Research Paper on Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Introduction

Egyptian hieroglyphs were the first known formal writings that were used by the people in the early days of the Egyptian empire. Egyptian hieroglyphs have over 1000 characters that are distinct thus enabling one to make a sentence that can be read and understood. The Egyptians used the cursive hieroglyphs for religious purposes, religious literature was written using cursive hieroglyphs. Egyptians used the hieroglyphs to write even demonic scripts. Hieroglyphs usage rose during the bronze age. The first sentence that could be deciphered was written during Naqada III reign in the 32 century BC. Hieroglyphs are a vital artifact in any museum because of its origin and importance to oldest civilization in the world like the Egyptian civilization. Placing such an artifact in the Radwani Museum will enable Qatari people to understand the Egyptian writings and how it impacted the growth of civilization in ancient Egypt.

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Origin of the Hieroglyphs

The emergence of hieroglyphs is linked to the artistic tradition of the Egyptians, the symbol like the symbol of Gerzean from pottery to come up with words. Hieroglyphs were dominant during 4000 BC as Egyptian continued symbols like the scorpion to communicate a message or a phenomenon. During the reign of king scorpion, I and Naqada III hieroglyph became famous as most archeological findings suggest. According to most researched archeological findings, the first full sentence to be written in hieroglyphs was an impression that was found I the tomb of a king known as Sett-Peribsen. The dating of the writings suggests that it was drawn between 27th and 28th century BC.

Egyptians civilization is divided into three main kingdoms which are the old, middle and the new kingdom. Archeological findings show that during these three sets of Egyptian civilization over 8000 hieroglyphs have been discovered as remains of the civilization. The findings can be related to either of the three eras of civilizations of the Egyptians. The rise of hieroglyphs was after the Sumerian script which was early Mesopotamian writings. Despite all the evidence that shows that the Egyptian civilization used hieroglyphs, there is no direct evidence that can point out the exact date that they were discovered. Recent archeological discoveries suggest that Egyptian hieroglyphs can be older than the Sumerian scripts.

The Growth of the Hieroglyphs

Hieroglyphs were categorized into three glyphs which are logographs, phonetic glyphs, and morphemes. As Egyptian civilization grew there was a strong urge to communicate and to preserve some of the history and communication. The urge pushed the Egyptians to perfectly develop hieroglyphs as their official writing method in the kingdom. Hieroglyphs were not used to write in papyrus but they were also used to decorate buildings and pillars that were monumental to the kingdom. For instance, the Rosetta stone in Egypt still has scripts written in hieroglyphs showing demonic characters and some Greek writings.

After the fall of Egyptian civilization, the use of hieroglyphs did no stop as its signs are still visible in items used during Alexander the great reign and even after Romans had taken over Egypt. Most Egyptians believed writing and reading hieroglyphs was the only way of identifying a true Egyptian at that time.

Decipherment

During the medieval the knowledge of how to read and understand the hieroglyphs was lost, this was until Piero Valeriano (1556) began working on how to decipher hieroglyph. The language used during that time is still not properly known by people in the modern world. Discovery of the Rosetta stone plays a key role in deciphering the existing hieroglyphs because the stone had demonic versions that could be understood by people who could understand Greek. This is because the demonic writings that were in the stone were parallel to ones that were written in Greek. Hieroglyphs were a combination of symbols, phonetic and figurative writing from Egyptian civilization that also exists in the current world but could not be deciphered if one was not conversant with the Egyptian civilization. The writings have survived and some were incorporated into the famous Greek alphabet because the Egyptian civilization and the Greek civilization existed almost at the same time.

The System of Writing Hieroglyphs

The writings in hieroglyphs were mostly figurative as they were styled to represent an illusion or an element to make a statement that one could relate to in the real world. Phonogram and ideograms were used in diverse ways to enhance understanding and create a difference between tow associated attributes and thus makes communication clear. Some of the real-world symbols that Egyptians used in their hieroglyphs includes ducks or a duck with some special character. Hieroglyphs had 24 uniliteral which were symbols that could be consonants as used in the English language. Additionally, the writings had bilateral and trilateral symbols that could be used to represent sounds or vowels when used in writings. Logograms were also used to represent objects or images in the real world that could be interpreted depending on the context of the writing.

Relevance of Hieroglyphs

The study and understanding of hieroglyphs are important because one can relate how the Egyptian civilization communicated and relate it to what is currently taking place in the modern world. Additionally, placing the artifact in the museum enable Qatari people to understand the struggles that different civilizations had undergone to achieve what humans have today as modernity. Each civilization had its strengths and weakness. Moreover, each civilization had their own way of communication as discussed in the paper the Egyptians used hieroglyphs.