Hieroglyphs
- hieroglyph is a character used in a system of pictorial writing
- the symbols may represent the objects that they depict but they usually stand for particular sounds or groups of sounds
- the word hieroglyph means ‘sacred carving‘ and is a Greek translation of the Egyptian phrase ‘the god’s words‘
- the hieroglyphic writing is composed entirely of pictures
- its origins are unknown
- it apparently arose in the late pre-dynastic period (before 2925 BC) → the concept is supposedly taken/borrowed from the Sumerians
- the oldest inscriptions cannot be read except for names and a few titles → the writings didn’t represent the sounds as completely as later ones
- 3rd dynasty: many of the principles of hieroglyphic writing regularized
- from then, the system and the signs remained unchanged for more than 2000 years
- 2nd and 3rd century CE: there was decline of the ancient Egyptian religion and of hieroglyphs due to the rise of Christianity → the last known use of hieroglyphics dates back to 394 CE
Hieroglyphic Writing
- it followed four basic principles:
- it could be used in an almost purely pictorial way, e.g. the sign of a man with his hand to his mouth might stand for the word ‘eat’
- it might represent or imply another word suggested by the picture, e.g. the sign for ‘sun’ could serve as the sign for ‘day’ or as the name of the sun god Re
- the signs served as representatives of words that shared consonants in the same order, e.g. the words for ‘man’ and ‘be right’ (both spelled with the same consonants ‘hg’) could be rendered by the same hieroglyph
- the hieroglyphs stood for individual or combinations of consonants
- the first attempt to decipher hieroglyphs (based on the assumption that they were phonetic symbols) was by the German scholar Athanasius Kircher in the 17th century → he correctly identified only one symbol
- the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 unlocked the mystery
- it was inscribed with three different scripts: hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek
- the full deciphering was accomplished by Jean-Francois Champollion by comparing one sign to another → he determined the phonetic values of the hieroglyphs
