HieroglyphicsA brief history

What, Where, Why?What, Where, Why? Ancient Egyptians called this

mdju netjer – “words of the gods”

Name comes from the Greek ta hieroglyphica “the sacred carved letters”

The earliest and longest lasting form of Egyptian script (3000 B.C. to 500 B.C.)

Consisted of at least 700 symbols.

Began as a way of writing text onto surfaces but ended up as a religious usage.

How?How?

Ancient Egyptians used brushes made out of reed plants

For the ink they mixed ashes with water

They used stones as a surface but then evolved to papyrus, which is made out of reed stems.

A Language of A Language of SymbolsSymbols

Each symbol had more than one use

One symbol alone could have up to 3 different meanings

Sometimes the symbols were phonetic or just a symbol

NumbersNumbers

Rosetta StoneRosetta Stone Discovered in 1799 in Rosetta,

Egypt by Napoleon’s Army

Contained a passage translated in three different languages: Greek, demotic, and hieroglyphics.

The rock is 45” by 30” and about 12” deep, weighing 1,676 lbs.

Is found at the British Museum since 1802.