Egyptian Writing System

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 ...

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...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.