Hieroglyphics and its uses

The Egyptians are responsible for many for our world’s great discoveries found by Archeologists. The great pyramids and sphinxes are findings that the archeologists discovered. One of the most fascinating discoveries out of all the Egyptians creation would be hieroglyphics which comes from the Greek word meaning sacred carving. Hieroglyphics are pictures that represents something for example a boat with its sail up means it is sailing south, and a boat with its sail down means it is sailing north.

Hieroglyphics are rarely seen today but they are displayed in museums for appreciation. Hieroglyphics are not just colorful pictures every drawing has a meaning. There are about 700 symbols found. Hieroglyphics started in Egypt’s first dynasty. There are two other forms of hieroglyphics; Hieratic was a hieroglyphic writing used for listing taxes and recording accounts. The next form is Demotic which was created from Hieratic but was used for administration and business. Scribes learned how to write in hieroglyphics only if their father was a scribe. A scribe is a boy how as educated to write and read hieroglyphics but the school was tough and the teacher believed that that boys ears were on there back. If a boy was not listening the teacher would beat them on the back. It took ten years for a boy to pass the school. Hieroglyphics was ban when Rome ruled over Egypt then hieroglyphics became a lost language.

Hieroglyphics were used for many reasons especially for religious purposes. On a mummy’s coffin there are hieroglyphics telling if the Pharaoh good or evil when he or she was alive. Hieroglyphics were also used for messages. If a Pharaoh owned many areas of land and needs to send a message to the small government that there is a new tax, the Pharaoh could send one of his scribes to write and send that message to the government. The ancient writing of hieroglyphics was also used to record history so if there was important events like the crowning of a new pharaoh, a scribe would write it down so Egypt’s future generations would know of that pharaoh’s crowning. The materials that scribes used to make hieroglyphics were palette of color paints and a brush made of reeds. There was many ways to write out hieroglyphics. One was with a brush and paint. The other way was with a special cylinder that has carvings on it. Then scribes role it in moist clay and then it is a hieroglyphics pallet. Two of the other tools that scribes used to make hieroglyphics were chisel and hammers for stone inscriptions. There was a scribe always next the pharaoh so the scribe could read messages the pharaoh had received. The scribes were very important to the pharaoh because without a scribe the pharaoh would never be able to send or read messages.

In 1799 a great discovery was made by French soldiers, who were rebuilding a fort that was destroyed in a battle. The Rosetta stone was found in a small village called Rosetta. They stumbled upon the Rosetta stone while working. The Rosetta stone contained three scripts. Greek was found at the bottom, Demotic in the middle, and hieroglyphics at the top. The Rosetta stone was a key to translating hieroglyphics into modern day language. The Rosetta stone contained royal names in hieroglyphics. This stone could have recorded all the pharaohs that ruled over Egypt.

Hieroglyphics have many uses to offer especially in Ancient Egypt. Today hieroglyphics offer us to read what happened in the past. From the stories hieroglyphic have shown us hieroglyphics has been one of the most fascinating creations the ancient world has to offer. With this knowledge archeologists have gotten from hieroglyphics they have understand more of the ancient world with very hieroglyphic read.