Egyptian hieroglyphs

E49149

Egyptian hieroglyphs are the formal, pictorial writing system of ancient Egypt, used for monumental inscriptions, religious texts, and administrative records over several millennia.

Aliases (1)

Statements (54)
Predicate Object
instanceOf ancient Egyptian script
logoconsonantal script
writing system
componentType biliteral signs
determinatives
logograms
triliteral signs
uniliteral signs
culturalRole religious symbolism
royal ideology expression
sacred writing
decipheredBy Jean-François Champollion
deciphermentAid Rosetta Stone
deciphermentDate 1822
earliestAttestation Naqada III period
c. 3200 BCE
finalPhase 4th century CE
Roman period Egypt
influenced Greek alphabet
Phoenician alphabet
Proto-Sinaitic script
languageWritten Egyptian language
Late Egyptian
Middle Egyptian
Old Egyptian
numberOfSigns over 1000 signs in later periods
over 700 signs in classical period
relatedScript Demotic
Hieratic
scriptType abjad-like
alphabetic
logographic
pictographic
standardReference Gardiner's sign list
timePeriod late 4th millennium BCE
until 4th century CE
unicodeBlock Egyptian Hieroglyphs
unicodeRange U+13000–U+1342F
usedFor administrative records
funerary texts
monumental inscriptions
religious texts
royal inscriptions
temple inscriptions
tomb inscriptions
usedIn Ancient Egypt
writingDirection left-to-right
right-to-left
top-to-bottom
writingMedium metal
ostraca
papyrus
stone
wood


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