Posted on 03/05/2022 1:55:22 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
It was the greatest puzzle in the world. For three thousand years the ancient Egyptians covered the walls and ceilings of their temples and tombs with a form of writing known as hieroglyphs. More, the bone-dry climate of Egypt had preserved vast quantities of this hieroglyphic text written on papyrus. And in 1800, no one on earth could read a word of it.
When Egypt became Christian in the fourth century A.D., the use of these hieroglyphs, associated with paganism, died out. The last known hieroglyphic inscription was chiseled into stone in the year 394. Within a generation, the last person literate in hieroglyphic writing was dead. Nothing was known of the ancient Egyptian language (Egyptians spoke Arabic after the Arab conquest in the seventh century), so translation was impossible. While it would eventually be known that Coptic—the liturgical language of Egypt’s Coptic Church—was descended from ancient Egyptian, it was at least as different from its ancestor as Italian is from classical Latin.
As a result, almost nothing about Egyptian history or culture was known, except what could be found in foreign sources, including the works of the “father of history,” Herodotus, who had visited Egypt and marveled at its wealth and splendor.
When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798, however, it was more than just a military enterprise, for he brought along one hundred sixty “Savants,” among the most brilliant scientists, artists, and scholars in France. In time they produced twenty-nine oversized volumes detailing all aspects of Egyptian life, natural history, landscape, and architecture, one of the most remarkable works of scholarship ever printed. It set off a decades-long craze for all things Egyptian that became known as “Egyptomania.”
The hieroglyphs, however, remained silent.
(Excerpt) Read more at newcriterion.com ...
This sounds like a fascinating book. I've not heard of author Dolnick, but reviewer Gordon highly recommends his other two books.
Ping!
That book sounds like a blast! Thank you.
I think there was a cuniform hieroglyph language pack for windows
“I think there was a cuniform hieroglyph language pack for windows”
Egyptian hieroglyph translator... :)
https://funtranslations.com/hieroglyphics
Books
This excerpt is well written and interesting.
The museum of Natural History is magnificent. I wonder what will happen to these treasures, and in the Louvre and d’Orsay, after the Muslims take over Europe
Let us go, Brandon?
Amazing breadth of interests, isn’t it? The author of this book review says he is a great writer.
Fascinating how some languages developed as phonetic and others as symbolic. It’s actually a complex abstraction to create a language based on sounds, with multiple symbols forming words vs assigning a single symbol as representing a word. It’s on the level of abstraction of zero in mathematics.
Yes, the development of the abstraction of sounds to a symbol was an amazing breakthrough in human development, wasn’t it? We had probably hit the end of the road in development with pictographs and the next leap in civilization required a symbolic phonetic language.
I’ll have to check out that book too.
Interesting.
—”I think there was a cuniform hieroglyph language pack for windows”
YES!
But you need a large format 3D printer and good luck finding drivers.
Yes, the development of the abstraction of sounds to a symbol was an amazing breakthrough in human development, wasn’t it? We had probably hit the end of the road in development with pictographs and the next leap in civilization required a symbolic phonetic language.
—
Interesting too there is no “primitive” form of hieroglyphics; just there they are in all their complexity. Always wondered if the ancient Ancient Egypt was founded by survivors of some antediluvian culture perhaps thousands of years older.
It was in the British Museum when I saw it (surrounded by dozens of Japanese with cameras). BTW, I couldn’t read a damn word on it.
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