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THE MEANING OF EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS BY ANDREW ROBINSON The ancient Egyptians’ pictograms had archaeologists baffled, until some pioneering early 19th Century linguists deciphered them

HE DISCOVERY OF he did not know who was buried in Alexander the Great in 332 BC. For Tutankhamun’s tomb the tomb, or when, because no-one three centuries Egypt was ruled by the wouldn’t happen for another could read hieroglyphs. Greek-speaking , century but in 1821 in was as celebrated in named after Alexander’s general, Piccadilly, London, an ancient Athens and Rome as it was Ptolemy I – one of whom created the exhibition about ancient in 19th-Century Paris and London. in 196 BC. Egypt opened. Encouraged by In fact, it has exerted a powerful This ended with the death of Napoleon’s dramatic invasion influence on the world of learning for Cleopatra VII and the Roman of Egypt two decades earlier, well over two millennia, beginning occupation in 30 BC, which lasted until T‘Egyptomania’ was catching on in with the Greek historian Herodotus, AD 395. Thereafter, Egypt was ruled Britain as it had in Paris. The venue, who travelled in Egypt around 450 BC. first by Coptic Christians, then by the Egyptian Hall, was decorated with In his Histories, Herodotus identified Muslims, until the time of Napoleon. Egyptian motifs, two statues of Isis and the pyramids at Giza as places of Spoken Coptic was descended from Osiris, and hieroglyphs. royal burial, and provided important the language of ancient Egypt, but On display to the public was a information about the process of written Coptic was not hieroglyphic; magnificently carved and painted mummification. Yet his works were it was entirely alphabetic, like Greek one-sixth scale model of an ancient of little or no help to 19th-Century and Latin. Nevertheless, the Coptic Egyptian tomb, which had been scholars in understanding ancient language would prove invaluable in discovered four years earlier in the Egyptian writing, for in classical reading the hieroglyphs by providing area of ancient Thebes (modern antiquity, hieroglyphic writing fell approximate pronunciations for > IN A NUTSHELL Luxor), later to be known as into disuse. No Greek or Roman writer ancient Egyptian words. the Valley of the Kings. At the could read hieroglyphs, either. inauguration ceremony, the tomb’s The reason was that the ancient Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign in Italian discoverer, Giovanni Belzoni civilisation described in the SACRED WRITINGS 1798 sparked a wave of interest in ancient Egypt during the early 19th – a former circus strongman turned hieroglyphs, founded before 3000 BC, Greek and Roman authors generally flamboyant excavator of Egypt went into eclipse in the second half of credited Egypt with the invention of Century – and his troops’ discovery of the Rosetta Stone eventually STOCK – appeared wrapped in mummy the first millennium BC, when Egypt writing, as a gift from the gods. They enabled linguists to decipher the PER bandages before a huge crowd. was conquered – first by Persians, and thought that hieroglyphs – the Ancient hieroglyphs have hieroglyphics whose meaning had However, he was obliged to admit that then by Macedonian Greeks under word means ‘sacred writings’ – been well preserved in the spectacular Luxor Temple been hidden for over a millennium. PHOTO: SU PHOTO:

