The writing of ancient Egypt: the history of creation. The ancient Egyptians and writing What did the ancient Egyptians write on
In ancient Egypt, writing arose at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. The ancient writing of Egypt is presented in the form of images and texts on the walls of tombs and pyramids.
The key to unraveling the history of writing in ancient Egypt
The texts of the Egyptian letter staunchly kept secrets. The Rosetta Stone, found in 1799 at Rosetta near Alexandria, became the key to unraveling the ancient writing of Egypt. On a fragment of a heavy plate weighing 760 kg, 1.2 m high, about 1 m wide and 30 cm thick, there are three identical texts in different writing languages of Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were located on 14 lines in the upper part, 34 lines in the middle of the stone were occupied by Demotic writing, and 14 lines of text in ancient Greek were carved in the lower part. The discovery became the starting point for research into the history of ancient writing in Egypt. Since 1822, linguists have been able to decipher the inscriptions on the walls of the tombs.
Ancient Egypt: the history of writing
Ancient Egyptian writing: hieroglyphs
The Egyptians believed that writing was invented by the wisdom god Thoth. The "divine word" was transmitted in the form of hieroglyphs. The concept of a hieroglyph comes from the Greek hieros (sacred) and glypho. (inscription). "Holy writing" Egyptologists have defined as pictorial writing with the addition of phonetic signs. Hieroglyphs were written in columns from left to right. Hieroglyphic signs were carved on stones, carved on the skin, applied with a brush on papyrus. Hieroglyphic writing was used in tombs and for religious purposes until the 4th century AD.
Ancient Egypt and the history of writing: hieratic signs
In the history of writing in ancient Egypt, hieratic writing existed simultaneously with hieroglyphic writing. This type of ancient Egyptian writing, like the demotic writing later, was cursive writing. Papyrus, leather, clay shards, fabrics, and wood were used for writing. The notes were made in ink. Hieratic signs were used to write economic documents and literary treatises by the ancient Egyptian priests. The "hieratic" script existed until the 3rd century AD. and differed in the way of writing: from right to left.
Project - the history of ancient writing in Egypt Ancient Egyptian Writing History: Demotic Symbols
Gradually, hieratic writing developed into demotic. It was a simplified form of hieroglyphic writing from the Late Hieratic period. Dematics was considered folk writing. Demotic texts described different areas of activity of the Egyptians. The periodization of the use of Demotic writing dates back to the 7th century BC. - 5th century AD Demotic writing is the most progressive type of ancient Egyptian writing. Gradually, the demotic "syllabary" appeared. The complexity of demotic writing consisted in the multi-valued interpretation of signs.
I must confess - I'm in love with Egypt. Not as a connoisseur of culture, but as a philosopher. One day I heard advice that I will never forget: “When you travel, look for states of consciousness.” Therefore, from a philosophical point of view, for me Egypt is a special state of consciousness, a way of thinking and a way of life, very beautiful, worthy and humane, which is so lacking in the modern world with all its benefits and achievements.
What do we know about Egypt? This is the civilization that built the pyramids (of course they were built by slaves to satisfy the vanity of the pharaohs). What else? The Egyptians believed in the afterlife and, equipping the pharaohs there, supplied them with everything they needed: weapons, food, treasures. What else? The Egyptians worshiped animals. This is what we were taught in school. Is it really? No.
Our ideas about Egypt are far from reality, since we measure everything according to our own standards. The Egyptians thought and lived differently, and this is worth accepting. One of the errors - religious, came to us from the Middle Ages. For a long time it was believed that all ancient cultures with their numerous gods were only imperfect forms that led to monotheism. But the Egyptians themselves considered the reign of Akhenaten to be the most terrible period in the history of the country of the Pharaohs, during which millennial beliefs and knowledge were replaced by the cult of the single god Aten - the physical Sun. So they could well say that modern religions with the cult of one god are imperfect in comparison with the Egyptian. As for the second prejudice, it comes from the conceited materialism of the nineteenth century. I will cite as an example one typical text of that time by an orientalist, Professor Jules de Merville: “Western scientists and the reading public were amused a lot by prayers addressed to various deities responsible for individual parts of the mummy of the deceased, as well as the living human body. Judge for yourself: in the papyrus of the mummy of Petamenophus, "anatomy turns into theogeography", "astrology is used in physiology, or, more precisely, in the anatomy of the human body, including the human heart." “The hair of the deceased belongs to the Nile; his eyes are to Venus (Isis); his ears belong to Macedo, guardian of the tropics; the left temple - to the spirit that exists in the Sun; his nose to Anubis... What a strange conglomeration of the most absurd absurdities and the most mundane prayers... where Osiris is asked to give the deceased in the other world geese, eggs, pork...” (De Mirville, Des Esprits, etc., Vol. V, pp. 83-84, 85). Today, when we know that the Egyptian inscriptions cannot be read literally, that "geese, eggs and pork" are only allegories describing some of the laws of Nature manifesting in physical bodies, we should hide our arrogance of the "reading public" and understand that the inhabitants of the valley The Neela were not at all so primitive.
