastern coast of Sweden, holds within its windswept landscape the eroded remains of several fornborgs, circular stone fortifications built during the Iron Age.…
An Enigmatic Roman Altar Found in England Was Dedicated by a Soldier Stationed on the Danube, in a Legion That Was Never in Britain
A Roman altar dedicated to Mars, found in Marton, Lincolnshire, has revealed a fascinating connection to a soldier of the XI Claudia Legion of the Roman Empire. The altar, which…
The Wheel Was Invented by Neolithic Miners Who Extracted Copper in the Carpathians 6,000 Years Ago
A recent study published by a multidisciplinary team of researchers aims to solve one of humanity’s oldest mysteries: the origin of the wheel. This invention, which revolutionized human development by…
Spectacular Celtic Burial Chamber from the 6th Century BC Discovered in the Center of a 65-Meter-Diameter Burial Mound in Germany
In a remarkable archaeological discovery in the Danube Plain, near Riedlingen, Baden-Württemberg (Germany), an early Celtic burial chamber has come to light. This find is located at the center of…
Reliefs with Figures of Guardians, Celestial Ancestors, and Mythical Animals of the Kaanu’l Mayan Dynasty Found in Mexico
The recent archaeological discovery in the Dzibanché Archaeological Zone, Quintana Roo (Mexico), has provided new insights into the grandeur of the Kaanu’l dynasty, one of the most influential in the…
Lucone di Polpenazze, the Bronze Age pile-dwelling settlement that was preserved because a fire caused it to collapse into the lake
Located in the Lombardy region, near the impressive Lake Garda, the archaeological site of Lucone di Polpenazze is a living testament to Prehistory in northern Italy. This place, a large…
Sacred tunic of Alexander the Great identified in one of the Macedonian tombs at Vergina in Greece
A recent discovery in Tomb II at Vergina, Macedonia, Greece, has revealed what appears to be the sacred “chiton” or tunic of Alexander the Great, a finding that could change…
A House from 8,000 Years Ago Found in Serbia Belonged to the First Sedentary Farmers of Europe
Did the first agricultural societies in Europe live nomadically, or were they (seasonally) sedentary? How did sedentarism spread between Anatolia and Europe, and how did the first sedentary people influence…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
