ABSTRACT
Extant in papyri, writing boards and ostraca, and originally composed in the Middle Kingdom, is the text of The Satire on the Trades: The Instruction of DuaKhety.1 The story contains the teaching and advice that Dua-Khety gives to his son Pepy regarding the scribal profession and literature. Dua Khety emphasizes the attractiveness of the office of scribe by describing the uncomfortable and tiring occupations of the stoneworker, the coppersmith, the carpenter, the jeweller, the reed-cutter, the potter, the bricklayer, the furnace-tender, and several other workers. Ironically, craftworkers had already established a comprehensive set of working practices during the Predynastic period, well before the introduction of the office of scribe. In any event, some of the scribe’s work depended upon Egypt’s industrial output in many areas, which in turn relied upon the skills of different types of craftworker.
