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Hieroglyph, a character used in a system of pictorial writing, particularly that form used on ancient Egyptian monuments. Hieroglyphic symbols may represent the objects that they depict but usually stand for particular sounds or groups of sounds. Learn more about hieroglyphs.
Egyptian hieroglyphs ( / ˈhaɪrəˌɡlɪfs /, / ˈhaɪroʊˌɡlɪfs /) [1] [2] were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 100 distinct characters. [3] [4] Cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood.
The word hieroglyph comes from the Greek hieros (sacred) plus glypho (inscriptions) and was first used by Clement of Alexandria. The earliest known examples of writing in Egypt have been dated to 3,400 BC.
Category (individual hieroglyph articles) A § Man and his occupations: Category:Egyptian hieroglyphs: man and his occupations (4) B § Woman and her occupations: Category:Egyptian hieroglyphs: woman and her occupations (0) C § Anthropomorphic deities: Category:Egyptian hieroglyphs: anthropomorphic deities (0) D § Parts of the human body
hieroglyphic writing, system that employs characters in the form of pictures. Those individual signs, called hieroglyphs, may be read either as pictures, as symbols for objects, or as symbols for sounds.
Jul 2, 2015 · The Egyptian hieroglyphic script was one of the writing systems used by ancient Egyptians to represent their language. Because of their pictorial elegance, Herodotus and other important Greeks believed that Egyptian Hieroglyphs were something sacred, so they referred to them as 'holy writing'.
Like cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs were used for record-keeping, but also for monumental display dedicated to royalty and deities. The word hieroglyph comes from the Greek hieros 'sacred' and gluptien 'carved in stone'. The last known hieroglyph inscription was 394 C.E.
