HIEROGLYPHICS

1. HIEROGLYPHICS The Ancient Egyptian writing is called hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics are pictures that represent different objects, actions, sound or ideas. There were more than 700 hieroglyphs. Some pictures stood for whole words. There was no vowels in Hieroglyphics.

2. WHAT DOES HIEROGLYPHIC MEAN? • Hieroglyphs is made from two Greek words: • Hieros meaning holy. • Glyphe meaning writing. • It can also mean sacred writing.

3. HOW CAN WE READ HIEROGLYPHICS • We can read hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone. Hieroglyphics are small pictures associated with the letter. You read hieroglyphics from right to left if the objects are facing right. You read left to right if the objects are facing left.

4. Hieroglyphics alphabet

5. Who uncoded Hieroglyphics • The Rosetta Stone was a piece of black stone about the size of a small coffee table which provided a key to the puzzle of the lost ancient Egyptian language. It was discovered in 1799 by French soldiers near the city of Rosetta on the Nile delta. It had three different types of language on it. One was Greek, and the other two were forms of Egyptian language. Scholars were able to read the Greek, but after twenty years, they still were not able to figure out the Egyptian. One of them was hieroglyphics, but they did not know the meaning. Jean Champollin finally discovered that the characters once stood for sounds. This was the key to the mystery language. Scholars were then able to translate the writing off the walls of tombs and pyramids.

6. WHAT WERE HIEROGLYPHICS WRITTEN ON • Hieroglyphs were written on papyrus reed, which is a water or marsh plant, with tall straight hollow stems.The reeds were flattened, dried, and stuck together to make pages.

7. QUIZ • 1. What does hieroglyphic mean? • 2. Who decoded Hieroglyphics? • 3. What was hieroglyphics written on? • 4. How many languages were found on the Rosetta Stone? • 5. What nationality were the soldiers who discovered the Rosetta Stone?