Name ____________________________________
HIEROGLYPHICS
Date ______________________ Core _______
READING
Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics
Besides pyramids and sphinxes, the Egyptians are known for hieroglyphics, or a form of
picture writing. Hieroglyphics used small pictures, which represent different words, actions, or
ideas. There were over 700 of these letters. Some pictures stood for whole words. For
example, a series of wavy lines meant "water."
All of the letters in hieroglyphics were
consonants. The Egyptians did not write vowels and did not use any punctuation.
Hieroglyphics were very intricate and complicated and must have taken a very long time
to learn and to write. It’s no wonder that most Egyptians couldn't read or write. Gradually
hieroglyphics were simplified and an easier system, called hieratic script, was developed. The
original hieroglyphics were reserved for important or formal writing such as writing on buildings
and in tombs, while hieratic script was used for everyday purposes, such as recording taxes,
writing notes, or writing down stories. They were written in ink, usually red and black on
Egyptian paper, called papyrus.
Papyrus or Paper
The Egyptians made their paper, called papyrus, from the reed stems of the papyrus
plant, which had to be flattened, dried, and stuck together to make pages. They cut the stem of
the plant vertically in thin slices. They laid the strips next to each other lengthwise and slightly
overlapping to form a layer. More slices were placed on top of them in the other direction to
form another layer. A cloth was placed on top of the reeds and they pounded the sheet of reeds
with a mallet. The pounding made the juices of the plant stick them together. The resulting
sheet of papyrus was slightly sticky and was put out to dry in the sun. When it was dry, it was
rubbed smooth with a stone or a piece of wood. To make long rolls of papyrus, like scrolls, the
Egyptians glued the ends of the sheets of papyrus together with a paste made of flour and
water. Egyptian "pens" were thin, sharp reeds, which they would dip in ink to write with.
Scribes
Scribes were the few Egyptians who knew how to read and write. There were many
jobs a scribe could do. A scribe might write letters or draw up contracts for fellow-villagers, but
other scribes had more demanding jobs. They might have recorded the amount of crops in a
harvest and collected the state's share of it for taxes. They could also calculate the amount of
food needed to feed the stonemasons and builders who were working on the pyramids. The
scribes would also keep accounts and order supplies for the temples and the Egyptian army. In
this way, they kept the government working. Other scribes were more scholarly or educational
and wrote mathematical or medical papers. Some scribes acted as teachers or librarians who
copied books and wrote inscriptions for tombs and temples. A scribe's job was mostly to be a
civil servant, which is someone who works for the Pharaoh.
A scribe's profession was highly honored in Ancient Egypt. Although being a scribe was
rewarding, the training could take as long as twelve years. Most of the boys who went to
school learned to be scribes. Many Egyptian children did not go to school, but went to work
with their father and learned his trade (job) instead. Girls stayed at home with their mothers
and learned household skills, though there is evidence that some girls were taught to read and
write.
Schools were attached to the temples. The children were taught in groups by teachers
who were very strict and made their pupils work hard. Boys who misbehaved or were lazy
were often beaten. Since papyrus was expensive, the boys practiced their writing on reusable
clay tablets called potsherds which were similar to a chalkboard. These could be wiped clean
with a rag. A scribe sat Indian style and held his writing board in his lap. Among his other
writing materials were sharpened reeds, a scribal palette of red and black inks, called a menhed,
and a water jug in which to dip the reed to clean it off.
While Hieroglyphic writing first began around 5000 years ago. Egyptians only wrote in
hieroglyphs up to about 400 AD. After switching to using mostly hieratic script, they eventually
wrote in a short-hand cursive style called demotic script. Eventually, after the end of the Ancient
Egyptian civilization, everyone forgot how to write in hieroglyphs.
But now we are able to decipher hieroglyphs thanks to a special chunk of rock and a
determined Egyptologist (a scientist who studies Ancient Egypt). In 1799, a soldier digging in a
fort in Rosetta, Egypt found a large black stone with three different types of writing on it. The
writing was a message about the Pharaoh Ptolemy V, who was a ruler of Egypt. Because the
message was written during the time when the Greeks ruled Egypt (ever heard of Alexander the
Great?), one of the three languages was Greek. The other two were demotic script and
hieroglyphics. The discovery became known as “The Rosetta Stone”.
People realized that the three languages on "The Rosetta Stone" said the same thing. And
even though people could read Greek, they couldn't figure out how to match up Greek words
with hieroglyphic words. For years, no one was able to understand how the hieroglyphic
message corresponded to the Greek one.
Finally, in 1822, a French Egyptologist named Jean François Champollion figured out
how to decipher hieroglyphic writing. He realized that the hieroglyphs that spelled "Ptolemy"
were enclosed in a cartouche. A cartouche is an elongated oval with a horizontal bar at the
bottom. Generally a king or a god's name was written within it. The cartouche is believed to
act as a protector of the king's name, making sure that it is never forgotten. The cartouche
represents a loop of rope that is never ending. So, Champollion was able to match the
hieroglyph up to the Greek spelling. This discovery enabled him to equate other unfamiliar
hieroglyphs with familiar Greek words and to translate the entire message.
Translating English to Hieroglyphics can be tricky. Hieroglyphics can be read either up
and down if they are written in columns, and either right to left or left to right if they are
written in rows. The way to tell how to read them is to look which direction the figures are
pointing and read that way.
For example, the hieroglyph for the letter “L” is drawn
. If the lion is facing left, like
in this picture, you would read left to right. Always start reading from the direction that the
plants, animals and people are facing. So, if the lion if facing the other way like this
,
then you would read from right to left. If the hieroglyphics are in columns, always read top to
bottom.
Egyptians would also put the symbol for man or woman in the cartouche with the name
to show whether the person is male or female.
Man
Woman