Early Egyptian Writing and Communication

William Hunse 2020, 253-03

Help Received:

http://www.ancient.eu/Egyptian_Hieroglyphs/

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/writing.htm

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/home.html

Throughout history, different civilizations have come up with their own forms of writing and communication.  There have been many forms of writing throughout history.  One of the earliest forms of writing was hieroglyphics.  Hieroglyphics were a type of pictogram that consisted of drawing pictures to represent an object.  The ancient Egyptians were the first known civilization to use this form of writing and communication.  The Ancient Egyptians were the best civilization at adapting their writing and communication to better fit the changing needs of their society.

Throughout their history they developed other, more advanced styles of writing.  One of the other styles of writing that they developed was called ideograms which were drawings that represented an idea.  Another and more advanced form of writing was logograms which were drawings that represented both an idea and an object.  All of these newer forms of writing were based off of hieroglyphics.

Egyptian hieroglyphics are believed to come from the ibis-headed Egyptian god of writing, Thoth.  In an ancient picture, King Ramesses is depicted helping the god Thoth by holding his writing instruments.  It is believed that Thoth gave the Egyptians writing.  Herodotus and other important Greeks believed that the Egyptian hieroglyphics were sacred because of their pictorial elegance.  Due to this belief, the word hieroglyph comes from the Greek hiero “holy” and glypho “writing.”  The earliest form of Egyptian writing consisted of hieroglyphics.  From hieroglyphics came a newer form called hieratic.  Hieratic was a simpler form of hieroglyphics.  They developed this to make their writing faster and easier.  After this form of writing came another new form, Demotic.  Demotic was an even more simplified form of hieroglyphics and contained no pictorial trace.  As the needs of their society grew and changed, they adapted better writing styles to fit their needs.

The ancient Egyptians wanted a way to communicate and record religious and government information.  Ancient Egyptian writing’s main function was to provide a way that concepts, ideas and events could become real.  The Egyptians used these forms of writing for several different things.  One thing that they used them for was to communicate information to each other.  By using these hieroglyphics, they could leave important information for other people to read.  Another use for their writing was story telling.  They would write down stories using the pictograms and would read them later for entertainment or information.  A third use for writing in the ancient Egyptian culture was for history and record keeping.  With writing they could keep track of important events and deals that needed to be documented.  By doing this, they could look back and see who bought certain goods and for how much.  In addition to this, the Ancient Egyptians also varied what they wrote on in order to make the transfer of information easier and more efficient.

The ancient Egyptians would write in several places.  They wrote on clay tablets to keep important information such as religious or government information.  They also wrote on the walls of temples and other buildings.  The writings on the walls were not just decorative, they did this to also tell stories and keep information.  Another surface the Egyptians would use for writing on was a papyrus scroll.  This was a common method because it was easily transferable and easier to store.

The Ancient Egyptians were the best civilization at adapting their writing and communication to better fit the changing needs of their society.  The Ancient Egyptians were one of the earliest civilizations to use writing.  They used it to pass down stories, communicate, learn and keep track of religious and government information.  They used different surfaces to write on based on what their writing was for.  As their society got larger and smarter, they adapted their writing to better fit their needs.  They went from the first hieroglyphics to hieratic to demotic.  Each new form better adapted to fit their society.

Citations

“Egyptian Hieroglyphics.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Web. 15 February 2017

“Egypt: History of Ancient Egyptian Writing (hieroglyphs), A Feature Tour Egypt Story.” Tour         Egypt. Web. 15 February 2017

“Writing.” Ancient Egypt. Web. 15 February 2017