 that's foy scalf at chicago's institute for the study of ancient cultures he says in this period there were no brushes let alone pens scribes would use the stalks of russians and they would have taken this and actually chewed on the end of the stalk to produce bristles like on a brush the czech scientists found damage to the scribe's molars consistent with repeatedly chomping on rush stalks like sharpening a pencil with their teeth so jaw pain clearly