Hieroglyphics In Ancient Egypt

Egypt is one of the oldest civilizations known to the world, dating as far back as the prehistoric era. Developing near the life-giving Nile River, it was able to develop as a great power of its time, a growing force to be reckon with as time passed. Herodotus’ statement is testament to this as he once said, “Egypt is the gift of the Nile.” Utilizing the Nile River to its fullest potential, Egyptians developed irrigation systems to allow for a multitude of purposes, such as diverting flood water and providing drinkable water. However, the main purpose was to gain greater control over the river to allow agriculture practices. Though control of the river was an absolute necessity, it was not the only factor that successfully allowed agriculture.

To begin, the Egyptian language is the ancient language of Egypt. Belonging to the language family of Afroasiatic or the Hamito-Semitic, it is related to a multitude of the family’s branches, such as Berber and Hausea (North African side), Arabic (Semitic side), Ethiopic (Semitic side), and Hebrew (Semitic side). However, within the Afroasiatic branch, Egyptian is one-of-a-kind, as there does not exist a relatively close or similar language. Though that may be so, Egyptian also has similar features that are common to both family branches, but when it does differ, Egyptian is more often than not closer to the North African branch of the language family. As stated before, Egyptian history is highly extensive, beginning in the Neolithic period of the prehistoric era. It was also during this period before 3200 B.C.E. that writing first appeared in Egypt. Though very few accounts of writing existed during this era, it still proves that Egypt was on the verge of developing its writing scripts. After 3200 B.C.E., the Egyptian language would go on to be actively used until the eleventh century AD. With a span of use of more than four thousand years, Egyptian is the longest utilized language in the world. However today, Arabic is the dominant language of Egypt, as the Muslims led a successful conquest in 641 A.D., completely rendering Egyptian as a dead language. Throughout the Egyptian language’s

Each sign present in this system stands for hieroglyph and together, the entire system is known as hieroglyphic. The system was used for written language during the Old and Middle Egyptian phases. Though Middle Egyptian disappeared by 1600 B.C.E., hieroglyphic writing was continually utilized for the remainder of Egyptian history. Hieroglyphic inscriptions can be found on a multitude of things, such as temple or tomb walls, statues, offerings, or sarcophagi. Sometimes, hieroglyphic signs were written in a much simpler form known as hieratic (priestly) writing. This was primarily used when methods, such as carving or painting were not used. It mostly commonly appears texts, such as the Book of the Dead. Ultimately, hieratic script existed as an alternative style of writing alongside hieroglyphic writing. Hieroglyphic writing was used in more formal texts, such as those that are deemed to be permanent, whereas hieratic writing is used more in a temporary sense (Brewer, 1999, p.