Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Origins of Egyptian Hieroglyphs
The ancient Egyptians believed that writing was invented by the god Thoth and called their hieroglyphic script "mdwt ntr" (god's words). The word hieroglyph comes from the Greek hieros (sacred) plus glypho (inscriptions) and was first used by Clement of Alexandria.
The earliest known examples of writing in Egypt have been dated to 3,400 BC. The latest dated inscription in hieroglyphs was made on the gate post of a temple at Philae in 396 AD.
The hieroglyphic script was used mainly for formal inscriptions on the walls of temples and tombs. In some inscriptions the glyphs are very detailed and in full colour, in others they are simple outlines. For everyday writing the hieratic script was used.
After the Emperor Theodsius I ordered the closure of all pagan temples throughout the Roman empire in the late 4th century AD, knowledge of the hieroglyphic script was lost until the early 19th century, …show more content…
when a French man named Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832) managed to decipher the script.
Notable features • Possibly pre-dates Sumerian Cuneiform writing - if this is true, the Ancient Egyptian script is the oldest known writing system. Another possibility is that the two scripts developed at more or less the same time.
• The direction of writing in the hieroglyphic script varied - it could be written in horizontal lines running either from left to right or from right to left, or in vertical columns running from top to bottom. You can tell the direction of any piece of writing by looking at the way the animals and people are facing - they look towards the beginning of the line.
• The arrangement of glyphs was based partly on artistic considerations.
• A fairly consistent core of 700 glyphs was used to write Classical or Middle Egyptian (ca. 2000-1650 BC), though during the Greco-Roman eras (332 BC - ca. 400 AD) over 5,000 glyphs were in use.
• The glyphs have both semantic and phonetic values. For example, the glyph for crocodile is a picture of a crocodile and also represents the sound "msh". When writing the word for crocodile, the Ancient Egyptians combined a picture of a crocodile with the glyphs which spell out "msh". Similarly the hieroglyphs for cat,miw, combine the glyphs for m, i and w with a picture of a cat.
Used to write:
Egyptian, an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until about the 10th century AD.
After that it continued to be used as a the liturgical language of Egyptian Christians, the Copts, in the form of Coptic.
The Egyptian Hieroglyphs is among the old writing system in the world. Unlike its contemporary cuneiform Sumerian, Egyptian Hieroglyph's origin is much more obscure. There is no identifiable precursor. It was once thought that the origin of Egyptian Hieroglyphs are religious and historical, but recent developments could point to an economical impetus for this script as well as push back the time depth of this writing system.
How It Works
The Egyptian writing system is complex but relatively straightforward. The inventory of signs is divided into three major categories, namely (1) logograms, signs that write out morphemes; (2) phonograms, signs that represent one or more sounds); and (3) determinatives, signs that denote neither morpheme nor sound but help with the meaning of a group of signs that precede
them.
As in the rest of Africa, the people of ancient Egypt werepolytheistic throughout the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. That means that they believed in many gods. Some of these gods wereRa, Anubis, Seth, Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Egyptians worshipped these gods withanimal sacrifices and with incense and many processions where people carried the image of the god from one place to another. People believed that all of Egypt belonged to the gods, and that the Pharaoh was the representative on earth of the gods, or maybe a kind of god himself, and so everything in Egypt sort of belonged to the Pharaoh. They thought that when you died, Anubis would weigh your soul against a feather, and if your soul was heavier than the feather (with bad deeds), you would be punished. They thought that after you died you went to a new world, just like this one, and so they put into your grave everything you would need in the next world.
But, as in Mesopotamia, there was also a little monotheism in Egypt. During theNew Kingdom, the Pharaoh Akhenaten started a new worship of the god Aten, and he seems to have wanted people to believe that Aten was the only real god, or maybe the only god worth worshipping. After Akhenaten died, people went back to worshipping Anubis, Isis, Amon, and Osiris again, as they had before.
Bottom of Form
The Persian invasion of Egypt in 539 BC doesn't seem to have made any difference to Egyptian religion. The Egyptians just kept right on worshipping their own gods. But the Persians prided themselves on their religious tolerance. When Ptolemytook over Egypt in 323 BC, that did make a difference. Under Greek rule, the Egyptians did begin to worship some Greek gods, although they kept on worshipping the old Egyptian gods as well. Also at this time, Greek people in Athens began to worship the Egyptian goddess Isis. They learned about Isis from traders sailing over from Egypt.
When the Romans conquered Egypt in 30 BC, again the Egyptians kept on worshipping their own gods while at the same time continuing to worship theGreek gods, and adding on some Roman gods as well. If someone is powerful enough to conquer you, after all, it might seem smart to worship their gods!
But little by little some Egyptians began to convert to Christianity, and by the time of the Great Persecution in 303 AD, there were many Christians in Egypt. After the Roman Emperors became Christian and the persecution ended, most of the people of Egypt seem to have converted to Christianity. This is the time of the great conflict between Arius and Athanasius, a good deal of which took place in Alexandria, in Egypt.
Around this time, the idea of the hermit started in Egypt, where holy men and women would leave their families, their jobs, their farms, and travel out into the desert beyond the Nile, and stay there devoting themselves entirely to Christ. When there got to be a lot of these hermits, they started banding together, and these are the first monasteries (the first monasteries had both men and women).
But with the coming of Islam to Egypt in the late 600's AD, most Egyptians soon converted from Christianity to Islam. Some Jews living in Egypt remained Jewish, and some of the Christians remained Christian - these Egyptian Christians are called the Copts, today. But since 700 AD most people in Egypt have followed theIslamic faith.
