古埃及象形文学习入门.pdf

Ancient Egypt isoften associated withhieroglyphic writing, so much so that one, be it limitative way to define Egyptology would be the study of these intriguing signs carvedor painted onthe walls of temples and tombs, onstatues, boxes ... In this section, we will not only see that the writings of the Ancient Egyptians consisted of more than mere hieroglyphs, we will also learn how to read and understand hieroglyphicwriting. This section isdividedinto the following chapters: • Different types of writing • Wheredoes one start reading? • Dispositionof the signs • Idea-signsor ideograms • Uniliteral signs • Biliteral signs • Triliteral signs • Phonetic complements • Combiningsigns • Ptolemaic writing • Magicand writing OneofthetwocartouchesofRamessesIIintheGreatHypostyleHallofthetempleofAmun atKarnak. Learning the language of the Ancient Egyptians obviously is more than just the written language: knowledge of the basic grammar will enhance the understanding of the manytexts the Ancient Egyptians left for posterity. 1.Different Types of Writing Throughout their more than 3.000 year long history, the Ancient Egyptians used three kinds of writings to write religious and secular texts: hieroglyphic, hieratic and, from the 25thDynasty on, demotic. Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphic writing is the basis of the two other writings. It owes its name to the fact that when the Greeks arrived in Egypt, this writing was mainly used for ‘sacred (Greek hieros glypho hieros glypho hhiieerrooss) inscriptions (Greek ggllyypphhoo)’ on temple walls or on public monuments. Hieroglyphic writing uses clearly distinguishable pictures to express both sounds and ideas and was used from the end of Prehistory 396 AD Prehistory 396 AD the PPrreehhiissttoorryy until 339966AADD, when the last hieroglyphic text was written on the wal