"Egyptian hieroglyphs were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language."
The study of language and writing systems of ancient civilizations.
Paleography: The study of ancient writing systems, including alphabets and scripts.
Epigraphy: The study of inscriptions or writing on hard surfaces, such as stone or metal.
Cuneiform: The earliest known form of writing, developed by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia around 3200 BCE.
Hieroglyphics: A system of writing used in Ancient Egypt, composed of symbolic pictures and characters.
The origin of language: The study of how human language originated and evolved over time.
Mythology: The study of myths and legends associated with ancient civilizations, which often contain important insights into their beliefs about language and the written word.
Linguistics: The scientific study of language, including its structure, evolution, and usage.
Writing materials: The different materials that ancient civilizations used for writing, including clay tablets, papyrus, parchment, and paper.
Literature: The study of written works produced by ancient civilizations, including epic poems, historical texts, and religious writings.
Oral tradition: The study of stories and other cultural traditions passed down through verbal communication, often in the absence of written language.
Communication technology: The evolution of communication technology throughout history, including the development of writing, printing, and electronic communication.
Translation and interpretation: The study of how ancient texts are translated and interpreted into modern languages, as well as the challenges this process entails.
Calligraphy: The art of beautiful writing, which played an important role in many ancient civilizations.
Writing systems: The different types of writing systems used by ancient civilizations, including ideograms, syllabaries, and alphabets.
Textual analysis: The process of examining and analyzing written texts in order to extract meaning from them.
Hieroglyphic writing: A writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that used pictographic symbols to represent words and sounds.
Cuneiform writing: A writing system used by several ancient civilizations such as Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians that involved using a reed stylus to make wedge-shaped impressions on clay tablets.
Linear B writing: An early form of Greek writing used by the Mycenaean civilization in the second millennium BC.
Linear A writing: A writing system used by the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. The script has not yet been fully deciphered.
Indus script: A writing system used by the ancient Indus Valley civilization that has not yet been deciphered.
Maya hieroglyphs: A complex writing system used by the Maya civilization in Mesoamerica that employed pictorial and glyphic symbols.
Old Italic script: A group of extinct writing systems used by various ancient Italic tribes such as the Etruscans, Sabines and Umbrians.
Phoenician script: An alphabet used by the Phoenician civilization that was the ancestor of the Greek and Roman alphabets.
Brahmi script: An ancient Indian writing system that was the precursor to many modern Indian scripts.
Runic script: A writing system used by the Germanic peoples of Scandinavia and northern Europe that used angular symbols carved onto wood or stone.
"Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters."
"Cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood."
"The later hieratic and demotic Egyptian scripts were derived from hieroglyphic writing, as was the Proto-Sinaitic script that later evolved into the Phoenician alphabet."
"The Egyptian hieroglyphic script is ancestral to the majority of scripts in modern use, most prominently the Latin and Cyrillic scripts (through Greek) and the Arabic script, and possibly the Brahmic family of scripts (through Aramaic, Phoenician, and Greek)."
"The use of hieroglyphic writing arose from proto-literate symbol systems in the Early Bronze Age, around the 32nd century BC (Naqada III)."
"The first decipherable sentence written in the Egyptian language dates to the Second Dynasty (28th century BC)."
"Egyptian hieroglyphs developed into a mature writing system used for monumental inscription in the classical language of the Middle Kingdom period."
"During this period, the system used about 900 distinct signs."
"The use of this writing system continued through the New Kingdom and Late Period, and on into the Persian and Ptolemaic periods."
"With the final closing of pagan temples in the 5th century, knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost."
"The decipherment of hieroglyphic writing was finally accomplished in the 1820s by Jean-François Champollion."
"The decipherment of hieroglyphic writing was finally accomplished in the 1820s by Jean-François Champollion, with the help of the Rosetta Stone."
"The number of words contained in all Ancient Egyptian (i.e. hieroglyphic and hieratic) texts known today is approximately 5 million."
"The most complete compendium of Ancient Egyptian, Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache, contains 1.5–1.7 million words."
"The number of words contained in all Ancient Egyptian (i.e. hieroglyphic and hieratic) texts known today is approximately 5 million, and tends towards 10 million if counting duplicates (such as the Book of the Dead and the Coffin Texts) separately."