Egyptian Writing System

647 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Ancient egyptian essay summary

After the development of civilization, the society became more complex so people realized the importance of keeping records. Ancestor had not invented any writing system yet so they just can use cave paintings to record their daily lives until 3000 B.C, Sumerian scribes invented cuneiform. One hundred years after, the Egypt developed their flexible writing system called hieroglyphics. In this essay, I want to talk about three aspects of ancient Egyptian writing system: the three kinds of writing, the usage and the impact.

There are three different kinds of Ancient Egyptian Writing System. Hieroglyphics were the earliest form of Egyptian script and also the longest-lived from 3,400 B.C to 396 AD. The ancient Egyptian word for hieroglyphs were "the words of God" so it is easy to understand why they were used mainly by the priests. Priests used hieroglyphs to write down prayers, texts related to life after death and worshiping the gods. There are three main types of the Hieroglyphics. The first is the logogram, in which a word is written and read by means of a single sign. We can understand what it means by looking at the sign. The second is the phonogram, which is a sign or combination of signs represents a sound. The third category is determinatives, which do not represent sounds and do not have transliterated but they are employed to specify meaning. Hieroglyphics were very complex to understand because many logograms are also determinatives and phonograms. However, Egyptians realized this problem so they add a vertical line beneath the sign in order to remind themselves this is a logogram. After that, they found writing hieroglyphs need too much time so they developed a cursive script called hieratic. Hieratic is an adaptation ...

... middle of paper ...

...ppened before. And the influence of Ancient Egyptian Writing System was more than we can image. The development of hieroglyphics was an influential force to spread ancient Egyptian culture. It was used to as monumental art, as a communication with the gods and as a civilization to influence others.

Rosetta stone is a stone contains the same text written in three different writing systems- in hieroglyphs, in demotic script, and in the ancient Greek. Scholars deciphered the other two texts by translating the ancient Greek. Hieroglyphics were depicter until the discovery of the Rosetta stone so that we can now realize the value of them. Hieroglyphs continue to provide information about life in ancient Egypt today. In my opinion, Ancient Egyptian Writing System is magnificent because it is evolution from using picture record events to using words to write down events.

Show More
Related

  • Sumerian DBQ: Contribution Of Mesopotamians To Society

    368 Words  | 1 Pages

    Without the Mesopotamians we would not have all the luxury we have today. Could you ever imagine a world without writing? You may think, life would not be so bad without it, but without writing we would not have stories, we could not write to the bank, we could not text. Two major contributions made to society were the first forms of writing known as Cuneiform and Hammurabi’s Code.

    Read More

  • Jared Diamond What Makes The World Unequal

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    Writing is one of the many factors which can lead to an unequal world. Writing was “One of the most important inventions in human history” (Prososki, “Writing”). It was believed to come from the Fertile Crescent called Sumer around 5,000 years ago. Over the years, writing has advanced as people created writing and printing systems, which were able to reach

    Read More

  • Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamonds

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    In every society and culture writing is very important by which it allows us to transmit ideas or knowledge for others to see. Writing allows us to look back at information from centuries ago and understand what it was like. According to chapter 12 “The two indisputably independent inventions of writing were achieved by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia somewhat before 3000 B.C. and by Mexican Indians before 600 B.C. Egyptian writing of 3000 B.C. and Chinese writing (by 1300 B.C.) may also have arisen independently” (Diamonds, pg. 218). Other cultures may have adopted writing by ideas inspired by theses writing systems. Diamonds also points out that Sumerian Cuneiform is one of the oldest writing systems. One way the writing system was developed was by using clay tablets to write on by using pointy objects to scratch the surface. He also describes three basic strategies in writing that were used such as logograms, syllables, and letters that are in the alphabet. The alphabet that we use today was developed due to blue print copying. He continued to describe the...

    Read More

  • The Development of Writing and Social Hierarchies

    1128 Words  | 3 Pages

    The need for writing in Uruk was drastically different than that of the Egyptians, however. As evidenced at the archaeological site of Hierakonpolis, the Egyptian sy...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Egypt And Mesoamerica

    1089 Words  | 3 Pages

    Egyptian hieroglyphs were carved in stone, and later hieratic script was written on papyrus. However, Olmec glyphs was discovered on cylinders. Hence, Egyptians and Olmec had different types of writing, and different places to write.

