Hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone

By Kevin Harris

October 24, 2004

Five thousand years ago in 3,100 B.C. the ancient Egyptians invented a kind of writing called hieroglyphics, which means “sacred carvings.” Hieroglyphics were used for thousands of years on religious and important government documents, burial chambers and artwork However, in 400 A.D. the writing died out. After hieroglyphics died out no living soul knew how to read or write hieroglyphics until the Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 by a French soldier. The stone was an important tool to deciphering and learning the lost language of hieroglyphics. The stone was carved by the priests in the town of Rosetta Priests wrote religious documents in hieroglyphics, but most other hieroglyphics were written by scribes.

Scribes were considered to have one of the most important jobs in civilization. A scribe trained for more than five years and often thought of himself as important. Scribes would often brag to other people and say stuff like, “A blacksmith stinks more than fish eggs.” Scribes got paid well and did not have to pay taxes. Scribes also made themselves important by keeping hieroglyphic signs complicated and hard to write so no one else could write them. Scribes were considered so important that the job was passed down through generations of a family as an honor.

But being a scribe didn’t come easily. From the age of 9 to age 15 boys would go to a special school for scribes and learn math, writing and reading. At first the young scribes took it as a joke, but after many reminders from fathers and the teacher that a scribe was very important, they became more serious and eager to become a professional scribe. If a scribe did misbehave or goofed off the punishment was serious. He received a strong whipping that left a stripe across his back.

As the boys became older they learned how to write with a reed pen and wrote stories, poems, letters, documents, instructions, maps and religious texts. Young scribes first learned to write on limestone and broken pottery and were then promoted to writing on papyrus paper. Before writing, a professional scribe would sprinkle a few drops of water over a statue of the god Thoth, as an offering. Thoth was the Egyptian god of writing and knowledge and was sometimes represented in the shape of an owl because owls are considered smart. One of the greatest scribes of all time was Imhotep, who designed the first pyramid of Giza and was later turned into a god by Thoth.

The Egyptians believed that Thoth created hieroglyphics. The language first contained 700 picture symbols with 24 basic signs and by the time hieroglyphics died out (3,400 years later) it had over 6,000 signs. It was a very complicated language. Some of the 700 basic symbols were just used to translate and understand other symbols and pictures! There are two main types of signs used in hieroglyphics – sound signs and sense signs. Sound signs represent individual letters or two or three letters. Sense signs represent whole words. Hieroglyphics do not contain any symbols for the letters A, E, I O, U, J and V. When a name was written the Egyptians would circle the name instead of capitalizing it the way we do. The circle represents a magical rope protecting the name and the person. The circle/rope is known as a cartouche (car-tush). Signs that represented a dangerous animal were cut in half to make them harmless.

Two other languages were developed from hieroglyphics to make written language less confusing and more understandable. The first one was called Hieratic, which looks like cursive writing. The second language was Demotic, which was a simplified from Hieratic. Demotic is one of the languages featured on the Rosetta Stone.

In the 7^th century A.D, people saw hieroglyphics on pyramids and temples but didn’t know what the signs meant. Scholars asked the oldest Egyptians alive at the time but even they didn’t know how to read hieroglyphics. In fact, no one knew anything about ancient Egypt until hieroglyphics were translated after the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799.

A French soldier in Napoleon’s army stumbled upon the important stone in the town of Rosetta 1,195 years after it been carved! The soldiers were rebuilding a fort along the Nile Delta in the town of Rosetta when one of them accidentally found the stone. He knew right away when he found it that it was an important part of history because he saw the ancient hieroglyphic language written on the stone, as well as the Greek language. The chunk of basalt stone had three types of writing on it. There were 14 lines of hieroglyphics (for the religious and important people), 32 lines of demotic (for government and regular people), and 54 lines of Greek (for the rulers of Egypt). The hieroglyphic section had a chunk missing which made it harder to translate.

In 196 B.C. a group of priests got together to write the stone wanting to tell and remember all the good things Pharaoh Ptolemy V did from 203-181 B.C. Ptolemy worked for Alexander the Great. When Alexander died Ptolemy took over the throne as pharaoh of Egypt.

Many people tried to decipher the Rosetta Stone but failed. They first translated the Greek passage and learned that all three parts on the stone were supposed to say the same thing. But they were still unable to decipher the hieroglyphic or demotic sections. Then in 1822, about 23 years after the stone was found, French scholar Jean-François Champollion discovered something key. He first figured out what the seven demotic signs were in Coptic (the language used by Egyptian Christians). Then by looking at how these demotic signs were used in Coptic he figured out what they stood for in demotic. Next he traced the demotic signs back to hieroglyphic signs. After he knew what some hieroglyphic signs were he made educated guesses on the rest. He also cracked the code by using the two pharaohs names that were known at the time – Ptolemy and Cleopatra. In the process of cracking the code with the two names, Champollion discovered the letters P, T and L in hieroglyphics. Before this those letters had been a mystery. Champollion finished translating the Rosetta Stone and announced his discovery to the world.

But Champollion wasn’t satisfied with just knowing the hieroglyphic alphabet. Traveling with friends, architects, artists and Egyptologists, Champollion ventured off to Egypt to copy some of the hieroglyphics off of famous Egyptian landmarks, including tombs, temples and artwork. After over a year of studying in Egypt the group returned to Paris to translate the hieroglyphics they had copied on their trip. Champollion started two books of all his discoveries, but the books and his translating of Egypt’s treasures were never finished because Champollion died on March 4, 1832 while preparing the results of his expedition. Luckily for history, Champollion’s brother used his brother’s notes to complete the books Egyptian Grammar and Egyptian Dictionary.

After years of wondering what those strange pictures were, hieroglyphics were finally translated for the world. And from it 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history was revealed.

The important Rosetta Stone now lies safely in a case inside England’s British Museum for everyone to see.

Sources

Exploring Ancient Egypt
Mummies and the Secrets of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Culture Atlas for Young People on Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
The Ancient Egyptians Life in the Nile Valley
The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone
The Ancient Egyptians
Eyewitness Ancient Egypt
My Binder