A mission led by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt has unearthed a previously unknown educational wing within a 5th-Dynasty tomb complex at Saqqara. The area served as a training ground for elite scribes under the patronage of the 'Master of the Royal Scribes.' The walls are decorated with unique reliefs showing students seated at desks, a rare glimpse into the pedagogical traditions of the Old Kingdom.
The excavation yielded hundreds of practice ostraca (limestone shards used for writing) featuring hieroglyphic exercises, corrections by master scribes in red ink, and mathematical calculations for land surveying. This discovery sheds new light on the standardized curriculum used to train the Egyptian bureaucracy and emphasizes the high status of literacy during the pyramid-building age. Researchers are currently cataloging the texts to understand the specific administrative subjects taught at the time.