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Hieroglyphs Explained

The Rosetta Stone

Famous Cartouches

The Eye of Horus The Scarab Beetle

Hieroglyphic Alphabet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

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Egyptian hieroglyphs or picture writings were carved into stone on monuments, painted on the walls of burial tombs and used for making up a cartouche or personal seal, which was often used like a personal signature. 

A cartouche is an oval frame that outlines the hieroglyphs which make up the name of a god or royal person. It represents a looped rope which has the magical power to protect the name inside.  

This example is based on Tutankhamun’s 'nomen' (birth name).

The three hieroglyphs at the top make up the name 'AMUN' and are placed in the most important position. The bird with two bread loaves reads 'TUT' and to its left is the symbol 'ANKH' which represents life. On the bottom row the crook which means 'ruler' is accompanied by two signs representing the city of Thebes. 

 Hieratic Script

Scribes learnt hieratic writing for listing taxes and recording accounts, and hieroglyphs for writing on tomb walls and monuments. Students practised writing on broken bits of stone called ostraca.

Ancient Egyptians wrote using picture symbols called hieroglyphs. These symbols stood for both a sound and a word. So the symbol meant both  the word "re" meaning "mouth" and the sound "r". When the symbol was used for the word it usually had a line beneath it, like this "mouth". 

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Otherwise it was combined with other sounds to make words, for example  or "rn" meaning "name". As we do not know how Ancient Egyptian was pronounced we add an "e" to "rn" and pronounce it "ren". As well as single letter signs like (r) and  (n), the Ancient Egyptians also used signs standing for more than one letter like     (w/u) and(ankh).

 The symbol of the ankh is one of the best known good luck charms. In Ancient Egypt the hieroglyph 'ankh' meant ‘to live’. It is often seen on wall paintings and as a charm in the form of jewellery. Many hieroglyphs are still used in the design of modern jewellery. 

Paper from Reeds

Paper was made from thinly sliced papyrus stems. One layer was placed on another and the plant's juices glued them together.

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Famous Cartouches

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Middle Egyptians used over 750 hieroglyphic signs to write sounds and words. 

Egypt officially converted to Christianity when the Roman Empire took over in AD 324. Egyptian writing was banned because the Romans considered it to be pagan. People forgot how to write hieroglyphs and nobody learnt how to read them. As a result, hieroglyphs became a lost language.

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The Rosetta Stone

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The discovery of the stone of rosette later called Rosetta stone is an interesting story. It was discovered near the town of Rosetta (now Rashid), located in the Nile Delta about 40 miles northeast of Alexandria, by a Frenchman, Pierre Bouchard, on 15 July 1799.

The ancient Egyptians were a great mystery to scientists until they deciphered hieroglyphics, the writing of the ancient people. The ancient civilisation was mentioned in the bible, but we didn't know much about the Egyptians until a troop of French soldiers found a large, basalt stone near the city of Rosetta, Egypt in 1799. That stone eventually made it possible for Jean Champollion to decode the ancient text. We can read hieroglyphics today because of the Rosetta Stone.

By 1822, the French scholar named Jean-Francois Champollion had translated some of the Egyptian writing into Greek after more than twenty years of work. The stone bore inscriptions in Hieroglyphics (top of stone), Demotic, a later form of hieratic writing (middle of stone) and Greek (bottom of stone). Champollion concluded that hieroglyphics had originally been pictographs, but they stood for sounds in later times. Champollion made it possible to understand hieroglyphics, and unlock many of the mysteries of ancient Egyptian civilisation. The Egyptians only used vowels for foreign names such as Ptolemy.

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Hieroglyphic Alphabet

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Sound  Example Hieroglyph 

short A

cat, bar

long A

make, air, way, hey  

B

baby  

soft C
(actually S)

nice, circus  

hard C
(actually K)

camel, sick, Christmas  

CH

cheese, catch, picture  

D

dog, add  

short E

earn, pet  

long E

be, bleach, Mary, radio  

F

fish, phone, tough  

soft G

gorgeous, gym, judge  

hard G

girl, ghost  

H

how, who  

short I

hid, bit  

long I

hide, bite, eye

J

jungle, judge  

K

pick, kid, technology, clique  

L

lead, bell  

M

mummy  

N

Nile  

short O

dog, all, shawl  

long O

rose, sew, mow, boat  

OO

food, blue

OO

book, push  

P

pet  

QU
(actually KW)

Q+U sounds like K+W, so combine the K and W hieroglyphs  

R

rain  

soft S

sit, nice, rats  

sharp S

fission, measure

z-like S

rays, loser

SH

ship, sugar, mission, friction, machine  

T

tiger, thyme  

TH

Egyptians had no sound for TH as pronounced in this and that. Closest match is the D sound.  

TH

Egyptians had no sound for TH as pronounced in think and math. Closest match is the T sound.  

short U

cut, about, ugly  

long U

rude, food, blue

V

viper  

W

wind, what, cow  

X
(actually KS)

fix

hard Y

crayon, yes  

vowel Y
(actually long E)

use hieroglyph for long E in words like ready and Mary  

vowel Y
(actually I)

use hieroglyph for short and long I in words like gym and byte  

Z 

zebra, dogs, Xerox

DID YOU KNOW: Hieroglyphics could be read from left to right or right to left. The clue to which way you read them lies in which direction the hieroglyphics are facing.

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The Eye of Horus

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The eye of Horus was believed to have special healing powers. It was considered to represent the eternal renewal of the kingdom from pharaoh to pharaoh. As the two gods struggled for power, Seth tore out Horus' eye. It was magically restored and became a symbol of protective watchfulness. The ancient Egyptians believed that this symbol has a very powerful and magical effect on restoring harmony to the unstabilised world and restoring unrightful things. 

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The Scarab Beetle

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The scarab beetle was a symbol of great power in Egyptian mythology.

It was said that it pushed the sun into the sky at the dawn of each day.

Scarabs are common dung beetles and are often seen pushing around a huge ball of dung, many times their own size and weight.

The myth probably grew from the great strength and determination that they display in this practice.

Scarab beetles are also known by the Egyptians to cause solar eclipses.

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