\paperw4095 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 The scribe enjoyed a position of great prestige in Egypt.\par
He was the one who imposed taxes and collected them. He was the one who
did the calculations, and who exercised control over all the countryÆs economic activity.\par
In a land of illiterate people, those who knew how to read and write held power.\par
Egyptian writing is ôideogrammatic,ö that is to say made up of ideograms
, over 700 figures and signs known as ôhieroglyphs.ö\par
The signs do not correspond to letters or words, but concepts: a drawing of a fish signified ôfish,ö a house meant ôhouse.ö\par
Representations were not used for abstract ideas, but signs that ha
d a purely phonetic value. These are called ôphonograms.ö\par
They were the same figures as were used to represent things, but interpreted only in terms of their sound. When writing with a quill on papyrus, a simplified script was adopted, known as ôhie
ratic.ö\par
Around 1600 BC another form of writing appeared on papyrus. This was ôdemoticö or the ôpeopleÆs script,ö which made it possible to draw up documents much more rapidly.\par
The Egyptians attached no importance to vowels and only consonants w
