Egypt: More than just hieroglyphs
Much of what we know about ancient Egypt comes from the Egyptians themselves: via their writings, whether it be on papyrus, tomb or temple walls or on limestone flakes or broken pots.
The ancient Egyptians used a number of writing systems and languages in a long history of careful record keeping, letter writing, composition of curses and love poems and it wasn't all hieroglyphs.
If you have ever tried to write hieroglyphs yourself you will probably have wondered how they could have been used on a day to day basis. The answer is they weren't. The Egyptians used different writing systems for different purposes (linked article by Louise Bascombe, University College London has pictures of each with a brief description, click to view)
In rough chronological order (there were overlaps) they are:
☥ Hieroglyphs (monumental and cursive)
☥ Hieratic
☥ Demotic
☥ Greek
☥ Coptic
☥ Arabic
See the article for more details on each writing style and a graphic timeline. The Demotic mummy label is a particularly fine example of its type.
In the main, generalist scholars like myself read all texts as hieroglyphs either from the object itself or from typeset examples created by other scholars. (I can however also read and write cursive with some degree of confidence for conversion into monumental hieroglyphs and typeset examples for myself using tools like JSESH).
Hieratic is a more difficult script to master because of the idiosyncrasies of individual handwriting. Other scripts such as Greek and Coptic are generally the fields of specialists.
Recommended reading list for texts in translation:
McDowell. A.G, (1999) "Village Life in Ancient Egypt: Laundry Lists and Love Songs" Oxford University Press UK
Wente, E. (1990). "Letters from Ancient Egypt." Atlanta: Scholars Press
http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2018/01/23/egyptian-languages-explained/
Much of what we know about ancient Egypt comes from the Egyptians themselves: via their writings, whether it be on papyrus, tomb or temple walls or on limestone flakes or broken pots.
The ancient Egyptians used a number of writing systems and languages in a long history of careful record keeping, letter writing, composition of curses and love poems and it wasn't all hieroglyphs.
If you have ever tried to write hieroglyphs yourself you will probably have wondered how they could have been used on a day to day basis. The answer is they weren't. The Egyptians used different writing systems for different purposes (linked article by Louise Bascombe, University College London has pictures of each with a brief description, click to view)
In rough chronological order (there were overlaps) they are:
☥ Hieroglyphs (monumental and cursive)
☥ Hieratic
☥ Demotic
☥ Greek
☥ Coptic
☥ Arabic
See the article for more details on each writing style and a graphic timeline. The Demotic mummy label is a particularly fine example of its type.
In the main, generalist scholars like myself read all texts as hieroglyphs either from the object itself or from typeset examples created by other scholars. (I can however also read and write cursive with some degree of confidence for conversion into monumental hieroglyphs and typeset examples for myself using tools like JSESH).
Hieratic is a more difficult script to master because of the idiosyncrasies of individual handwriting. Other scripts such as Greek and Coptic are generally the fields of specialists.
Recommended reading list for texts in translation:
McDowell. A.G, (1999) "Village Life in Ancient Egypt: Laundry Lists and Love Songs" Oxford University Press UK
Wente, E. (1990). "Letters from Ancient Egypt." Atlanta: Scholars Press
http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2018/01/23/egyptian-languages-explained/
For those expressing an interest in Hieratic, I did find these online lessons many years ago, which seemed quite good:
ReplyDeletewww3.telus.net - Basic Lessons in Hieratic - Index
Unfortunately the site seems to have been abandoned. I've occasionally searched for textbooks on the topic but they are insanely expensive. I'll post if I find anything else. Otherwise maybe there's a book to write on this topic some time...
Aakheperure Merytsekhmet ok sir
ReplyDeleteذ @ ' yyy66زززززززززز زذزه
ReplyDelete