Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / The Royal Scribes of Ramses: Literacy and Bureaucracy in Ancient Egypt
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about Ramses's monuments, his wars, his family. But today I want to look at the people who made sure it all ran — the royal scribes. These were the literate elite who kept the entire machine of state moving. Luna: Right, the ones writing all those inscriptions we've been reading from. Lucas: Exactly. But scribes did far more than carve hieroglyphs on temple walls. They were the accountants, the tax collectors, the archivists, the diplomats. They managed the grain supply, tracked the Nile flood levels, recorded court cases, and drafted treaties. Without them, the empire would have ground to a halt. Lucas: Becoming a scribe meant years of training, usually starting around age five. Boys — and it was almost always boys from wealthy families — would attend a school attached to a temple or government office, called a Per-Ankh, a 'House of Life'. There they learned hundreds of hieroglyphic signs and the faster cursive script, hieratic, which was used for everyday writing. Luna: So it was like a medieval monastery scriptorium, but for the state. Lucas: In a sense, yes. They copied classic texts, composed letters, and practiced on potsherds or limestone flakes called ostraca. Papyrus was expensive, so you didn't waste it on exercises. The training was grueling — one text says a student's ear is on his back; he only listens when he's beaten. Lucas: But the payoff was huge. Scribes were exempt from manual labor, taxes were lighter, and they could rise to high positions. The famous 'Satire of the Trades' — a text we have from the New Kingdom — compares the miserable lives of soldiers, farmers, and fishermen to the cushy life of a scribe. It was basically propaganda to get boys to stay in school. Luna: I've heard of that — it's almost like a medieval 'why you should become a monk' pitch. Lucas: Exactly. It says things like: 'The potter is under the soil, though as yet among the living. He grubs in the mud more than a pig.' Meanwhile, the scribe 'directs the work of everyone. He is not taxed.' It's brutally effective. Lucas: Now, under Ramses, the bureaucracy was enormous. His capital, Per-Ramesses in the Delta, had entire districts filled with government offices. Scribes processed the grain from the farmlands, organized the labor for his building projects, and corresponded with vassal states. We have actual papyri from this period — like the Papyrus Anastasi — that contain model letters scribes copied as exercises, but they reflect real administrative concerns. Luna: What kind of things do they talk about? Lucas: Oh, all sorts. One letter complains about a delivery of logs that were too short. Another reports that a shipment of wine was sour. There are lists of workers on a tomb, inventories of temple offerings, even a letter from a frontier official about tracking runaway slaves. It's the mundane reality of running an empire. Lucas: Some scribes became famous in their own right. One is Amenemope, who wrote a wisdom text called the 'Instructions of Amenemope' — it's a collection of moral teachings that later influenced the biblical Book of Proverbs. Another is Hori, who wrote a satirical letter mocking an incompetent scribe — it's full of clever wordplay and shows that scribes had a sense of humor. Luna: So even the scribes had office politics. Lucas: Absolutely. And the highest scribes served as viziers or royal seal bearers. Ramses's vizier was named Paser — we mentioned him briefly in the episode on Per-Ramesses's economy. He oversaw everything: justice, taxation, public works. Scribes like him were the oil that kept the gears turning. Lucas: One thing that's remarkable is how many of these scribal records survive. Because Egypt's climate is so dry, papyrus documents have been found in tombs and temple storerooms. They give us a direct window into how Ramses's government functioned on a day-to-day basis. It's not all grand battles and colossal statues — sometimes it's a bill of lading for barley. Luna: So the scribes were the real power behind the throne? Lucas: Well, they were essential, but Ramses still made the big calls. That said, a king who couldn't read or write relied heavily on his scribes. Ramses was probably literate — he was educated as a prince — but he wouldn't have been doing the day-to-day accounting. The scribes were his eyes and ears on the ground. Lucas: And they also shaped his legacy. The inscriptions we see on temples were composed by scribes — they wrote the propaganda, the victory hymns, the diplomatic letters. So in a way, the Ramses we know is partly their creation. Luna: That's a powerful thought — the scribes literally wrote the history we read. Lucas: Exactly. And they knew it. Some scribes even added their own names to the works they copied, like a signature. They took pride in their craft. One text says: 'A scribe's name shall endure forever.' And in many cases, that's true — we remember the scribes who composed the texts we still study. Luna: Do we know any scribes by name from Ramses's reign? Lucas: We do. Besides Paser, there was a scribe named Ameneminet who worked on the decoration of the Ramesseum. Another, named Qenherkhepshef, was a scribe of the royal correspondence at Deir el-Medina. And the famous 'Papyrus Harris I', which documents Ramses's donations to temples, was written by a scribe named Tjanefer. Lucas: So the scribes were not anonymous cogs — they were individuals with careers and personalities. We can even see their handwriting change as they age. It's a very human connection across three thousand years. Luna: That's amazing. It makes you realize history isn't just about kings — it's about the people who recorded it. Lucas: Exactly. And that's what I love about digging into these details. Ramses is the star, but the scribes are the supporting cast who made sure his story was told — and that his empire actually worked.