Egyptian Writing and History: Egyptian Writing and History

Egyptian Writing and History

Source:http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptwriting.html

Introduction:

All the hieroglyphics known by the man are or the definition of this ancient writings are a system that employs characters in the form of pictures. These may be read either as pictures, as symbols for pictures, or as symbols for sounds.

The name hieroglyphic (from the Greek word for “sacred carving”) is first encountered in the writings of Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE). Among the Egyptian scripts, the Greeks labeled as hieroglyphic the script that they found on temple walls and public monuments, in which the characters were pictures sculpted in stone and the greeks writed their hieroglyphics in papyrus or other smooth surfaces. Because of their pictorial form, hieroglyphs were too difficult to write and were used only for monument inscriptions in temples and other structures that were important on the country. They were usually supplemented in the writing of a people by other, more convenient scripts. Among living writing systems, hieroglyphic scripts are no longer used. (Dorman,P. & Brunner, H., n.d., para. 1, 2, 3, 4)

Hieroglyphic Overview:

Hieroglyphics:

"Ancient Egyptian writing uses more than 2,000 hieroglyphic characters. Each hieroglyph represents a common object in ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs could represent the sound of the object or they could represent an idea associated with the object. "(Bruaw, S., n.d., para.2)

Most ancient hieroglyphics were founded the 4th millenium(BCE) and comprise annotations incised onto pottery jars and ivory plaques deposited in tombs.

It is not possible to prove the connection of hieroglyphs to the cuneiform characters used by the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia. Such a relationship is improbable because the two scripts are based on entirely different systems and as we can see in the text above most of the cultures that writed on hieroglyphics had their own kind of writed "language" and code. (Dorman, P. & Brunner, H, n.d., para. 1, 2)

Source:http://realmsbeyond.net/civ/c4tourney/adv4.html

Rebus:

"A modern type of hieroglyphic writings would be a rebus. A rebus is a picture puzzle that can be "sounded out" by reading the sounds symbolized by the pictures. When these sounds are read aloud together, the statements often becomes obvious. "(Bruaw, S., n.d., para.3)

"I Love You"

Source:http://www.greatscott.com/hiero/hiero_over.html

Alphabet:

The alphabet characters were basis for writing hieroglyphics, and if something cannot by represented by any other character, they used to invent names or anything to represent it. (Bruaw, S., n.d., para.1)

Source:http://peapod-peasinapod.blogspot.com/2011/02/ancient-egypt-lapbook-hieroglyphics.html

Interesting Facts!

· "HIEROGLYPHS were the writing of ancient Egypt." (Solonika, J., n.d., para.1)

· "Each Pharoah had his own hieroglyph. When the Pharoah died, his mummy would have a name tag with his symbol on it, identifying the mummy." (Solonika, J., n.d., para.2)

· "There were over 700 hieroglyphs in the Egyptian alphabet." (Solonika, J., n.d., para.3)

· "Hieroglyphs could be written left to right, up and down, or right to left." (Solonika, J., n.d., para.4)

· "Did you know that the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs was the Rosetta Stone? The Rosetta Stone was a stone with a message written in three languages all saying the same thing: Hieroglyphs, Demotic (another form of hieroglyphs), and Greek. If you could read one language, you had the key to the other two. Even so it took twenty years to translate." (Solonika, J., n.d., para.5)

· "The Rosetta Stone was discovered by accident in 1799 by a group of Frenchmen who had gone to Egypt with the invading army of Napoleon Bonaparte. While these men were preparing to build a fortress at the town of Rashid, they found the Rosetta Stone." (Solonika, J., n.d., para.6)

· "The man who finally translated the Rosetta Stone was a Frenchman named Jean-Francois Champollion." (Solonika, J., n.d., para.7)