The ancient Egyptians believed that writing was invented by the god Thoth and called their hieroglyphic script "mdwt ntr" (god's words). The word hieroglyph comes from the Greek hieros (sacred) plus glypho (inscriptions) and was first used by Clement of Alexandria.
The earliest known examples of writing in Egypt have been dated to 3,400 BC. The latest dated inscription in hieroglyphs was made on the gate post of a temple at Philae in 396 AD.
The hieroglyphic script was used mainly for formal inscriptions on the walls of temples and tombs. In some inscriptions the glyphs are very detailed and in full colour, in others they are simple outlines. For everyday writing the hieratic script was used.
After the Emperor Theodsius I ordered the closure of all pagan temples throughout the Roman empire in the late 4th century AD, knowledge of the hieroglyphic script was lost until the early 19th century, …show more content…
when a French man named Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832) managed to decipher the script.
Notable features • Possibly pre-dates Sumerian Cuneiform writing - if this is true, the Ancient Egyptian script is the oldest known writing system. Another possibility is that the two scripts developed at more or less the same time.
• The direction of writing in the hieroglyphic script varied - it could be written in horizontal lines running either from left to right or from right to left, or in vertical columns running from top to bottom. You can tell the direction of any piece of writing by looking at the way the animals and people are facing - they look towards the beginning of the line.
• The arrangement of glyphs was based partly on artistic considerations.
• A fairly consistent core of 700 glyphs was used to write Classical or Middle Egyptian (ca. 2000-1650 BC), though during the Greco-Roman eras (332 BC - ca. 400 AD) over 5,000 glyphs were in use.
• The glyphs have both semantic and phonetic values. For example, the glyph for crocodile is a picture of a crocodile and also represents the sound "msh". When writing the word for crocodile, the Ancient Egyptians combined a picture of a crocodile with the glyphs which spell out "msh". Similarly the hieroglyphs for cat,miw, combine the glyphs for m, i and w with a picture of a cat.
Used to write:
Egyptian, an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until about the 10th century AD.
After that it continued to be used as a the liturgical language of Egyptian Christians, the Copts, in the form of Coptic.
The Egyptian Hieroglyphs is among the old writing system in the world. Unlike its contemporary cuneiform Sumerian, Egyptian Hieroglyph's origin is much more obscure. There is no identifiable precursor. It was once thought that the origin of Egyptian Hieroglyphs are religious and historical, but recent developments could point to an economical impetus for this script as well as push back the time depth of this writing system.
How It Works
The Egyptian writing system is complex but relatively straightforward. The inventory of signs is divided into three major categories, namely (1) logograms, signs that write out morphemes; (2) phonograms, signs that represent one or more sounds); and (3) determinatives, signs that denote neither morpheme nor sound but help with the meaning of a group of signs that precede
them.
As in the rest of Africa, the people of ancient Egypt werepolytheistic throughout the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. That means that they believed in many gods. Some of these gods wereRa, Anubis, Seth, Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Egyptians worshipped these gods withanimal sacrifices and with incense and many processions where people carried the image of the god from one place to another. People believed that all of Egypt belonged to the gods, and that the Pharaoh was the representative on earth of the gods, or maybe a kind of god himself, and so everything in Egypt sort of belonged to the Pharaoh. They thought that when you died, Anubis would weigh your soul against a feather, and if your soul was heavier than the feather (with bad deeds), you would be punished. They thought that after you died you went to a new world, just like this one, and so they put into your grave everything you would need in the next world.
But, as in Mesopotamia, there was also a little monotheism in Egypt. During theNew Kingdom, the Pharaoh Akhenaten started a new worship of the god Aten, and he seems to have wanted people to believe that Aten was the only real god, or maybe the only god worth worshipping. After Akhenaten died, people went back to worshipping Anubis, Isis, Amon, and Osiris again, as they had before.
Bottom of Form
The Persian invasion of Egypt in 539 BC doesn't seem to have made any difference to Egyptian religion. The Egyptians just kept right on worshipping their own gods. But the Persians prided themselves on their religious tolerance. When Ptolemytook over Egypt in 323 BC, that did make a difference. Under Greek rule, the Egyptians did begin to worship some Greek gods, although they kept on worshipping the old Egyptian gods as well. Also at this time, Greek people in Athens began to worship the Egyptian goddess Isis. They learned about Isis from traders sailing over from Egypt.
When the Romans conquered Egypt in 30 BC, again the Egyptians kept on worshipping their own gods while at the same time continuing to worship theGreek gods, and adding on some Roman gods as well. If someone is powerful enough to conquer you, after all, it might seem smart to worship their gods!
But little by little some Egyptians began to convert to Christianity, and by the time of the Great Persecution in 303 AD, there were many Christians in Egypt. After the Roman Emperors became Christian and the persecution ended, most of the people of Egypt seem to have converted to Christianity. This is the time of the great conflict between Arius and Athanasius, a good deal of which took place in Alexandria, in Egypt.
Around this time, the idea of the hermit started in Egypt, where holy men and women would leave their families, their jobs, their farms, and travel out into the desert beyond the Nile, and stay there devoting themselves entirely to Christ. When there got to be a lot of these hermits, they started banding together, and these are the first monasteries (the first monasteries had both men and women).
But with the coming of Islam to Egypt in the late 600's AD, most Egyptians soon converted from Christianity to Islam. Some Jews living in Egypt remained Jewish, and some of the Christians remained Christian - these Egyptian Christians are called the Copts, today. But since 700 AD most people in Egypt have followed theIslamic faith.