Egyptian society made early strides in the medium of storage of information by using both stone
tablets and
monuments in combination with
papyrus, and kept the circuit of
information flow within their culture fairly limited (in comparison to the
Babylonians or
Akkadians) to the point where some have speculated the
priest classes may have intentionally
complicated (and in essence codified) versions of their own hieroglyphic writing. Whether this was an effort to further mystify the process, or ensure secrecy, is impossible to verify- however the '
hieratica' practiced by these scribes was a knowledge kept exclusively within the religious leadership of the society.
* By 1500 BC, thousands of
scribes were at work under a upper echelon of
bureaucrats,
viziers, provincial governors, who all in turn operated under the leadership of a god-class of
Pharaoh rulers. The
librarian scribes of this society had their own
professional code, not unlike what would develop under
monastic culture in Europe 2000 years later, and were expected to :
a) apply themselves to
study,
b) practice self- control and
discipline,
c) show
prudence at all times,
d)
respect their superiors, and finally,
e) be
scrupulous in their regard for the sanctity of weights, measures, property and legality.
Papyrus became the widespread standard for historical record and correspondence, and the Egyptians even experimented with sheets pasted into spines in an early book format. However, in this culture, the true divide among classes was deepened by
elite education and the religious
secrecy surrounding
knowledge.
Without wider exchange within their
culture, and a lack of inter-cultural
exchange on account of their
inaccessibility in the desert,
the pace of innovation in Egyptian society was excruciatingly slow by the standards set by other cultures of the time- extremely late in developing the potter's wheel, or simple
metallurgic skills such as
copper use or lathing. One cannot help but conclude by the time widespread decay began in 1150 BC, with slave rebellions, strikes in the civil service, economic
recession, tomb-looting and then the assassination of Ramses III (
in his own harem, no less), the society had simply grown too
insular and
conservative to survive in the face of conflict and change.
Notes:
* Historians believe the first
cryptographic practices were actually used by Egyptian
scribes recording the history of their rulers' lives, whereby they intentionally varied standard forms of
hieroglyphic on monuments and tombs to distinguish or '
tag' them as
sacred or mystically significant- temple scribes adopted similar practice to add
mystery to religious texts. Ironically, as Egyptian culture grew more complex and de-centralized, these symbols grew increasingly
muddled as occult
glyphs,
pictographic,
ideographic and
accents all
intertwined- and common
grammar became increasingly unstable. For more, see Rosenheim's (Shawn James)
The Cryptographic Imagination (John Hopkins University Press: 1997).