egyptianhim.jpg (1589 bytes)
Back

HIEROGLYPHICS

egyptianher.jpg (1560 bytes)
Back

                            ln_rg.jpg (1662 bytes)

filip The Egyptians would spell words as they sounded. They would not spell Phillip .... but filip.
mrtn Often they would leave out the vowels in a word.
Martin .... Mrtn
right Sometimes they would write left to right, sometimes right to left. The animal glyphs faced the start of the writing ... which way is this ? What does it say? I've missed out the vowels!!
nis They would always try to arrange them to look as attractive as they could. ( this one says 'nice'  nis !)
Rameses Sometimes they would lay glyphs top to bottom , read this left to right, going across, then down.

Quite often they would surround the word or idea with lines , then the item would be known as a cartouche...       What does it say?

Sometimes they had more than one symbol for a sound ...

 In the cartouche above the letter 'a' is represented by a vulture ... we use the arm !!

                    ln_rg.jpg (1662 bytes)

If everything sounds confusing remember that the aim of this section is to let the children experiment and have a bit of fun .... role play a mystified archaeologist!!
They wont be able to read the writing on the wall ... there are over 4000 different hieroglyphs ( many are semograms etc ) ... even lucky letter for glyph replacement would lead to an ancient Demotic word not an English one  ... but I hope they enjoy playing!