Where to turn if you want to understand the Egyptians and know their way of life without historical distortions? Of course, to the ancient Egyptian texts, which miraculously survived millennia. Let's start with the language in which they are written.
The Greek word "hieroglyph" means "a sacred word carved in stone." In ancient Egypt, writing was called medu neter , which roughly means "divine words". So, if you see hieroglyphs, then the text in front of you is not everyday and everyday, but dedicated to the mysteries of the “sacred”, “divine”, “metaphysical” structure of the world (these three words are in quotation marks, as they are too modern. We must understand that they were not in Egypt). For ordinary purposes, there were other types of writing, called hieratic and demotic writing.
The hieroglyphs of Egypt are about 5300 years old (the earliest found inscriptions date back to the 33rd century BC). The appearance of the first hieroglyphs is a mystery, because the Egyptian language was born immediately in all its richness and perfection. There is no evidence for the existence of any primitive "proto-language". According to Egyptian myths, God Thoth gave people writing at the beginning of time.
Egyptian writing does not have a strict direction of writing. There are inscriptions that need to be read from right to left, left to right, top to bottom. The direction of the text also conveyed shades of meaning. How to read the text is indicated by special signs, or hieroglyphs, turned in a certain direction. Most often, hieroglyphs were inscribed in squares, as this looks much more aesthetically pleasing. In general, the most important role was played by the beauty of the written. In Egyptian, beauty sounds like “neferet” (hence the name of Queen Nefertari). At the same time, the word "neferet" can mean "divine", "sacred". Beauty was determined by the canon that existed in Egypt from the very beginning. Thus religion was united with art.
Many hieroglyphic inscriptions were carved in stone (some, created for eternity, were cut to a depth of 40 cm), others were written on papyrus, the production of which was also an art. Often the signs were colored, which gives the texts additional meaning, since the colors expressed certain principles that exist in nature and in man.
European alphabets are based on letters that do not have independent semantic meaning. There is no alphabet found in Egypt at all. A hieroglyph denotes both a sound (or several sounds) and a certain object or concept. Moreover, the hieroglyph has three levels: phonetic, contextual and ideographic (combined). Simply put, the hieroglyph simultaneously denotes a sound, an object and an idea.
Consider, for example, the hieroglyph "RA".
The first sign is the image of an eye, the second is an outstretched hand. As sounds they are read [P] and [A]. The reading is rather arbitrary, since there were other sounds in Egypt, many of which have no analogues in European languages. In addition, the letter contained only consonants, so the vowels represent an agreement between scholars. What we read as "A" is actually a consonant with a hint of a vowel.
After the letter entry, the sign "Sun" appeared. Such signs denoting an object are called determinatives or defining symbols. There are many more of them than alphabetic characters and they are of greater interest, as they give context and clarify the phonetic notation.
Let's take a more complex example. Goddess name "Hathor"
The hieroglyph "flax torn" is read as [X], the sun being born - [T], the young man - [X], the mouth - [R]. The defining hieroglyph "house", "fenced area" means house. Thus "Hat-Khor" is the "House of Hor".
At the contextual level, the house is indicated by a two-letter sign and is equipped with two determinants: "Chorus", that is, a falcon, and "female divinity", a cobra.
The combined symbol for the signs "house" and "choir" graphically conveys the receptacle of the solar principle.
From this example, it is clear that the Egyptian language, like the Egyptian worldview, is much more complex and complex. These are not at all primitive drawings drawn from life. It becomes even more interesting if you figure out what these signs mean from the point of view of the Egyptian religion. Many books have been written about this, I will give only one excerpt: “Hathor, as a principle of Nature, betrays the idea of a container of sunlight in the phase of incubation. Represents the principle of the Moon containing and reflecting the Sun. The lunar rhythms of Hathor manifest themselves in the sky, on earth, and in the inner life” (Rosemary Clark, The Sacred Traditions of Ancient Egypt). Thus, we are talking about the deified law of Nature, which hints that in Egypt religion included science and, judging by the available data, very developed.
Here is just a small part of what the Egyptian hieroglyphs were and what they are to this day. And now some texts.
On the relationship of the Egyptians to the gods
"My heart yearns to be able to see you,
O Lord of the Perseus trees,
When your neck is decorated with wreaths of flowers!
You grant satiety without eating, drunkenness without drinking.
Oh, how joyful it is to pronounce your name:
It is like a taste of life, like clothes for the naked,
Like the fragrance of a blossoming branch during the summer heat,
Like a breath of air for someone who has been in a dungeon.
