Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Egyptian Hieroglyphics

by Ms. Mendez

​Hieroglyphic writing is linked to elite tombs.

• The earliest hieroglyphic writing is commonly found on royal tombs.

• ​People who weren't royals also sometimes used hieroglyphics in their private tombs and monuments if they were wealthy enough to afford the services of stone carvers.

Multiple Choice

The earliest hieroglyphic writing is commonly found on whose tombs?

• Everyday citizens

• Royals

• Priestesses

• The poor

Multiple Choice

True or False...People who weren't royals also sometimes used hieroglyphics in their private tombs and monuments if they had enough money.

• True

• False

​Ancient Egyptians used other forms of writing.

• ​Because hieroglyphic writing was so complicated, the ancient Egyptians developed other types of writing that were more convenient.

• ​Hieratic writing, a cursive script that was written on papyrus with a pen or brush

Multiple Choice

What is another word for Egyptian cursive script?

• Hieroglyphic writing

• Holandric writing

• ​Hieratic writing

• Logographic writing

​Hieroglyphics uses pictures, but it isn’t picture writing.

• ​Because the symbols used in hieroglyphic writing look like little pictures of people, animals and objects, it’s easy to assume that the hieroglyphs represent those things.

• ​Instead, some hieroglyphs signify sounds in the ancient Egyptian language, just as the characters in the Roman alphabet do.

Multiple Choice

Hieroglyphics ONLY signify pictures of people, animals and objects.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

This Egyptian “alphabet” was made up of about 800 ___________-symbols called Hieroglyphics .

• picture

• music

• numerical

• historical

​Hieroglyphic writing has odd quirks.

• ​Hieroglyphic writing doesn't have any spaces between the words, and there's no punctuation.

• ​That means that readers have to have a good grasp of ancient Egyptian grammar and know something about the context of a message in order to be able to tell individual words, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and chapters apart.

Multiple Select

Hieroglyphic writing doesn't have any .... (Select ALL that apply).

• spaces between the words

• punctuation

• clauses

• paragraphs

• chapters

​Hieroglyphic writing has odd quirks.

• ​Hieroglyphics aren’t necessarily read horizontally from left to right.

• ​Hieroglyphics could be written either from left to right, or right to left, and vertically as well as horizontally.

​Few Egyptians could read hieroglyphic writing.

• ​In the later stages of ancient Egyptian civilization, only priests were able to read hieroglyphic writing.

Multiple Choice

Only __________ were able to read hieroglyphic writing.

• Students

• Pharoahs

• Teachers

• Priests

​Hieroglyphic writing gradually died out.

• ​The Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius approved a decree that banned pagan religion from being practiced in Egypt, which was the beginning of the end for the use of hieroglyphics.

​The Rosetta Stone led to a breakthrough.

• ​In 1799, French soldiers serving discovered a stone slab that became known as the Rosetta Stone.

• The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 and featured writing in three different scripts: hieroglyphic, demotic and ancient Greek.

• ​The three languages engraved upon a single stone enabled researchers to decipher the hieroglyphic writing.

Multiple Select

Sekect the three types of writing found on the Rosetta Stone.

• Hieroglyphic

• Ancient Greek

• Abjad

• Demotic

• Testerian

​Deciphering hieroglyphic writing remains a challenge.

• ​Figuring out the meaning of texts written in hieroglyphic writing remains a big challenge for scholars, and requires a certain amount of subjective interpretation.

• ​Even reading them aloud isn’t easy.

Picture Puzzles

​

​Now it's your turn to try to decipher some Hieroglyphic phrases.

Multiple Choice

Solve this picture puzzle

• Eye bug green you

• I believe you

• Eye beegreen you

• See believe you

Multiple Choice

Solve this picture puzzle

• Foot Key Oh Japan

• Foot Keyoh Jametal

• Toe Keyoh Jacook

• Tokyo Japan

Ancient Picture Puzzles

Hieroglyphic writing was based on the same principals as the modern picture puzzle, but the ancient Egyptians took it to a new level by making it a formal written language.

Hieroglyphics

Hieroglyphics are just like ancient picture puzzles. The symbols could represent the sound of an object or an idea associated with an object.

Vowels

• Vowels were usually left out when writing

• There were a few exceptions. For example when a word began or ended with a vowel sound or with names.

Spoken Language

• Vowels existed in the spoken language but not in the written language.

• A modern example of words written without vowels would be abbreviations. 

Multiple Choice

Say this abbreviation out loud :

"mtn"

What word does it sound like?

• moving

• maintain

• mountain

• moon

Multiple Choice

Say this abbreviation out loud :

"blvd"

What word does it sound like?

• boulevard

• building

• blood

• blurred

How to Read

English vs Hieroglyphics

Left to Right

• Look at the direction that both the human and animal are facing

• If they both face left you start reading on the left and go to the right

Right to Left

• Look at the direction that both the human and animal are facing

• If they both face right you start reading on the right and go to the left

Rows and Columns

Regardless of reading direction hieroglyphics could be written in rows or columns

Multiple Choice

Which statement below best describes hieroglyphics?

• A type of art using letters and sounds

• A form of writing using picture symbols

• A fancy way of writing the Greek alphabet

• A type of writing similar to cursive

Multiple Choice

Who were the people that were specially trained to read and write hieroglyphics?

• Pharaohs

• Priests

• Scribes

• Accountants