    Read More

  • The Rosetta Stone

    1025 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1799, when Napoleon’s army was dismantling a wall in Rashid, Egypt, they discovered the Rosetta Stone. Little did they know that this 11-inch thick piece of rock would be one of the greatest discoveries in history! It contained Egyptian scripture, with Greek also on the stone. This was used to decode the once lost Egyptian writing system. Before the 1800’s, attempts at trying to uncover the secrets held by the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics found on walls inside numerous tombs were useless. The pictures were falsely believed to be symbolic, representing some sort of object or idea. Something soon changed all of this misconception. 1799 was the year of a great breakthrough in Egyptology. French troops, under Napoleon’s command, were destroying a wall when they found a black, basalt stone. The stone was inscribed with three different forms of writing: Egyptian hieroglyphics, a shorthand form of hieroglyphs, and Greek written in 196 BC. The Rosetta Stone then became instrumental in decrypting the long forgotten Egyptian writing system. The stone was first discovered near Rosetta, Egypt, by one of Napoleon's soldiers, named variously as Bouchard, during his expedition to Egypt in August of 1799. In no time, this discovery was mentioned to all the top scholars who were immensely interested since there was no way to decode the hieroglyphs. In 1802, Johan David Akerblad was the first to break ground in identifying the first demotic symbols. He identified a few of the proper names in the demotic text, after comparing them with the same names found in the Greek text. (Ogg 78) Next on the scene was Thomas Young, an English physicist, who took an interest to the deciphering the Rosetta Stone as well. After much researching, Young was able to prove that the proper names in the hieroglyphics section of the stone did in fact have phonetic value, and were not made up of symbols. He then introduced the idea of the proper names being written with ovals around them, known as cartouches. In reality, the hieroglyphs only contained six. Of the phonetic values that he assigned to hieroglyphs, five were correct (p, t, i, n, and f). (Budge 54) In 1814, he revealed the way in which the hieroglyphic signs were to be read by studying the direction in which the birds and other animals were all facing. He also was able to correctly identify some single-consonant...

    Read More

  • How Did The Industrial Revolution Affect The Development Of New English Language Typefaces?

    3479 Words  | 7 Pages

    Humans have been using written language to communicate ideas with one another since as early as 3200 BCE in Mesopotamia. Since then, every great civilization has had a written language, each with its own unique characteristics. However, it was the writin...

    Read More

  • Why Is Ancient Egypt A Civilization

    744 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ancient Egyptians believed that it was important to record and communicate information about religion and government. Thus, they invented written scripts that could be used to record this

    Read More

  • How Did Ancient Egypt Influence Western Culture

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ancient Egypt is considered to be one of the most significant eras in history, due to its lengthy existence and its overwhelming contributions to the development of western civilization. You could say that Egypt provided the building blocks for Greek and Roman culture, and through them, influenced all of Western tradition. Today Egyptian imagery, concepts, and perspectives are found everywhere; you will find them in architectural forms, on money, and in our day to day lives. We are able to distinguish various elements of its culture that played a key role in its development, such as agriculture, architecture, religion, and government to name a few. Egypt 's impact on later cultures was and still is immense.

    Read More

  • Jean François Champollion: Deciphering Ancient Egypt with the Rosetta Stone

    1411 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Rosetta Stone was found in the town of Rosetta and sent to French scholars in Alexandria during the summer of 1799 (Giblin 23). This black, measuring 112 by 76 stone found while the soldiers in the town were destroying a citadel was unprecedented because it had three different languages on it, the only understood one being Greek (Silet 1). The three languages on the stone were, as stated, Greek, the common Egyptian demotic, and 14 lines of hieroglyphics (Giblin 27). Scholars familiar with the Greek language and writing system were able to translate that section, and the final sentence revealed a fact that set the groundwork for future translations of the other parts. The final line reads: “This decree shall be inscribed on a stela of hard stone in sacred and native and Greek characters” (Giblin 27). It came to be understood that the three sections all contained the same message, and scholars promptly set to work on the translations.

    Read More

  • Similarities in the Artwork of Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, the Aegean cultures, and Ancient Greece

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    Like the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians also believed in god and goddesses and was one of the first to develop their unique writing system called hieroglyphics. Egyptian’s also were the first to construct triangular pyramids with magnificent tombs to bury their dead pharaohs and queens. These pyramids were very comparable to the ziggurats built by the Mesopotamians. The Egyptians unlocked more access when they started using papyrus to make paper in order to communicate. They also inven...

    Read More

  • Hieroglyphic Essay

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is one the oldest and most interesting forms of written language developed. There is evidence of its use from before 3200 BCE and Egyptian hieroglyphs remained in use for over 3,500 years. The Egyptian name for hieroglyphs translates to “language of the gods,” although the term hieroglyph actually came from Greek words meaning “sacred carving,” which the Greeks used to define the writing found on Egyptian monuments and temples (Ancient Egypt, Hieroglyphics, n.d.).

    Read More

  • Egyptian Mathematics

    656 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hieroglyphics were a traditional form of writing used by the Egyptian people. These carvings are one of the earliest examples contributing to current knowledge of ancient Egyptian mathematics. Inscriptions of early hieroglyphic numerals can be found on temples, stone monuments and vases. Such carvings typically include groups of inscriptions. Although hieroglyphs indicate the use of mathematics in early Egyptian civilization, they shed little light on any ...

    Read More

  • Ancient Egypt Essay

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    -During the first dynasty of Egypt, the primitive form of paper, the papyrus was invented. Therefore as a result the government used it as a device to input the laws they make. As a justification to the invention of the papyrus, some artefacts about it were found.

    Read More

  • How Ancient Literature Influenced Today’s Literature

    2285 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ancient Egyptian literature is believed to be the earliest written works known.  Egyptians were the first to develop literary devices and religious texts.  Also, they were the first to create their version of paper and ink.  Hieroglyphs, a writing system used by ancient Egyptians, inspired the original alphabet, including the Romans (Budge 1).

    Read More

More about Egyptian Writing System

Open Document