Concept in Definition ABC

Considered one of the first forms of writing of the human being, the hieroglyph was a writing system developed by the civilization from Ancient Egyptian. It is undoubtedly one of the most famous forms since it is structured based on drawings and symbols instead of using characters. Hieroglyphic writing is also considered one of the most complex that human beings could create, along with some oriental writings, since each symbol It represented no longer a word but an idea or a concept. Therefore your understanding It is not linear but must take into account all the drawings made in each message.

The term hieroglyph means in Greek "holy writing" or "divine writing". In this sense, many of the first forms of writing created by man can then be called hieroglyphs. However, this applies almost exclusively to drawings and symbols invented by the Egyptian civilization. Its origins take us to approximately 3300 BC, at which time the human being began to create the first forms of writing. Hieroglyphs were used as

language by scribes (a privileged group in society that could read and to write) in all types of documents and writings, but also as a form of decoration and writing in monuments and buildings of great importance.

Hieroglyphic forms cannot be understood in the same way that we understand each word or letter in our language. This is so since each character, usually a figurative symbol (though not always), represents a idea or a concept that must be linked to the other symbols to understand the meaning of the whole message. Normally, those figurative symbols are representations of animals or typical elements of Egyptian culture and the environment in which it took place.

Although the western man had contact with this form of writing very early, from the commercial contacts established between East and West, it would not be until the end of the eighteenth century that much of its meaning. This happened when the famous Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 by the French. This stone contained the same message in hieroglyph, in demotic (another characteristic language of the Middle East) and in Greek, which allowed experts to translate much of the meaning of such symbols.

Themes in Hieroglyph