Biblical Hebrew Forum

[SheMichael AT aol.com]

        I've heard of no evidence of scribes in nomadic societies in the ANE. 
  
        We also have little way of knowing how much of a person's time 
scribal work
consumed, as the scribes wrote very little about themselves.  Autobiography
was hardly invited.
        Nearly everyone had access to enough heat to bake a tablet, but why 
would
they need it?  What they needed was clay wet enough to write in when
necessary, or, more usually, access to bees, for the wax on which they usually
wrote.  As apiculture was the first stage of husbandry in almost all societies
of which we are aware, access to wax was not to be monopolized.

Sheila Shiki y Michaels

In a message dated 1/7/99 1:03:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, mc2499 AT mclink.it
writes:

<<  Scribal abilities was an intensive profession in the ancient near east,
one that in itself was not easily productive but which occupied most of the
time of the scribe, requiring access to a kiln and the materials for making
writing tablets. One had to
 learn one's art, which took time and a nomadic society in those times did
 not provide the context either to supply the training nor to fund the
endeavour.
  >>