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Hieroglyphs
Above A papyrus showing a good example of hieroglyphs Writing is believed to have been invented in Sumeria, but the Ancient Egyptians soon produced their own writing in the form of hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics is a form of writing in signs or pictures which represent either sound or things. Apart from being difficult to learn, there were hundreds of different signs, and many of them could mean different things depending on the context they were used in, it was also very slow to write. Not everyone in Ancient Egypt could write, as very few had the opportunity to learn, and schools like we have today did not exist. The people who could write, and did the majority of hieroglyphs that still survive today in tombs, were called scribes. It is believed to have taken five years to learn all of the different symbols and pictures! Over time a more cursive, or flowing, form of writing developed, based on the original hieroglyphics. This form is called hieratic. In the Late Period, another cursive text, called demotic, also came into use. This was used by the laity and the common people, though hieroglyphics were never abandoned.
Above The Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone was one of the most important discoveries from Ancient Egypt, as it allowed the hieroglyphic code to be cracked! In 1799 some French soldiers in Rosetta, Egypt, were looking for some stones to strengthen their forts against the British, when they discovered the Rosetta Stone. This was a large slab with a long inscription in three languages. The first was in hieroglyphics, the second in demotic and the third in Greek. From this clue the texts of the Ancient Egyptians was deciphered. |
