The ancient Egyptian civilization, it is said, is one of the most evolved civilizations in the world. Be it art, architecture, culture, language, and script. The ancient Egyptian script is called Hieroglyphics.
It literally means holy writing or God’s words. It can be divided into two,’ Hieros’ which means sacred and glyphs which means inscriptions. The ancient Egyptians attributed the invention of writing to a god called Thoth.
It is an intricate system of symbols each of which can have more than one or two meanings. Every symbol portrays an object, sound, action or idea.Therefore, it is more than a rigid mode of writing a language; it is like a language in itself, one that its readers can interpret in numerous ways. The writing itself needs accuracy and skill. Hence, translating it would be definitely more difficult than most.
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta stone, although a very old piece of Ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele, was found by the French in 1799 during a campaign and was the very first ancient text in three languages to be found during that period. Even though the whole tablet was not found, it was a key to deciphering the Hieroglyphs.
The script which was until now, unintelligible and had stumped historians worldwide. Finally, a key to translating Egyptian text was found. This led to further knowledge about Ancient Egyptians and an even more excellent way to learn about their culture, traditions, customs, history, kings and the extent of the kingdom.
The Rosetta Stone itself had information on the royal family, Ptolemy, that ruled Egypt around 196 B.C. This piece of stone also connected their lineage to a general in Alexander the Great’s army, and also that Cleopatra was a descendant of the same family.
Thus, this broken piece of history helped modern historians make connections between two greatest civilizations of the world and also construct it chronologically.
It was discovered that the Rosetta Stone contained affirmations in hieroglyphics quotes regarding the legitimacy of a ruling family around 196 B.C. The Ptolemy family, of Macedonian descent, had ruled Egypt since the days of Alexander the Great; when one of his generals was appointed to the throne.
Cleopatra was descended from this same family; many generations later. The Greek translation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics allowed modern scholars to begin piecing together an understanding of the history of hieroglyphics.Hieroglyphs were used primarily for inscriptions on tombs and temples. Some were intricate while others a little rough.
This script was deciphered by Jean Francois Champollion in the first half of the 19th century. Before this, there was no awareness of the translation of the Hieroglyphic script at all.
Emperor Theodosius I was responsible for the closing down of all pagan temples in 4th century AD which began the downfall and eventual extinction of this script until it was translated by Jean Francois Champollion.
To read this script, one must follow the direction that the first symbol in the text is in. It is not the same every time and can be from left to right, right to left or top to bottom. You can even figure out if the text pertains to the subjects or the ruler by the presence or absence of a cartouche.
