Presentation Transcript

1. Hieroglyphs

2. Outline • Introduction • Part I. Hieroglyphs deciphered • a. The Rosetta Stone • b. Champollion • Part II. How to read the hieroglyphs • a. The hieroglyphs • b. Alphabetic signs • c. Syllabic signs • d. Determinative signs • e. Numbers • Conclusion • References

3. Introduction • Hieroglyphs are pictures that were used to write the ancient Egyptian language • The language consisted of more then 750 individual signs • Since the ancient language has never been heard, we are not sure how words were pronounced • The picture signs can be written from right to left; from left to right; or vertically, reading downwards • If they are facing right, the inscription is read from right to left

4. Part I. Hieroglyphs deciphered • The ancient Egyptian word for hieroglyphs, literally translated as “language of the gods” • Priests used hieroglyphs to write down prayers, magical texts, and texts related to life after death • When preparing their tombs, many people had autobiographies and hieroglyphic guides of the afterworld written on the surfaces of tomb walls • The Egyptians believed that these texts helped guide the dead through the afterlife • Civil officials used them to write royal documents of long-term importance, to record historical events

5. a. The Rosetta Stone • After the fall of ancient Egyptian civilization in 30 BC, the meaning of hieroglyphs remained a mystery for about 1,800 years • During the French occupation of Egypt from 1798 to 1801, a group of French soldiers and engineers uncovered a large stone now known as the Rosetta Stone • It contains the same text written three different ways—in hieroglyphs, in the demotic script, and in ancient Greek. • The stone was taken to Europe, where scholars translated the ancient Greek and used the information to decipher the other two texts

6. The Rosetta StoneBritish Museum, London

7. b. Champollion • In 1822, a French Egyptologist named Jean François Champollion figured out how to decipher hieroglyphic writing • He realized that the hieroglyphs that spelled "Ptolemy" were enclosed in a cartouche, so he was able to match it up to the Greek spelling • This discovery enabled him to equate the unfamiliar hieroglyphs with familiar Greek words and to translate the entire message • The writing was a message about Ptolemy V, who was ruling Egypt at the time

8. II. How to read the hieroglyphs • THERE are three forms of writing that were used to write the ancient Egyptian language: • Hieroglyphs: From the Greek meaning "sacred writing." this is the picture language that was used most often to decorate temples and monuments • Hieratic: cursive form of writing, as script is to printed letters; quicker to write since the picture quality of the language was reduced to a pattern of lines • Demotic means “the people's writing”; shorthand version of the Hieratic script which was used during the Late Period

9. a. The hieroglyphs • Egyptian glyphs are divided into two groups: phonograms, which are glyphs that represent sounds, and ideograms, which are glyphs that represent objects or ideas • The Egyptians constructed words by using a combination of the two types of glyphs • Readers must generally use both phonograms and ideograms to determine the significance of a word or phrase

10. b. Alphabetic signs • A single sound the Egyptians took most vowels for granted and did not represent them

11. c. Syllabic signs • represent a combination of two or three consonants

12. d. Determinative signs • A determinative is a picture of an object which helps the reader. if you have a name, Bob, and it is followed by the "man" glyph, you can assume that Bob is the name of a man • King • Man • Woman

13. e. Numbers

14. Conclusion • After the fall of ancient Egyptian civilization in 30 BC, the meaning of hieroglyphs remained a mystery for about 1,800 years • The work of deciphering the hieroglyphs went on after Champollion’s death and continues up to the present day, continually providing new information about life in ancient Egypt

15. References • http://members.aol.com/egyptnew/glyph.html#a • http://www.fnspo.cz/mmm/egypt/hiero/1.htm • http://www.rostau.org.uk/AEgyptian-L/ • http://www.eyelid.co.uk/e-name.htm • http://www.neferchichi.com/hieroglyphs.html • http://www.neferchichi.com/godsinfo.html • http://www.neferchichi.com/pharaohs.html • http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761573079