Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics
One of the most widely known form of Ancient Egyptian symbols is their writing, Hieroglyphics. They are written or carved carefully with reed pens or brushes on papyrus (their form of paper made form the papyrus plant), on tomb walls, and extravagant paintings. The "letters" of hieroglyphics are actually pictures, some the same for different letters. Here is the hieroglyphic alphabet translated into English:
Along with the letters, there are also separate symbols for different sounds including kh, sh, ch, ms, nh, and hpr, and symbols to represent beings such as a man, woman or god. Each individual symbol is called a 'glyph', and the form of writing has been used in ancient Egypt from as early as 3300 or 3200 BC, and they used them to about 200 AD. Hieroglyphics started to die out after the Romans took over the Egyptian empire in 30 BC, and slowly ceased to exist in the next 200 years where the meaning of them were lost for over 1800 years.
If you think that the alphabetic glyph's are hard enough to write and remember, their numerical system was much more complex and a pain to write/carve out as there wasn't a separate symbol for each individual number, as you will see in the next table.
If you think that the alphabetic glyph's are hard enough to write and remember, their numerical system was much more complex and a pain to write/carve out as there wasn't a separate symbol for each individual number, as you will see in the next table.
With the numerical glyph's, the higher the number gets, the more symbols will be needed. For example, for the number 856, 232, you would need 8 frogs, 5 fingers, 6 flowers, 2 swirls, 3 arches and 2 simple lines. Not only that, it needs to be stacked in the correct order. That's 26 separate glyphs to write out ONE number, and they normally carved them out very carefully in stone, or painted them onto papyrus.
Although a complicated way of doing things, the hieroglyphics were always very neat and somehow mesmerising in its own ancient way. The hieroglyphics shown are only a few of many others, as there are 700-800 glyphs to represent movement, sounds, feelings and people.
Although a complicated way of doing things, the hieroglyphics were always very neat and somehow mesmerising in its own ancient way. The hieroglyphics shown are only a few of many others, as there are 700-800 glyphs to represent movement, sounds, feelings and people.
Below is some pictures of real-life Hieroglyphs found carved in tombs and on tablets. Can you translate them?
Wedjat Eye
The Wedjat Eye, or 'Eye of Horus' is the symbol of being whole, closely tied to afterlife (read page the page 'Afterlife' to find out how they received the Eye). Horus, son of Isis and Osiris (read also 'Mythology' for more on them), is the representation of this sacred symbol. 'Wedjat' means god or goddess in ancient Egyptian. In actual life, the Egyptian's carved it on loved ones tombs, wore them around their necks and dyed it onto clothing to act as a sign of luck and hope. In death, the souls that are found to be good and whole wear this eye around themselves to show that they have passed the test in the godly halls, and are to have immortal life. The eye itself (when worn by the whole) , shines with jewels and is meant to be colourful and appealing to the eye.
Symbol of Ra
Ra the Sun god (more on him in Mythology) has many symbols, but his main symbol is a sun-disk, surrounded by a sacred serpent called Uraeus. The sun-disk is often resting on Ra's head. The symbol is meant to represent his power and glory (as he was King of the gods), as the sun was a powerful force. The image of the sun in Ancient civilisation was everywhere, not just in Egypt, and sun gods are still worshipped today.
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