![]() ![]() By the way, scribes were almost exclusively males. It is unlikely that you could get into scribe school if you were the son of a lowly farmer. First, you had to be a member of a wealthy family. The path of a scribe was not easy, however. Scribes could also go to work for the government (keeping track of taxes, building projects, floods, etc.) or for business owners (sales records, harvests, etc.) Priests needed to know how to read and write to keep the records of the ziggurat (a Mesopotamian temple) and to monitor the sun, moon, stars and planets. Learning to be a scribe was a possible pathway to the most powerful profession in ancient Mesopotamia - a priest. A scribe was (and is) basically a professional writer. These schools taught the skills of a scribe. The Sumerians, however, created the first known formal education system (schools). In other words, you learned the occupation of your mother or father. If you were a girl in ancient Mesopotamia, you learned the incredibly important skills of your mother - cooking, raising children, caring for the family, making clothes, possibly creating pottery, etc. You would then take over the family farm and pass that knowledge down to your children. ![]() If you were the son of a farmer in ancient Mesopotamia, you would learn the ways of a farmer. Throughout history, most children's education came from their parents. That's not to say that they were not educated in some way. By that I mean that most people did not know how to read and write, were not familiar with the workings of government or law, and could not do anything beyond the simplest math. Scribes were very powerful men who were much respected in the region, as their profession was something many were incapable of and they also controlled Mesopotamia’s information and knowledge.You may have heard the saying, "knowledge is power." And how do we gain knowledge? Through education, of course.įor most of human history, a great majority of people were uneducated, at least in the traditional sense. Scribes could also work for the government (keeping track of taxes, recording trade transactions and accounting.). Being a scribe took roughly 10-12 years to accomplish and was a pathway to powerful professions in Ancient Mesopotamia such as a priest who needed to know how to read and write in order to keep records. The educators often used punishment on young boys if they had failed to meet their requirements or misbehaved. The schools invented were the first developed education systems and known as Tablet Houses, which taught the necessary skills of a scribe. Girls, no matter how high up in the social order, were forced to stay at home to learn housekeeping and cooking, so that they could one day take the profession of their mother. Throughout childhood in Mesopotamia, only young boys at the age of eight, from wealthy families had the opportunity to go to school in order to be trained early to read and write the written language, cuneiform. Scribes, almost always men, were high up in Mesopotamia’s social order as they played a significant role throughout history, being key administers who maintained economic offices and also aided the development of historical documents, religion and knowledge of medicines. The only people that were capable of reading and writing this complex form of writing were the scribes (professional writers). In Ancient Mesopotamia, 90% of people had no knowledge of how to read and write their region’s written language, cuneiform. ![]()
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