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were impenetrable symbols of English clergyman. In 1740, William some hieroglyphs might be, at least in officer in charge quickly recognised ancient Egyptian wisdom, which Warburton, the future bishop of some measure, what he called notae the importance of its three parallel had nothing to do with alphabets. They Gloucester, suggested that the origin of phoneticae, Latin for ‘phonetic signs’, inscriptions and sent the Stone to the CAST OF The scholars who, step-by-step over several dismissed any phonetic component all writing might have been pictorial, representing sounds rather than savants in Cairo. CHARACTERS decades, rediscovered a long-lost language in the hieroglyphs, and claimed that rather than divine. A French admirer concepts in the Egyptian language. That October, Napoleon himself, they were conceptual or symbolic of Warburton, Abbé Barthélemy, then And now we reach a turning point: recently returned from Egypt, told signs. Thus, a hieroglyphic pictogram made a sensible guess in 1762 that the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte’s the National Institute in Paris: “There Silvestre de Sacy of a hawk was said to represent the hieroglyphic cartouches (see ‘Need To invasion force in Egypt in 1798. appears no doubt that the column (1758-1838) was a concept of swiftness, a pictogram of a Know’, p93) might contain the names Fortunately for science, this force was which bears the hieroglyphs contains professor at the Special crocodile to symbolise all that was evil. of kings or gods – ironically, on the almost as interested in knowledge as in the same inscription as the other two. School of Oriental This misguided, non-phonetic view of basis of two false observations, one conquest. A large party of scholars and Thus, here is a means of acquiring Languages in Paris, hieroglyphs as ‘picture writing’ cast being that the hieroglyphs enclosed scientists known as ‘savants’, including certain information of this, until now, where he became the a spell over European thinking right in cartouches differed from all other the mathematician Joseph Fourier, unintelligible language.” most influential teacher up to the Renaissance and the rise of hieroglyphs. Finally, near the end accompanied the army. When military From the moment of discovery, it of Champollion. He modern science in the 17th Century. of the 18th Century, Danish scholar engineers discovered the Rosetta was clear that the bottom inscription attempted to decipher The first ‘scientific’ step in Georg Zoëga hazarded another useful, Stone in July 1799 while rebuilding on the Rosetta Stone was written in the Rosetta Stone deciphering hieroglyphs came from an though unproven, conjecture: that an old fort in the Nile Delta, the the Greek alphabet and the top one – without success, but his proposal that the unfortunately the most damaged – was Johann Åkerblad Stone’s hieroglyphic in Egyptian hieroglyphs with visible (1763-1819) was a cartouches might be cartouches. Sandwiched between Swedish diplomat and written in an alphabet them was a script about which little student of de Sacy. He THE KEY The discovery in 1822 of a ‘new’ obelisk that featured both hieroglyphic and Greek proved important. was known. It plainly did not resemble compared the Egyptian DISCOVERY inscriptions was key to confirming Champollion’s revolutionary ‘mixed script’ theory the Greek script, nor did it appear and the Greek to resemble the hieroglyphic script inscriptions on the above it, not least because it lacked Rosetta Stone, and THE TRIGGER FOR Jean-François inscription was in Greek, the column inscription royal title. Following Young, he then cartouches. Today we know this script concluded that demotic Champollion’s discovery of phoneticism in hieroglyphic. In the Greek, the names of proceeded to guess the phonetic values of as ‘demotic’, a cursive form of ancient appeared to be an Joseph Fourier in the hieroglyphs probably came from Ptolemy and Cleopatra were mentioned; the hieroglyphs in the second, unknown Egyptian writing, as opposed to the alphabet like Greek. (1768-1830) was a Thomas Young’s article on ancient Egypt in in the hieroglyphs, only two cartouches cartouche on the Philae obelisk (D). separate signs of hieroglyphic. Although this was French mathematician the Encyclopaedia Britannica. This included occurred – presumably representing the There were four signs in common, those The first step was to translate the not so, he correctly famous for his Young’s sign-for-sign comparison of the same two names. One of the cartouches was with the values ‘l, e, o, p’, but the phonetic Greek inscription. This turned out to identified certain analysis of heat. He Rosetta Stone’s hieroglyphic cartouche (A) almost identical to one form of the cartouche value ‘t’ was represented di!erently. be a legal decree issued at Memphis, names and words in accompanied Napoleon thought to spell the name of the Egyptian of Ptolemy on the Rosetta Stone (B). Champollion deduced correctly that the two the principal city of ancient Egypt, demotic as alphabetic. Bonaparte on his king Ptolemy with the corresponding name There was also a shorter version of the signs for ‘t’ were homophones, that is, by a council of priests assembled on invasion of Egypt and written in the Greek alphabet as ‘p, t, o, l, m, Ptolemy cartouche on the Rosetta Stone di!erent signs with the same phonetic value the anniversary of the coronation of returned to France e, s’. The key to further progress was a copy (C). Champollion decided that the shorter (compare in English, Gill and Jill, recognize and , on 27 March with a collection of of a bilingual obelisk inscription from Philae cartouche spelt only Ptolemy, while the longer recognise). He now had the basis for an 196 BC. The Greek names Ptolemy, antiquities that inspired sent to Paris in early 1822. The base block (Rosetta) cartouche must have an additional essentially correct hieroglyphic ‘alphabet’. Alexander and Alexandria, among others, occurred in the inscription. the young Champollion to investigate Egyptian scripts. Thomas Young A) Rosetta Stone c p THE BOTTOM LINE The eye of would-be decipherers was (1773-1829) was an Y X2

