History

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="0fe80803.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Papyrus" ><B>Jol's Hieroglyphs</B></FONT><B>      |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jols Hieroglyphs"><U><B>home</B></U></A><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><B>  </B></FONT><B>  </B></div> <div> <B>History</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Alphabet"><U>Alphabet</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Determinatives"><U>Determinatives</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Logograms"><U>Logograms</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jols Hieroglyphs"><U><B><IMG SRC="1018eb00.jpg" border=0 width="142" height="176" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <div> <B>History</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Alphabet"><U><B>Alphabet</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Determinatives"><U><B>Determinatives</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Logograms"><U><B>Logograms</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="164" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#CCCC99 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 55 WIDTH="152"><div> <B>H</B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Papyrus" ><B>istory</B></FONT></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> <B>H</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Papyrus" ><B>ieroglyphics is the language that was in use in ancient times in Egypt.  The language consists of pictures that were used to convey sounds, words, names, and sometimes even whole ideas.</B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Hieroglyphs were not read and written by all Egyptians.  In fact, only a very small percentage of Egyptians could read and write.  Included in that small group were scribes, priests, and officials (only about 2% of the population).  If a farmer, for example, wanted to document something, he would have to hire an official scribe to do it for him.  He would also have to hire a scribe if he recieved a document written in hieroglyphs to read it to him.</B></div> <div> <B>Most of the surviving documents containing hieroglyphs are religious papyrus </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#999933" FACE="Papyrus" ><B>(an ancient form of paper)</B></FONT><B> and tomb writings.  It is through these documents that Egyptologists have learned so much about what life was like back in ancient times.</B></div> <div> <B>Hieroglyphs were not always written from left to right like the English language is written.  It was also written from right to left.  To know which direction to translate, you should look for hieroglyphs of men, women, animals, or anything with distinct direction.  These hieroglyphs will always be facing in the direction you are to read the sentence.  For example, </B><B>, "the sun is in the sky," written </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="GlyphBasic3" ><B><IMG SRC="09b4b1b0.jpg" border=0 width="75" height="27" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></FONT><B> would be read from left to right because the owl's face is pointing to the left.  The following is what that same sentence would look like if read from right to left:  </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="GlyphBasic3" ><B><IMG SRC="09d4b1b0.jpg" border=0 width="75" height="27" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Papyrus" ><B>.  To make this website easier to follow, though, the hieroglyphs contained within will be written from left to right as in the English language.</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Quiz Me History"><U><B>Quiz Me</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>