Egyptian HIEROGLYPHICS and their meaning

When talking about the use of symbols in classical writing, The greatest example that comes to mind is that of Egyptian hieroglyphics, the first being example of complex writing and for many the most famous of all types of writing of the time ancient. To know this type of writing in depth, in this lesson from a teacher we must talk about the Egyptian hieroglyphs and their meaning.

Hieroglyphs they were a writing system created by ancient egyptians about him 3000 BC C. and that stayed in your system until the fourth century, when the arrival of peoples with more advanced writing systems, they replaced the hieroglyphs with their own writing systems.

Generally used to perform inscriptions in temples and buildings officers, is often thought to be the complex writing system oldest on the planet, which is the reason why it has gone down in history as such an important element of the history of mankind and being the cause that it has been studied by so many intellectuals throughout the story.

Over the years, Egyptian writing

got simpler due to the influence of other peoples such as Greek and Roman, eventually becoming a simpler writing with less complexity of symbols.

To learn about the history of hieroglyphs, their evolution and their transformation throughout history in this lesson on As a teacher, we must summarize even briefly the history of this type of writing and understand the importance in the history of the Ancient Egypt.

The origin of Egyptian writing dates back to 3000 BC. C. at a time when Mesopotamia was also beginning the creation of the cuneiform writing, being a time of great changes for humanity. Egyptian writing stood for more than 3000 years, so we can say that it is one of the writing systems with the greatest presence in the history of mankind.

It is thought that, originally, Egyptian hieroglyphs were very simple and it was over the centuries that it evolved to what we know today. Among its symbols we found hieroglyphics that they represented letters, morphemes, or even whole words. Although at first the symbols were few, over the years they became thousands and thousands of different hieroglyphs.

The importance of hieroglyphic writing meant that, over the years, the system would break in two:

• Priestly system more complex and used for rites and inscriptions
• Popular system: It was used by the people and had fewer and simpler symbols.

Although both were simplified versions of the traditional hieroglyphs, this did not make the versions more old ones disappeared, but served to maintain the system and make it easier to write in papyri. System maintenance is demonstrated by viewing the Rosetta Stone, essential to achieve translate Egyptian texts, in which the traditional hieroglyphs are observed but also their translation into the most popular system for the people.

With the passing of the years and the successive conquests of Egyptian soil, the hieroglyphics were losing importance, and already with the arrival of the Romans it finally disappeared, losing its knowledge until centuries later it was recovered thanks to the study of the Rosetta Stone.

To finish this lesson on Egyptian hieroglyphs and their meaning, we must talk about the most important of them, delve further into their relevance and the way in which these were carried out. symbols. Here are some examples of very common Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Ideograms

We can say that the symbols known as ideograms in Egyptian hieroglyphs were those in which se used a symbol to refer to a word or an idea. This served so that, with just one sign, something could be defined and not have to be done. Some examples of the ideograms used in Egyptian hieroglyphs are as follows:

• House: A kind of rectangle open at the bottom.
• City: A circle with a diagonal cross inside.
• Mountain: A kind of western royal crown.
• Sun: A circle with a black dot inside.
• Moon: A kind of half moon.
• Rain: A kind of drops falling.
• Walking: Two legs.
• Fly: A kind of bird.
• Fall: A man doing a kind of plank on the ground.

Phonograms

As for the Egyptian hieroglyphs as phonograms we have to take into account that they can be in two senses, the symbols being able to do reference to syllables or letters depending on many factors and the time in which they were created. The most important examples of hieroglyphs that function as phonograms are the following:

• A bird: Represented the syllable PR.
• Flag: Represents the syllable NFR.
• Eagle: Represents the syllable JA.
• A downward arrow: Represents the syllable SW.
• Snake: Represents a sound similar to DY.
• Vulture: Represents the sound of the A.
• Víbora: What in Spanish is the F.
• Hand: What we know as the D.