The Hieroglyphic Writing System

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

In Ancient times written languages had been some of the tools that they used to communicate. “The designation ‘hieroglyphics’ is a Greek word; the Egyptians referred to their writing as medu-netjer ‘the god’s words’, as they believed writing had been given to them by the great god Thoth” (Mark). The Egyptians believed that hieroglyphics were given to them as a special gifts from their god. Another thing is that they used hieroglyphics to represent their

A brief walk through the history of the ancient Remetch script and its decipherment. The history of hieroglyphics is dated as far back to approximately 3150 BCE and remained in use for over 3300 years for many aspect of life. During that period the script has gone through several writing styles. The first change attested during the Naqada II period was called cursive hieroglyphic (hieratic), followed by Sekh Shah (demotic), and finally Coptic. These changes came about for use as an everyday script, in which every glyphs (phonograms) was replaced by simpler symbols, as a means for faster writing.

The ancient civilisation of Egypt has always been an admirable one, and until this day it is still full of mysteries. Despite all the discoveries that archeologists have made, there are many unexplained matters that they are still trying figure out. People considered pharaohs as they were descended from gods; however pharaohs knew that they are normal beings. Of Course they couldn’t show that to the people, and in order to keep their majestic image they turned to making such spectacular breathtaking status, tombs, and paintings.

According to the book fun with hieroglyphs, scribes copied government and legal documents that were written in hieroglyphics. To write they used brushes made of reed and frayed. To practice writing, they would use limestone or broken pottery. When they were writing for something real they would use this really expensive paper or wood. The book of the dead was important to the Egyptians.

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

Sequoyah was the son of the niece of a Cherokee chief, and a white man. He was born in 1770 grew up in the Cherokee Nation in Tuskegee, Tennessee. When he was older he took a job as a silversmith. When a customer recommended he sign his work like other silversmiths of the time he became interested in written forms of communication. Impressed and fascinated by the way Europeans used writing to communicate long distances he began to invent his own writing system. In 1809, when Sequoyah was around 40 he began to create the Cherokee written alphabet. It was an eighty five letter alphabet, with a letter for every sound.

Hieroglyphics enabled the Egyptians to keep written records rather than word of mouth or relying a person’s a memory to transmit information. Hieroglyphics were very important to the ancient Egyptians as the word hieroglyphics literally meant “language of the gods” when it was translated. It was very common for priests to use hieroglyphs as they would write down prayers, magical texts and passages about life, death and worshipping the gods. The Egyptians believed that writing autobiographies and hieroglyphic guides of the after world on the insides of coffins and on the surface of tomb walls would help guide the dead through the afterlife. Hieroglyphic writing was not only used for religious purposes. It was used by Civil officials when they

Anyone who has studied ancient Egypt will be familiar with Jean Francois Champollion. He was, after all, credited with deciphering hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone and thus giving scholars the key to understanding hieroglyphics. For this effort along, he is frequently referred to as the Father of Egyptology, for he provided the foundation that scholars would need in order to truly understand the ancient Egyptians. Even though he suffered a stroke, dying at the age of forty-one, he himself added to our knowledge of this grand, ancient civilization by translating any number of Egyptian texts prior to his death.

Mayans created the only true writing system native to americans, it was highly sophisticated, and only member of the higher class could really read it. The Mayans had developed a complicated system of writing that involved phonetic or syllabic symbols and pictographs. The writing was incorporated among architecture written on buildings, stones,wood, etc. Mayans had four Codices; the Dresden, Paris, Madrid, and The Grolier. These were inscribed in fig tree bark which were folded and bound with deer hide and wood.

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?

The website http://en.wikipedia.org says “ Egyptians hieroglyphics were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt.” In other words hieroglyphics are small symbols and there are about 1,000 of those symbols in the writing system. They can look like birds, snakes, different shapes, and even people! Some hieroglyphics can mean multiple letters like A,C,H,and Y all share the same hieroglyphic with another letter. As a result hieroglyphics are the Egyptian writing system.

Is the development of the writing system the most important factor that led to the rise of a civilization? How does our ancestor learned to write when school is not even available? Understand that writing system that I am referring is not the average of using tools such as ink and paper, but more of creative tool that has developed over time. In this essay, I will cover seven points on the importantance of a writing system in the ancient civilization.

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.