Page 26 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

The WriTTen Word

5 shocking facts about…

HIEROGLYPHICS

EGYPT, 3200 BCE

AT A GLANCE

The ancient Egyptians used
this amazing writing system
to tell stories, write history
and communicate with one
another. Hieroglyphs use an
alphabet of symbols that are
put together to form words,
though the Egyptians had
no punctuation or vowels.
There were also two different
scripts developed — hieratic,
a formal style like we find
inside pyramids, and demotic,
which simplified the glyphs for
swifter writing.

The oldest Reading The Holy writing Skills of
01 alphabet 02 the symbols 03 Rosetta Stone 04 The word ‘hieroglyph’ 05the elite
The first Egyptian hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs can be read left Egyptian hieroglyphics were comes from an amalgamation The Egyptians used
appear on pottery from circa to right, right to left or up not fully deciphered until of two Greek words — ‘hiero’ hieroglyphics to tell their
3200 BCE. The writing was and down. Scribes put the the discovery of the Rosetta for holy and ‘glypho’ for writing history on papyrus scrolls,
developed to convey the characters — including animals Stone in 1799. The stone — as the Greeks regarded adorn the walls of tombs
language using two types of and people — facing the has the same inscription many of the intricate symbols and document prayers and
glyphs: phonograms, to denote direction of reading. Scribes carved in Greek, demotic and to be sacred. The Egyptians religious rituals. Scribes took
sounds, and ideograms, to also used determinative hieroglyphs, which enabled also believed that the glyphs many years to train and
show ideas. Hieroglyphics glyphs that were unspoken French scholar Jean-François were created by Thoth, the just three per cent of the
read using both types of but helped the reader to tell Champollion to become the god of writing and knowledge, population — notably the
symbols either on their own or the meaning of particular first man in centuries to read in an effort to make his educated priests and royalty — © Getty Images
coupled with others. words and phrases. the ancient symbols. followers wiser. could read the glyphs.
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