# What hand did a scribe write with?



## Lunaairis (Mar 5, 2013)

I'm working on a script for an animated Assassin's Creed episode. The main character is a scribe in ancient Egypt and I can't seem to find any information of which hand a scribe would use to write with, or did it matter? 

I've looked at statues where they write with their right hands( actually a majority depict this), but I've also seen paintings where they are writing with their left hand. 

All the help is appreciated!


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## Ireth (Mar 5, 2013)

I would think they'd just write with their dominant hand, like anybody else. The majority of people are right handed.


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## Lunaairis (Mar 5, 2013)

I was just really sure that I read some where that some ancient languages the scribe would hold the table, paper (whatever ) with the right hand and write with their left. I'm probably completely wrong, and just mixing a few things up. So I wanted to check and make sure.


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## Devora (Mar 5, 2013)

I would think it would be the right hand. In ancient times, there was a lot of superstition against left-handed people.


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## Caged Maiden (Mar 5, 2013)

In medieval Europe, it was taboo to be left-handed.  Going back to Egyptian art though, you're dealing with something else entirely... their artistic interpretation.  The action is usually taking place in the frontmost hand.  Therefore, if the figure is facing left, they'll be holding the tools in their right hand, while if they're facing right, they'll be holding tools in their left.  

Also if you look at old texts, you often see that people will be drawn with two left or right hands.  The thumbs on the same sides depending on the perspective.  I would consider pictures to be wholly inaccurate as references regarding handedness.


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## Butterfly (Mar 6, 2013)

I think the direction of flow could be an indication of this. Does the witing flow from left to right or right to left?

If you look at ours... it's left to right because most people are right handed. It's also the Roman way. If it were to flow the opposite way then it is likely that the scribe would smudge what he has written as his hand moves across the parchment. Left handed people sometimes struggle with this,which is why their wrist often curls at the top while they write so as to avoid smudging the words and to see what they have written. 

If the text flows from right to left this could be an indication that the learned scribes of a culture may have been taught to write with the left hand. Hence the hand would move towards the left while leaving the text on the right free of smudging and within sight as they write.


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## Lunaairis (Mar 6, 2013)

Ancient Egyptian can be written in any direction. It's indicated by the way the hieroglyphs are facing. This is why I'm having a problem with this.


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## Shockley (Mar 6, 2013)

Predominately, hieroglyphics go left-to-right. Coptic, I believe, is exclusively left-to-right. This implies to me that for convenience's sake they probably wrote with their right hands.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Mar 7, 2013)

I'm going to speculate that the intersection between people who would watch an Assassin's Creed episode and the people who would know whether the scribe was writing with the wrong hand is _very_ small.


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## Lunaairis (Mar 8, 2013)

Benjamin Clayborne said:


> I'm going to speculate that the intersection between people who would watch an Assassin's Creed episode and the people who would know whether the scribe was writing with the wrong hand is _very_ small.



I want to keep this as historically accurate as I can.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Mar 13, 2013)

That's fine, but keep in mind that every minute you're spending on details like this is a minute you're not spending on story and characterization. Unless you're _certain_ that you've got those things nailed (and they are much harder to nail), I would back-burner things like this.


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## SeverinR (Apr 2, 2013)

With inks that would not dry quickly, writing with ones left hend would smear the ink as you wrote. So even someone left handed would have to learn to write with the right hand.

To write, you must write, right using your right hand or you will be left with an unrightable mess.


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