Hieroglyphics - The Sacred Writing

Contrary to popular belief, hieroglyphics was not the first writing system in history. Egyptian hieroglyphs came right after the Sumerian script, which was formed in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq).

Mesopotamian history is also fascinating, and very much worth a read if you have the time.

Check out the British Museum site on Mesopotamia, it's interactive! This will open in a new window so you can come back to this site when you're done :)

We don't know for sure whether the formation of hieroglyphs was inspired by this earlier Sumerian script or not.

Hieroglyphics were around for almost 3,500 years before their meaning was lost for another 2,000 years. The first hieroglyphs appear sometime around 3100 BC and then became obsolete around 394 AD.

For the longest time, people tried to decipher this ancient writing. Many succeeded in making minor break-thoughs, but still no one could read or understand much of it - until the Rosetta Stone was discovered and decoded.

Since that day in 1799, Egyptian history has been unfolding before our eyes.

The ancient Egyptians also had a relatively advanced system for numbers and math! Click here to learn about Egyptian Numbers, Fractions and Math.

So What Exactly is a Hieroglyph?

There are 4 different types that divide them:

• Unilateral signs that represent a single letter (or sound).
• Bilateral signs that represent two-letter sounds.
• Trilateral signs that represent three-letter sounds.
• Determinative signs that represent the meaning of a whole word.

And with so many signs with many uses and meanings, it would seem impossible to form an alphabet. But, The whole language could have been written using the 24 unilateral signs (like we do in the English language).

Still, the ancient Egyptians did not form a simple alphabet for their own use even though they could have.

But a magical writing system had to be mysterious and complex, didn't it?

Thankfully a simple Egyptian hieroglyphic alphabet does exist now! It's made up of those 24 most common signs with their English equivalent.

Although hieroglyphs form a complete language, the ancient Egyptian language had other forms of writing which were more simplified versions of hieroglyphics. Those were the Demotic and Hieratic systems.

How to Read Hieroglyphics

That's why you'll find that ancient Egyptian words and names written using the English alphabet vary in spelling. For example Rameses and Ramsis, Amun and Amen, etc...

It's the same with Arabic now, I can spell my name in English in 3 different ways and still not get the sound right!

Now to make things more confusing (just for the fun of it!) - hieroglyphics can be read from left to right, right to left, and from top to bottom; the most common being from left to right.

But there's a trick to it though, and I think it's quite smart: you just have to see which direction the sign is facing.

This wouldn't work with the water sign for example, so you can check out which way the animal or person signs are looking. So basically if the snake is looking to the right you read from right to left, and vice versa.

Any hieroglyphs inside a cartouche represent a king or pharaoh.

Determinative signs don't have a sound specific to them - they only represent the meaning of the word before them. There are male and female determinative signs that will let you know the gender of the person whose name is written.

Although this script has been dead for many centuries, it's still magical and beautiful. It's the key that unlocked the mystery of ancient Egypt and tells us of so many amazing stories past.

You can get yourself a cartouche with your name written inside in hieroglyphs as a necklace pendant (or however you want to use it). It's quite popular and a nice conversation starter too!

Or if you just want to learn how to write someone's name in hieroglyphics, get your drawing pencils out and practice using the simple alphabet. I like to show that off sometimes :-)

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