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Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics

By Sarbashree Mallik


Why was cave-art so appealing to the Neanderthals?

It is no secret that the way we communicate, measure, express time, or send a mere emoji harkens back to the Egyptian Era.

Communication can be verbal, graphic, and even physical, however, all have the same purpose: to convey a message. The motive behind these appealing ancient pictographs was to communicate and carry messages among groups.


Dawn of Hieroglyphs shaped our modern languages: 

The literal meaning of the word hieroglyph is "sacred carvings." The Egyptians first used hieroglyphs for carving inscriptions or painting on the temple walls. They were also used on tombs, sheets of papyrus, and fragments of limestone. 


Two of the newer forms of hieroglyphs were Hieratic and Demotic: 

Hieratic was a simplified form used for administrative and business purposes, as well as for literary, scientific, and religious texts in Ancient Egypt. 

Demotic, a Greek word meaning "popular script,” was in general use for the daily requirements of the society. 

However, later in the 3rd Century CE, hieroglyphic writing got swapped by Coptic, a form of Greek writing. 


Egyptians were the first people in human history to use paper-like material, made from the papyrus plant for writing. Papyrus is the Greek name for “plant” and it also came from the Egyptian word “papuro” or “pa-per-aa” meaning 'the royal' or ‘that of the pharaoh.’ 

What was “Papyrus”? 


How are scrolls or Papyrus sheets made?  

Papyrus sheets are made by positioning two layers of papyrus, one atop the other, at right angles. The layers are then pressed together, and the gum released by rending down of the plant's cellular structure acts as a glue that bonds the sheet together.

In ancient times, several sheets of papyrus were joined end to end to form a roll. They were 100 ft. or more in length, and highly used for literary and religious purposes.


  • Vegetable gum 

  • Soot of ochre to make red ink and charcoal for black ink

  • Beeswax 

Secret recipe of Egyptian Ink:


Hieroglyphs and Measurements Facts:

  • The discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799 was the key to decoding Ancient Egyptian language (Hieroglyphs). 

  • Jean-François Champollion discovered the secret to this ancient writing. He broke the code of the hieroglyphic text in 1822.

  • The Egyptians invented a schematized civil year of 365 days divided into three seasons, each of which consisted of four months of 30 days each that correlated with the lunar cycle.

  • The Egyptians invented a decimal system that used seven different symbols. 


The Legacy of the Egyptian civilization:

As the first civilization to practice the scientific arts, embalming of a body, advanced understanding in engineering, and astronomy. The Egyptians were also the first in building stone architectures, Stella, and Pyramids. There is a saying, "While the Egyptians undeniably built the pyramids, the pyramids built Egypt."


Let’s decode hieroglyphs and write your name!

Follow this chart to be able to write your name just like an ancient Egyptian buddy! 

https://www.edhelper.com/themes/Hieroglyphics_Chart.htm

If you want to learn more about Hieroglyphic writing, here’s a treat just for you:

https://artsexperiments.withgoogle.com/fabricius/en

Here is a great resource to learn even more about heiroglyphics:

https://artsandculture.google.com/project/ancient-egypt