Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics

The oldest record discovered by archaeologists dates back as far as 1900 B.C. in the town of Menet Khufu. In the tomb of Khnumhotep II, an Egyptian nobleman, symbols (also known as “hieroglyphics”) were uncovered that depicted a message (See figure 1, Appendix). However, upon closer examination, it became apparent that many of the symbols were unusual, if not entirely fake. It can be easily determined that this message was in the form of cryptography. A cipher is “an algorithm, process, or method for performing encryption and decryption” and “has a set of well-defined steps that can be followed to encrypt and decrypt messages” (Mcdonald), and undoubtedly what the hieroglyphic message is, having such unusual symbols. Throughout the following years of Egyptian civilization, cryptography became more common and the substitution of hieroglyphics was used by scribes, whether it be to “preserve the sacred nature of their religious rituals from common people” who lacked the skills to read and write at an advanced level”, or that “the scribes wanted to give a formal appearance to their writings” (Mcdonald). Either way, cryptography continued to have an effect on the Egyptians, soon spreading its sophistication to other areas of the Ancient

Another man who devoted many years of his life to studying the stone was Jean-Francois Champollion. After many years of perseverance, Champollion finally translated the stone in 1822. He accomplished this feat by first recognizing that hieroglyphs were not symbols, but instead were associated with phonetics, as Thomas Young had proved. (Andrews 166) His first major breakthrough in his studies was in 1808, when he resolved those fifteen signs of the demotic script related with alphabetic letters from the Coptic language. From this he concluded that Coptic language must be based on the remnants of the last of the ancient Egyptian language, and written with the Greek alphabet, which is why it was readable to Champollion and other scholars researching the stone. Also, that the hieroglyphic text was a translation of the Greek, not the reverse, as had been previously believed. By 1818, Champollion had successfully concluded that though some signs were basically ideograms, many of the glyphs had phonetic value, meaning the ancient Egyptian script was at least partially alphabetic. (Giblin 83) He came to this conclusion after referring back to three other different forms of Egyptian writing and also using Coptic as a reference. Recognizing the name 'Ptolemy' and 'Cleopatra' in the Greek and demotic sections of the stone allowed him to identify those same names in hieroglyphics. Still wondering, he didn't think that hieroglyphs were

This is one of the earliest religious texts of the empire and was an instructional guide that explains how the pharaoh is going to pass into the afterlife. This source was probably composed in Egypt by a native Egyptian male who was religious and of high status due to the important nature of the document. Because it dealt directly with the pharaoh and his burial, this source was likely only read by high ranking religious figures that performed the burial rituals. In addition, it was written in hieroglyphics, which signifies its crucial purpose. There are many religious references in the text, including ones that discuss Osiris, god of the underworld, and Horus, a god linked to life and kingship. The Egyptians also seemed to think that specific burial rituals were sacred and heavily tied into religion. This source is similar to Primary Source 2.1 in that it has to do with a great ruler with heavy religious implications. However, it is different because it was written in a pyramid as opposed to a slab or papyrus. Any writing in a pyramid was considered sacred and this source appears to be much more important than the Mesopotamian one. The discovery of pyramids had a great impact on modern day society and the decoding of the hieroglyphics with the Rosetta Stone was a linguistic marvel. Both forms of Egyptian writing have helped modern societies and have brought us together; for example, it is common to see writings similar to hieroglyphics in pyramids on current day monuments and tombs. However, these two forms of writing have also encouraged diversity. Most modern societies speak countless different languages, some of them even having formal and informal styles of writing, such as the Japanese kanji and

The pictorial nature of some scripts, such as Egyptian hieroglyphic, disguises the fact that writing relies on language. The earliest attempt to decipher the hieroglyphic involved an incorrect process of explaining the mystical significance of hieroglyphic rather than trying to read them. It was Abbe Jean-Barthelemy (1716-95) who in 1761 suggested that the oval cartouches in Egyptian inscriptions might contain royal names, a suggestion that was fundamental to later progress.