How wonderful to follow you, Amon, lord!
The seeker will find your greatness!
Drive away fear, put joy in people's hearts!
How joyful is the face that sees you, Amon:
He stays in the feast day after day.”
Prayer of the priest of Amon. XVIII dynasty
On the immortality of man
“I am not from the earth, I am from the sky. I soared into the sky like
heron, I kissed the sky like a falcon. I have reached the sky...
"Texts of the Pyramids", saying 467
"The reed fields are filled with water, and they carry me
to the far eastern edge of the sky, to the place
where the Neteru created me, where I was born new and young"
"Texts of the Pyramids", statement 264
“The god of light has made me powerful…
I separated from the vault of heaven and
floated across the sky, gently communicating with the gods "
"The Book of Goers," chapter 74
About pharaoh
“If the pharaoh loves, he creates. If the pharaoh hates, he cannot create anything."
Pyramid Texts
“You will be praised for your kindness. Love and respect your people, do everything so that they live in prosperity, for acting in the name of the future, doing good to people, is a noble deed.”
Merikare Teachings
"Thanks to the love people have for you, your business can go on forever."
Merikare Teachings
“May your ka live for millions of years, O you who love Thebes,
Sitting facing the north wind
seeing happiness with both eyes"
Inscription on a ceremonial goblet in Tutankhamun's tomb
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Let us leave our prejudices against Egypt. Love for the gods and nature, faith that nothing dies, justice, kindness and a decent life - that's what Egypt is for me, as a state of consciousness. Maybe I'm wrong, but everyone has the right to seek the truth and wish the world to become better. It is so simple.
A huge number of written monuments of Ancient Egypt have come down to us. Before turning to the consideration of the Egyptian writing system, it is necessary to say a few words about the materials on which the ancient Egyptians wrote. First of all, it is a stone - the walls of temples, tombs, sarcophagi, slabs (the so-called stelae), statues, cave walls, rocks, etc. Signs of writing were either carved on the surface of the stone, or simply depicted with paint and ink. In addition to various stone structures and objects, the so-called ostraca were used for writing. This word is borrowed from the ancient Greek language, where Фstrakon means a sea shell, as well as a piece of pottery. On such fragments, the ancient Greeks applied the names of persons to be expelled from the country. In Egyptology, the term "ostracon" is used to refer to limestone fragments on which brief business documents, excerpts from literary texts, etc. were written. Ostracons have come down to us mainly from the time of the New Kingdom (1500 - 1100 BC. ), predominantly from Thebes; however, ostracons from other eras of Egyptian history have also been preserved. The term "ostracon" was first encountered in Egyptological literature in the 80s of the 19th century. The material for writing was also wood in various forms (sarcophagi, boards, etc.), but much fewer texts were preserved on wood than on stone. As B. A. Turaev noted, short inscriptions covered “everything in general that gave rise to writing and provided a place.” A huge contribution to world culture was the invention in ancient Egypt of writing material, known in science as "papyrus". It was only thanks to papyrus that the broad and versatile development of culture and science in the ancient world became possible, which had a decisive influence on the fate of world civilization. According to Pliny, the scarcity of papyrus and its high cost were the cause of serious discontent in the time of Tiberius. The word "paper" in a number of modern European languages goes back to the ancient Greek word pЈpuroj, which denoted a plant from which the writing material of the same name was made. The word pЈpuroj is attested in Greek from the time of Theophrastus. Since it denoted a plant whose birthplace was Egypt, it is natural to assume an Egyptian etymology for it. The instrument with which the Egyptians wrote on papyrus is well known to us, since the writing instruments of Egyptian scribes have come down to us from different times. Such devices consisted of a board, in the recesses of which red and black ink was stored in a dry form, a miniature stone mortar with a pestle for rubbing the ink, a brush, its case and a small vessel with water for wetting the brush (dry ink was collected on a wet brush). The tablet, case and vessel were connected with a cord. Black ink was made from soot, red from ocher. Tassels were made from the stem of a reed-type marsh plant called Junctus maritimus, which grows in Egypt in salt marshes and lakes33; one of the ends of the stem, apparently, was chewed. The length of the tassel was 16-23 cm. In Roman times, the tassel was supplanted by the feather borrowed by the Egyptians from the Greeks. It was made from the reeds of Phragmites communis. The end of the pen was split into two longitudinal parts and pointed.
The Egyptians were skilled draftsmen. Unusually accurately, they painted objects and animals. It can be thought that originally the inhabitants of the Nile Valley wrote down their thoughts, depicting in the picture the objects that were discussed.
alt="" /> But by the period of the Early Kingdom, the Egyptian writing system had developed. It is very difficult at first glance. Hundreds of different signs from images of humans and animals to household items! It seems that there is no way to make sense of this cluster of signs. But almost two thousand years of searching led to the fact that the secrets of Egyptian writing were revealed.
