Hi!  Here we are in Waset.  It is often called "Thebes" because that is what the Greeks called it.  But what did they know?  They didn't get here until centuries after things had quieted down around here.  We are about 400 miles upriver [South] from Saqqara, where we saw the old Step Pyramid. That carved stone to the left was done for Rameses II.  Two of his five Royal Names are carved in Cartouches above his head.  [By the way, "Cartouche" is a French name given to the ovals around the Royal names, because Napolean's soldiers thought they looked like bullets; which is "cartouche" in French.]   The real name of that object is "Shenu."

Anyway, That's Rameses' image carved in stone, and one day we will come back and read what he had written here.  Do you remember seeing Rameses in these pages before?  Sure, he was the egomaniac who carved his statues giant size at Abu_Simbel.  If you go to Egypt, you will see that his name is all over everything.  He put them on things that he built, and things that he didn't build.

And even though he lived almost 1300 years before Christ, he lived over 1300 after the Step Pyramids were built by Dzozer.

So, remember, that the civilization of Kemet lasted a very long time, during which many changes took place.

Okay, Back to work!!  Do you think this is supposed to be fun or something?

Next, we are going to visit a set of short web pages that were put together by Serge Rosmorduc in France.  [Don't worry, it's written in English [and Middle Egyptian].

The title of Serge's website is:
A Short Introduction to Hieroglyphs
"http://webperso.iut.univ-paris8.fr/~rosmord/Intro/Intro.html"

And the points that I would like for you to take a look at his short lessons, some of which are really just reviews for you, but some of this will be new for you  His lessons are:.

Introduction

    A short history of hieroglyphs

    The Writing System
        The Three Kinds of Signs
        The Phonetic Signs
        The determinatives
        sign grouping
        Direction of Writing

    The deciphering of hieroglyphs

    A few grammatical notions
        The plural of nouns
        Adverbial sentence

    A few frequent words
        Names of gods
        Names of people
        kings' names

    Stereotyped formulas
        Offering Formula
        The king in front of a god

    If you can write, you can draw...

    Figures

    His copyright information may be found at "About this document ..."

Who is this powerful ruler who reunited Kemet after the breakdown of order in the First Intermediiate Period, established its new capital at Waset and ushered in the Middle Kingdom? *4.2

Well, enough site seeing for now... where were we?  Oh yes, working our way through signs and
determinatives.   But how in the world are you expected to draw all of those little signs?  To be honest, you are not.  There is code that is used by Egyptologists for writing Hieroglyphs called "Manuel de Codage".  A standard system for the computer-encoding of Egyptian transliteration and hieroglyphic texts, and you can find it at a page put up by Hans van den Berg.  This is a system that allows us to make easy reference to the Hieroglyphs without drawing the pictures each time [which we all agree would be extra laborious.

Learnig how to navigate this code will also help you with reading books about Hiereglyphs.

Let's go to the Manuel de Codage site, and learn how it works.  By the way, do not think that you must keep all of this in your head.  Most Egyptologists constantly refer back to their manuals, dictionaries, sign list, and other references in order to get through Hieroglyphic documents.  So, just familiarize yourself with the Manuel de Codage, remember that it is there for your use, and then return back here.
 

I KNOW!  That was pretty dense reading.  But it is very important to be able to read the transliteration symbols in order to obtain any level of expertise in Hieroglyphs.

Wait!  Don't shut down the computer.

As a way of making amends, I'll show you the way to a site where you can write your name in Hieroglyphs and then email the results to yourself, or, if you don't spend all of your time on the computer, write the name of a friend in Hieroglyphs and send it to him or her.

Back at Mark Millmore's page with the pretty glyphs, there is a corner where you can do this.
So, take a break from the brain pain, and see how pretty your name looks written in Mdw-Ntr and
encircled by a Shenu.
 

"Oscar" ="Arskar"
  That's my name.
 

By the way, what do the Hieroglyphs in the Cartouche say on the ecard page?
 

What the heck, You've Earned It, Let's Go To The Next Page!

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For more on the ANCIENT NILE VALLEY CIVILIZATION, Go To:  THE Km.T LIBERATION FRONT
 

This site was created and prepared by Oscar H. Blayton (c) 2000-2002

Email me at: Blayton_Law@sprynet.com
 

 

Last Updated 6/4/02