Since the publication of John Brown's article in 1798, we have learned an enormous about ancient Egyptian history. Some of what we have learned (certainly not all) includes (1) the English alphabet can be translated into hieroglyphics, therefore a new era of Egyptology started and lead to wonderful discoveries, such as Tut's tomb, and the hieroglyphic burial content that surround sarcophagi and tomb walls are readable, as is the Book of the Dead and hieroglyphic writings such as autobiographies and chronologies; (2) the dates of the Pharaonic Dynasties and kingdoms (i.e., Old, Middle, and New) which are now much more firmly established; (3) that the ability to interpret he historical inscriptions on great monuments (e.g., Thutmose III

Since the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics in 3100 BC[3], writing has been a part of human expression. Initially, writing was used for recording the stories, myths, and histories of nations that were once mighty world powers. But as time wore on and literacy increased to the point that scholars weren’t the only people that could relay messages, writing began to morph into a form of expression. The written word became not only the best way of recording the linear timeline of what happened when, but also the more abstract social and cultural aspects of everyday people living their everyday lives. History became the ideologies, fears, and political aggravations recorded in the books of the people, regardless of the genre. And as times

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics was one of Egypt’s great mysteries that were very difficult to figure out. Hieroglyphics are pictures or symbols that represent words, used in the writing system of ancient Egypt. The word hieroglyphic is Greek and literally means “holy writings”. So it would make since that Pharaohs’ names were written in hieroglyphics in their tombs because they were considered powerful and righteous. Thus, what was the key to unlock the translation of the hieroglyphics?

n ancient egypt they would use hieroglyphics to write down what they did and what is their history .Hieroglyphics were first discovered by the “rosetta stone”. The rosetta stone was discovered by french soldiers in 1799 near the harbor at the coast of egypt .It had took twenty year to be able to translate the stone with three kind of egyptian writing on it. Only scribes can write , because they went to scribe school then they learned to write .

The art of ancient Egypt established a sense of power. The artworks resembled gods and were gifts to the kings or pharaohs. The gifts given to the Egyptian kings contained symbolic meaning, as well as, a way of translation for decoded messages of stories. A specific artwork, given to an Egyptian king, contained a variety of three languages. This artwork, later discovered, shares a mysterious story about the “ideal pharaoh.” The artwork is known as The Rosetta Stone.

The ancient Egyptians called Hieroglyphics the language of the gods, and they were used mainly by the high priests, and royalty. The person who primarily did the reading in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics was the temple priests. Hieroglyphics were written in horizontal rows or/and vertical columns and they were read by the royals ,from left to right or from right to left. The higher symbols were frequently read before the lower symbols. There are not hieroglyphics for all of the letters used in our alphabet in modern day, because the Egyptian didn’t use all our vowels we use today. Some of the symbols and signs used in the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt were similar to simple pictograms and meanings through their symbolism and signs that resemble

The ancient egyptians first started communicating through a system of writing called hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics were drawings or symbols that each represented a different thing such as an object or sound. The word itself comes from two greek words meaning carvings. These greek words are hiero and glyphe. Hiero is the greek word for holy, while glyphe is the greek word for writing. Therefore it directly translates to mean holy writing. The meanings of different hieroglyphic drawings were declared by the rosetta stone a resource commonly used for learning languages. This was the first of many writing systems for the ancient egyptians.

The Ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphics which were pictures as words in order to write. It is one of the oldest form of writing which started as early as 3000 B.C. Hieroglyphics was a very complicated way of writing having 1000 symbols! Some of the symbols expressed sounds, just like our letters, and others were entire words. it took years of education and practice to be able to read and write hieroglyphics. The people who specialized in writing were called scribes. They often wrote on tablets or walls, but they also wrote on a special type of paper called papyrus. The papyrus paper, just like its name, was made from a plant called Papyrus. But it was the Rosetta Stone that helped historians initially understand hieroglyphics.This stone had

Egyptian hieroglyphics, typically depicted on scrolls, pottery, and stone, were regularly used to keep records for

Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood. Hieroglyphics were a formal system of writing used by the ancient Egyptians that combined alphabetic and logographic elements. Hieroglyphs are also related to two other Egyptian scripts such as hieratic and demotic.

At Abydos and Saqqara tombs for the kings of the early dynasties were built in imitation of palaces or shrines. The large amounts of pottery, stonework, and ivory or bone carving found in these tombs attest to a high level of development in Early Dynastic Egypt. Hieroglyphic script (picture writing), the written form of the Egyptian language, was in the first stages of its evolution.