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In Egypt, the earliest examples of writing
dates from 3.400 BC. On one gate post of a Philae temple are
inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphs from 396 AD. The hieratic
script was used for the everyday writing, and the hieroglyphic
script was used in principal for inscriptions on the tombs and
temples walls. In some of these inscriptions the glyphs are in
full color and very detailed and in others, the glyphs are
simple outlines. The hieroglyphic script knowledge was lost at
the ending of the 4th century AD, after all of the pagan temples
were closed from the order of the Emperor Theodsius I. This
lasted till the 19th century when Jean-Francois Champollion
deciphered the script. In the writing of the ancient Egypt were
used more than 2.000 hieroglyphic characters. The common objects
of the ancient Egypt are represented by the hieroglyphs. The
sound made by an object could be represented by a hieroglyph as
well as the ideas that are in connection with the object.
According to the ancient Egyptians` believes the god Thoth was
the one who invented the writing. More, the hieroglyphic script
was called the words of god. Clement of Alexandria is the one
who used for the first time the word hieroglyph; the word comes
from the Greek word hieros – meaning sacred- plus the word
glypho – meaning inscriptions. If the Egypt hieroglyphs are
dating before the Sumerian Cuneiform writing than they are the
oldest writing system that is known. But it is also possible for
the two writing systems to have appeared in the same time. The
direction of the hieroglyphs varied from horizontal lines
running from right to left or from left to right, to vertical
columns that runs from top to bottom. The artistic
considerations were the base of the glyphs’ arrangements. |
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