How an Ancient Egyptian Scribal Palette Tool Works

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My fabricated Ancient Egyptian Scribal Palette Demo

The scribe was generally depicted carrying the tools of his trade: a wooden palette with brushes and reed pens and a roll of papyrus.

Papyrus was the ancient world’s version of paper and in fact is the root of the word “paper”. It was made by slicing the yellowish-white pith of the papyrus reed into long strips and laying them out in horizontal and vertical layers to form a mat.

A sticky vegetable gum was poured over the sheets to filling up spaces in the mat and it was then pounded flat with a mallet and placed under a heavy weight to dry. Once the juices of the plant had evaporated the papyrus mat would be pliable and strong.

It was polished with a piece of wood or ivory and was then ready to use. Papyrus was expensive and time consuming to make so students would practice by copying texts on ostraca.

The pen of a scribe was made from a thin-stemmed reed, usually around nine inches long. The end of the reed was hammered soft to cause it to fray, and then trimmed to create a brush.

Ink was carried in a flat pallet with two depressions cut into it; one for red ink and the other for black ink. Black ink was made from soot mixed with gum, and red ink was created from this same mixture by adding the dust of red oxide.

Scribes generally wrote in red or black ink, with red ink being employed for important or magical terms and by tutors when correcting the work of their students (a practice which exists to this day!) Red ink was also used to indicate titles, headings and to mark the beginning of a new section of text.

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