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A caught by the very last sentence of R l t the Greek. It read: ‘This decree shall who practised as a

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IDG and set up in each of the first, second Champollion R B) Philae obelisk and third [-rank] temples beside the for his linguistics. He (1790-1832) studied o l built on the ideas of TY, B TY, image of the ever-living king.’ In Egyptian scripts E other words, the three inscriptions de Sacy and Åkerblad, from his teenage p m – hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek – realised that demotic years in Grenoble. He was derived from

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a name, in particular Ptolemy, by isolating repeated groups of NEED TO KNOW Hieroglyphs were used for over 3,000 years, demotic symbols located in roughly Key terms and ideas referred TIMELINE then forgotten about for well over a millennia the same position as the 11 occurrences to in this feature explained of Ptolemy in the Greek inscription. Having found these groups, they noticed that the names in demotic The ancient seemed to be written alphabetically, CARTOUCHE Egyptians invent as in the Greek inscription – that 1 French for ‘cartridge’, the word hieroglyphic is, the demotic spelling of a name also applies to the oval rings enclosing writing and use certain groups of hieroglyphs – generally it for more than apparently contained more or less the names and titles. It was coined by French three millennia: same number of signs as the number the last inscription 3100 BC of alphabetic letters in its assumed soldiers in Egypt with Napoleon, because known is dated Greek equivalent. Matching demotic the oval rings reminded them of the shape AD 394. Knowledge sign with Greek letter, they drew of their gun cartridges. of how to read up a tentative alphabet of demotic hieroglyphic was then completely signs. By then applying this tentative lost until 1822. alphabet to the rest of the inscription, DEMOTIC certain other demotic words, such as 2 Demotic script was derived from ‘Greek’, ‘Egypt’ and ‘temple’, could the far more ancient hieroglyphic be identified. It looked as though the script and used from about 650 BC. The Rosetta Stone entire demotic script, not just the The standard script by the time of the is discovered in Egypt Rosetta Stone, it is a cursive script with at Rosetta (modern names, might be alphabetic like the joined-up letters, suitable for handwriting, Rashid) by soldiers Greek inscription. from Napoleon But in fact demotic was not an unlike the monumental hieroglyphic. 1799 Bonaparte’s army. alphabet, nor was it wholly unrelated Dating from 196 BC, to hieroglyphic, as de Sacy and Åkerblad it carries three thought. But de Sacy deserves credit PICTOGRAM inscriptions: two in 3 Pictograms are semantic signs that Egyptian scripts and for a useful suggestion in 1811: that are pictorial in origin – think of the signs one in Greek. the Greek names inside hieroglyphic cartouches, which he assumed must be on toilet doors. However, pictograms can those of rulers like Ptolemy, Alexander become unrecognisable over time, as in Thomas Young and so on, might be written in an demotic. Many also come to represent publishes a long alphabet, as they almost certainly were simple sounds: in the pictograms of the The famous Rosetta Stone with article, ‘Egypt’, as hieroglyphic ‘alphabet’, for example, the a top layer of hieroglyphs, a a supplement to in the demotic inscription. The same technique, he knew, was used to write ‘hand’ pictogram stands for ‘d’. second layer of demotic text the Encyclopaedia and a bottom section of Greek Britannica. In it, 1819 foreign names in the Chinese script, he proposes a which was also thought (wrongly) to hieroglyphic have no intrinsic phonetic component. signs were derived from hieroglyphic Fourier became prefect of Grenoble on same text… and, I might add, in one ‘alphabet’ and signs, contrary to the claims of earlier his return from Egypt and showed the and the same word.’ reads many hieroglyphic names scholars. In other words, Young teenager his collection of antiquities, When Tutankhamun’s cartouche and words, some ALPHABET COUP could trace how the pictographic including inscriptions, around 1805. was discovered in 1922 and deciphered correctly. The next step was taken in 1815 by hieroglyphs, showing people, animals, Champollion became absorbed in the thanks to Champollion’s work, it an English scientist, Thomas Young, plants and objects of many kinds, had problem of the hieroglyphs. Later, in turned out that the ‘chick’ pictogram a polymath with interests so diverse developed into their abstract, cursive Paris, he was taught by de Sacy, whose was a phonetic sign for the vowel Y X3 Jean-François M Champollion, at a that he has been called “the last man equivalents in demotic. frustration with the problem and ‘u’, the ‘three-handled cross’ stood celebrated lecture who knew everything”. Following From this, Young correctly Young’s subsequent progress turned for the word ‘ankh’ (or ‘life’) and in Paris, shows how BIS, ALA de Sacy’s idea, Young tried to match concluded that demotic consisted Champollion’s quest into an obsession the ‘shepherd’s crook’ was a symbol R to read dozens of the letters ‘p, t, o, l, m, e, s’ in Ptolmes, of “imitations of the hieroglyphics… with beating his English rival. meaning ‘ruler’. Thanks to our 1822 hieroglyphic names Y, CO the Greek spelling of Ptolemy, with mixed with letters of the alphabet”. It The essential clue came in 1822, understanding of hieroglyphs, the R from the Greco-Roman A R period of Egypt, the hieroglyphs in the cartouche was neither a purely symbolic script from a newly discovered cartouche secrets of a great civilisation could such as Caesar, spelling the name of the ruler. After nor an alphabet, but a mixture of the containing the name of Cleopatra. now begin to be uncovered. „ T LIB R Cleopatra (depicted applying the same technique to the two. However, this remarkable insight Champollion now had a hieroglyphic

