THE EGYPTIAN WRITING SYSTEM

The earliest Egyptian writing system was called hieroglyphics. This writing system used pictures to stand for ideas, objects, and sounds. The early Egyptian writing was not very easy to decode. Archeologists and language specialists spent years and years studying these symbols without any success.

Then, in 1799 French soldiers near the village Rosetta which was in the Nile Delta found a black stone slab. They found that on it the same words were written in three ways: in Greek, in hieroglyphics and in a cursive form of hieroglyphics.

For twenty long years, people tried hard to decode the hieroglyphics writing on what is called The Rosetta Stone . Then an amazing French man who was called Jean Champollion found the key. Champollion knew that part of the message was the same in all three cases. It praised the pharaoh Ptolemy for gifts he had given the temples. One day in 1822, Champollion was comparing the hieroglyphs with the Greek words. He compared and identified the correct names Ptolemy and Cleopatra.

Now Champollion was able to decode the famous Rosetta Stone Later, he published a dictionary of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Fortunately, the Egyptians left us many written texts. Once people were able to decode hieroglyph writing, they could read laws, stories, jokes and magic spells. From these texts and others we have been able to learn a lot about Egypt's past.

The hieroglyphic system was a bit complicated. It was made up of over seven hundred different signs that a person had to memorize if they wanted to master it. Young people who wanted to be scribes spent years going to special schools. Their school day was very long, sometimes from early in the morning when the sun rose till late in the night. Teachers expected their students to pay great attention, if they did not listen they would be punished. One father said the following words to his son who was learning to become a scribe: " Learn to write, for this will be of greater advantage to you than all the trades. One day at school is useful to you and the work done there will last forever, like mountains."

Here is a link to several articles about Egyptian Science, Writing and Champollion's Notes .

An Egyptian doctor whom we do not know the name of wrote down the worlds oldest scientific document in the early 1500s B.C. Scholars say that they think it was a handbook for army surgeons. He wrote about forty eight different injuries and sicknesses. He also wrote down all their symptoms and treatments. Although no doctor today would use any of his cures, the detail he put into observing the human body was amazing.

In one part of his writing he wrote about the treatment of a man having a wound on his head. He advised doctors to treat this by wrapping it with fresh meat the first day and then with honey, lint and grease everyday till it heals.

Here is a link to an article about Medicine in Ancient Egypt.

SONG AND DANCE

The Egyptian people enjoyed their life completely. Pictures of parties on tomb walls, songs written on papyrus and musical instruments show people today how much music meant to them. They often had big public festivals, at which thousands and thousands of people were entertained with singing and music from harps, flutes and castanets, a lot of wine was drunk was too. Music was played nearly everyday. Wine makers pressed grapes together to make wine while some men clapped rhythm sticks together. People who work on farms sang to their oxen as they threshed the corn with their hooves. A princess would play the harp while her husband relaxed. Dancers would turn beautiful summersaults along processions. Though we do not know much about Egyptian music we know for example that if there was a small orchestra at a banquet they could have string, wind and percussion sections and the music would probably have a strong beat.