Thanks to visit codestin.com
Credit goes to www.scribd.com

Scribd
Upload
55 views2 pages

Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs Guide

The document discusses hieroglyphs, the ancient Egyptian writing system using pictures. Hieroglyphs were used by scribes over 5,000 years ago, though a simpler script called Demotic was later developed. The mystery of how to read hieroglyphs was solved in 1799 with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which had a passage inscribed in hieroglyphs, Demotic script and Greek. Scholars were able to use the known Greek translation to decipher that hieroglyphs were more phonetic than symbolic, composed of phonetic, logographic and determinative glyphs.

Uploaded by

Akarshan Walia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
55 views2 pages

Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs Guide

The document discusses hieroglyphs, the ancient Egyptian writing system using pictures. Hieroglyphs were used by scribes over 5,000 years ago, though a simpler script called Demotic was later developed. The mystery of how to read hieroglyphs was solved in 1799 with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which had a passage inscribed in hieroglyphs, Demotic script and Greek. Scholars were able to use the known Greek translation to decipher that hieroglyphs were more phonetic than symbolic, composed of phonetic, logographic and determinative glyphs.

Uploaded by

Akarshan Walia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

hieroglyphic

/hʌɪrəˈɡlɪfɪk/

Learn to pronounce

noun

plural noun: hieroglyphics

writing consisting of hieroglyphs.

W ould you like to travel back in time to ancient Egypt? Would you


find a mummy? Chat with the Pharoah? Help build a pyramid? That
would be a great adventure! Before you go, be sure to brush up on
hieroglyphs. 

What are hieroglyphs? They’re part of the ancient Egyptian writing


system. You may have seen examples of hieroglyphs in movies or TV
shows before. This system of writing is over 5,000 years old. It used
pictures instead of letters like our modern alphabet.

In ancient Egypt, the people who wrote with hieroglyphs were called


scribes. Hieroglyphs took a long time to write. Imagine writing your
next homework assignment using pictures! That’s why the scribes
later came up with an easier form of writing called Demotic script.

Over time, new scribes only used Demotic script. It was not long
before no one knew how to write or even read the old hieroglyphs!

When archeologists found hieroglyphs
on ancient Egyptian pyramids and tombs, they could not read them.
They knew the writing meant something. Still, no one knew how
to interpret them!

This was a problem until 1799. That year, Napoleon’s army invaded
Egypt. There, his troops found an ancient stone. It  helped end the
mystery of hieroglyphs.

That stone is called the Rosetta Stone. It was named after the name
of the area in which it was found. The stone had the same short story
written on it in three types of writing. They were Greek, Demotic script,
and hieroglyphs.

Since scholars could read Greek and Demotic script, they could study
the hieroglyphs to figure out how they worked. Jean-François
Champollion completed the translation by the 1820s. Today, people
can visit the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum in London.

Experts learned that hieroglyphs were very complex. Even though it


was made of pictures, the writing was more phonetic than symbolic. It
was made up of three types of glyphs (symbols). Phonetic glyphs are
like alphabet letters. Logographic glyphs represent prefixes, suffixes
or short words. Determinative glyphs narrow down the meaning
of phonetic and logographic glyphs.

Do you think you could read hieroglyphs? Maybe you could learn them
well enough to become a scribe! Just think of the fun you could have
writing stories and secret messages in hieroglyphs. Give it a try—we
can’t wait to see what you come up with.

You might also like