AN A right) and Ptolemy. name of a Ptolemaic queen, Berenice, did not lead Young, still under the ‘alphabet’, mostly correct, that

EM Young had a tentative hieroglyphic spell of the classical writers, to take allowed him to translate the names of Andrew Robinson is a science writer and

IDG the author of Cracking The Egyptian Code R ‘alphabet’, which he published in the the next logical step. The idea that the dozens of rulers including Alexander Champollion’s Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1819. Many hieroglyphic script as a whole – not Y, B Précis Du Système and Ramesses. Over the next year R

A of his sign identifications were correct, just the cartouches – might be a mixed or so, Champollion analysed the R Hiéroglyphique Des Find out more Anciens Égyptiens but some were erroneous. script like the demotic script, was to daunting combination of phonetic extends his system 1824 Young took one other crucial step. be the revolutionary breakthrough of and non-phonetic signs in the Discover more about the Rosetta Stone and HOTO LIB HOTO back to the early By painstaking comparison of the Jean-François Champollion. many other aspects of Eygptology at this

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E pharaohs. Though hieroglyphic and demotic inscriptions Champollion, as a schoolboy, had “Hieroglyphic writing is a complex dedicated BBC History website

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E www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians erroneous, leading in the Rosetta Stone and other been inspired by French physicist system, a script all at once figurative, to bitter controversy. inscriptions, he showed that demotic and mathematician Joseph Fourier. symbolic and phonetic in one and the PHOTO: SCI PHOTO:

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