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    Origins of Egyptian Hieroglyphs

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    LeaneSacares
    The ancient Egyptians believed hieroglyphs were invented by the god Thoth and called them "god's words". The earliest examples of writing in Egypt date back to 3400 BC while the latest hieroglyphic inscription was carved in 396 AD. Hieroglyphs were mainly used for formal temple and tomb inscriptions, while everyday writing employed hieratic script. After pagan temples were closed in the 4th century AD, knowledge of hieroglyphs was lost until 1822 when Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the script.

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    Origins of Egyptian Hieroglyphs

    Uploaded by

    LeaneSacares
    37 views1 page
    The ancient Egyptians believed hieroglyphs were invented by the god Thoth and called them "god's words". The earliest examples of writing in Egypt date back to 3400 BC while the latest hieroglyphic inscription was carved in 396 AD. Hieroglyphs were mainly used for formal temple and tomb inscriptions, while everyday writing employed hieratic script. After pagan temples were closed in the 4th century AD, knowledge of hieroglyphs was lost until 1822 when Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the script.

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    The ancient Egyptians believed hieroglyphs were invented by the god Thoth and called them "god's words". The earliest examples of writing in Egypt date back to 3400 BC while the latest hieroglyphic inscription was carved in 396 AD. Hieroglyphs were mainly used for formal temple and tomb inscriptions, while everyday writing employed hieratic script. After pagan temples were closed in the 4th century AD, knowledge of hieroglyphs was lost until 1822 when Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the script.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    37 views1 page

    Origins of Egyptian Hieroglyphs

    Uploaded by

    LeaneSacares
    The ancient Egyptians believed hieroglyphs were invented by the god Thoth and called them "god's words". The earliest examples of writing in Egypt date back to 3400 BC while the latest hieroglyphic inscription was carved in 396 AD. Hieroglyphs were mainly used for formal temple and tomb inscriptions, while everyday writing employed hieratic script. After pagan temples were closed in the 4th century AD, knowledge of hieroglyphs was lost until 1822 when Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the script.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    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, 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.

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