<P> The profession, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its prominence and status with the advent of the printing press . The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as secretarial and administrative duties such as the taking of dictation and keeping of business, judicial, and historical records for kings, nobles, temples, and cities . The profession has developed into public servants, journalists, accountants, typists, and lawyers . In societies with low literacy rates, street - corner letter - writers (and readers) may still be found providing scribe service . </P> <P> One of the most important professionals in ancient Egypt was a person educated in the arts of writing (both hieroglyphics and hieratic scripts, as well as the demotic script from the second half of the first millennium BCE, which was mainly used as shorthand and for commerce) and arithmetic . Sons of scribes were brought up in the same scribal tradition, sent to school, and inherited their fathers' positions upon entering the civil service . </P> <P> Much of what is known about ancient Egypt is due to the activities of its scribes and the officials . Monumental buildings were erected under their supervision, administrative and economic activities were documented by them, and stories from Egypt's lower classes and foreign lands survive due to scribes putting them in writing . </P> <P> Scribes were considered part of the royal court, were not conscripted into the army, did not have to pay taxes, and were exempt from the heavy manual labor required of the lower classes (corvee labor). The scribal profession worked with painters and artisans who decorated reliefs and other building works with scenes, personages, or hieroglyphic text . </P>

What role did scribes play in ancient egypt