It turns out that the Egyptians were the first people on the globe whose written signs conveyed sounds. However, Egyptian writing did not become completely sound writing, like ours. The main reason for this was that the Egyptians, like some others, wrote vowels. Therefore, after a word written in sound signs, a determiner was placed - a sign explaining to the reader the general meaning of the word. For example, it is written
2 characters Pjl-I. The upper sign conveys the sound "s", and the lower - "sh".
What word is it? After all, it could be pronounced “sesh” and “sash” and “sish”, etc. There was no doubt if after such a word
determinant was set. With a determinant - a sign of a scribe instrument - this meant the word "letter, record" and with a definition
literal - a sign of a piece of land with birds - the word "nest, backwater"; Now Egyptologists and both words are conditional
pronounce "sesh", inserting the sound "e" between the consonants in order to somehow pronounce these words. The ancient Egyptian, looking at the determiner and having a consonant backbone of the word, correctly pronounced both words. From these examples it can be seen that among the hieroglyphs there were signs that conveyed one sound, that is, alphabetic signs. The Egyptians were the first in the world to compose an alphabet, an alphabet of 25 letters. In addition to signs - si sgz - w there were - in; J - b; Q - p; **=¦ - f;
s=gt; - h and others. The Egyptians wrote some short words in one letter: ^ (p + n) - pen - “this one”.
But there were sound signs that conveyed a combination of three or even four consonants at once. The hieroglyph "pen" $ conveyed the combination w - v, the hieroglyph "basket" - n - b; hieroglyph "black ibis" fVj7 - g - m; hieroglyph "hare"; - in - ngt; hieroglyph "sun with rays" ^ - three consonants - c - b - n; hieroglyph "crossed sticks" X - x - c - b; hieroglyph "adze" - s-t - p;
hieroglyph "pestle with a mortar" ^ - four consonants - x - s - m - n, etc.
There were many determinants.
The hieroglyph "seated man" ^ defined the words "man,
scribe”, etc.; hieroglyph "bound captive" - the words "prisoner,
enemy"; hieroglyph "walking legs" L - "walk, run"; hieroglyph "three mountains" - "foreign country"; hieroglyph "skin with a tail" ^ - "animal, beast", etc.
The Egyptians are perhaps the only people in the world who managed to express an abstract, abstract concept through a concrete one: the sign of a scroll
papyrus with a seal and protruding strings i they defined any abstract concept. Writing down words either with one type of sound sign, and more often combining all these signs so that sometimes alphabetic signs explained the sound composition of a sign that conveys a larger number of consonants, and supplementing words with determinants, the Egyptians wrote any
words: fVj7 (hm + m + x = g + m + x) - gemekh - “look”;
(ext + n = ext) - ven - "to be"; ^ -с - "man";
(h + s + m) - scratch - “dog”.
This rather complex writing system was one of the reasons why it took a long time to decipher the hieroglyphs.
But, besides hieroglyphs, the Egyptians also used other types of writing.
Practical needs gave rise to hieratic writing as a business cursive letter.
They wrote with hieratic signs on light materials - papyrus, leather, clay shards, fabric, etc.
The main written material was papyrus. The stem of this marsh plant was divided into thin strips and folded so that the edges were one on top of the other. Then a layer of horizontal strips was placed on top of the layer of vertical strips, moistened with water and placed under a press. The strips were glued together - and a papyrus sheet was obtained. The Egyptians wrote in ink, highlighting the beginning of a paragraph or chapter with a “red line”. Instead of a pen or pen, they used a reed stick, chewed at the end.
Hieratic signs originated from hieroglyphic. A feature of hieratics is the connectedness of signs, in contrast to hieroglyphics, where each sign is written separately.
There was no paper in ancient Egypt, but there was papyrus. It was made from the reed of the same name, growing along the banks of the Nile. Papyrus, made from vegetable fibers, was dense and thick - thicker than ordinary paper.
- First they cut the reed and cleaned its stems.
- The stems were cut into thin strips and laid out in rows, in several layers.
- The strips were beaten with a hammer until the sticky sap of the plants stuck them together.
- The surface of the papyrus was rubbed with a smooth stone or a special tool, making it even and smooth.
- Papyrus sheets were glued into long strips and rolled into scrolls.
The production of papyrus was very long and laborious, so it was not cheap. For everyday records, the ancient Egyptians used clay tablets and even fragments of broken dishes. Papyrus was written with a reed brush split at one end. Ink was made from soot or red earth.
What are hieroglyphs?
Hieroglyphs are signs of the ancient Egyptian alphabet. Each hieroglyph denoted either a whole word - the name of an object or concept - or a separate sound in a word. Many hieroglyphs are rather complex pictures.