Contrary to hieratic and demotic, which were only written from right to left, hieroglyphs could be written from right to left and from left to right. Both hieroglyphic and early hieratic could be written in lines or in columns, but as it evolved, hieratic would be restricted to lines whereas hieroglyphic continued to be written in lines and columns.
The same hieroglyphic text, written in lines and in columns, from
left to right
and from right to left. The red arrows in this example indicate the orientation
of each text. The text reads:
"Amun-Re, king of the gods, lord of the thrones of the two lands,
lord of the heaven, the earth, the water and the mountains".
When hieroglyphic text was used as a
legend, a comment or as "words spoken by" with an object, a god or a
person, the signs would be oriented in the same way as the accompanying image.
Thus in a scene where a king makes an offering to a god, the text with the king
and his offering is oriented in the same way as the king opposite the text of
the god: within one text one can often find hieroglyphs written from right to
left as well as from left to right! The need to write hieroglyphs in lines or in
columns was more an aesthetic and practical need: the ancient artists had to
make optimal use of the space they had for their text and image.
It is very easy to find the beginning of a
hieroglyphic text: the signs that represent people or animals all look towards
the beginning of the text. When a scene has texts that are written in both
directions, either text will start somewhere near the middle. Which part of the
text is to be read first (if there is such a notion as one part taking
precedence over another) must be found examining the texts.
Hieroglyphs are (almost) always written from top to
bottom, even when they are arranged in lines will one read a sign that is
directly above another before reading the one below.
The disposition of the signs was also influenced by other motivations:
, representing the
consonants t-w-t was usually written 
, which takes up considerably less space.Although it uses images to express notions and ideas, hieroglyphic writing can not be considered as purely pictographic. A purely pictographic writing would mean that each sign represents a notion or a word: the image of a cow would represent the word "cow", the image of a face would represent the word "face", ... The number of words or notions that could be represented by a sign or combination of signs, however, would be limited to the practical and material. How would one write such notions as "love", "father", "brother", "good" or "bad"?
Basically, hieroglyphic distinguishes between two types of signs:
Words were often written as a combination
of phonograms and ideograms, where the phonograms represent the consonantal
skeleton of the word and the ideogram(s) determine its meaning. Ideograms used
to determine the meaning of a word are called determinatives. Since the
Ancient Egyptians did not write any vowels, many words would have been written
in the same way if they were only written using phonograms. Thus the word
"cow" was written 
where the
first three signs are phonograms that would be read jHt and the fourth sign
determines the sounds written with the three first signs as meaning
"cow".
Some words, that were too abstract to be written using
ideograms, were written with phonograms only. Such words are pronouns,
prepositions, ... Other words were so common-place, that they were often written
with ideograms only. Thus the name of the god "Horus" was often
written 
, a sign that
represents the god Horus.
The phonetic part of words could be written
using a combination of phonograms that represent one, two or three consonants,
where the uniliteral signs would sometimes repeat one or more of the consonants
of the biliteral or triliteral signs. Thus the group 
, where the first sign represents the sound mn and the second the sound n
is read mn and not mnn, since the second sign is merely a
repetition of the n in the sign mn.
The group 
where the first sign is the
phonogram nfr, the second is read f and the third is read r,
is read nfr and not nfrfr. When uniliteral signs are used in this
way, we name them phonetic complements, since the complement the phonetic
value of other signs. This, however, does not mean that uniliteral signs where
exclusively used as phonetic complements: the name of the god Ptah, for
instance, is written 
where the
first sign is read p, the second t and the third H
(aspirated h). An ideogram such as 
could be added to this combination of phonograms, but the name of the god Ptah
was so common, that the writers often dispensed with the ideogram.
These principles made the hieroglyphic writing highly flexible and versatile. Many words could be written in different ways, depending on whether or not phonetic complements were used, which phonetic complements were used, whether or not ideograms were added to the phonetic part of the word, which ideograms were used...
During the Middle Kingdom and the beginning of the New Kingdom, there were about 750 to 800 signs in use. Some signs had a phonetic value, others had one or more ideographic meanings and an occasional sign would have a phonetic and an ideographic meaning, depending on its context. By the beginning of the Greek-Roman era, the number of signs was drastically increased to several thousands, and the meaning of individual signs was increased as well.
Some signs that used to be ideograms before,
obtained phonetic values based on the variety of words the ideograms
represented. Thus the sign 
, used as an ideogram in words meaning "child", "youth",
"be young", ... obtained, among others, the phonetic values ms
from msj, "be born, give birth", m from ms, nn
or nw from nn or nw, "child", n from nw
or nn, x (read kh) from xj, "child", ...
Due to changes in pronunciation, the phonetic values
of most signs evolved as well. The sign 
, which used to have the phonetic value t, became used in words were
normally there would have been a T (read tsh), a d or a D
(read dj). The sign 
, which used
to have the value d, was written in words where one would expect t,
T or D; the sign 
,
with the phonetic value S (read sh) was used for x (read kh),
and vice versa, whence the sign
could also be used with the phonetic value S, ...
Some of the new signs were a variation on
existing signs. Thus the sign 
,
which represents two lips seen in profile was a variation of the classical sign 
, which represents two lips seen from the front; the eye-ball 
was a used as variation on the eye 
,
... Such a variation could also be derived from the pars pro toto
principle, where part of an existing sign was used as a variation on that sign.
Other new signs were a combination of existing ones.
Thus the sign 
combines the solar
disk (the solar god Re) and the child (son) to write "son of Re",
where we encounter yet another possible meaning for the hieroglyph representing
a child.
New signs could also be the result of a (deliberate?)
misinterpretation of groups of sign on a hieratic original. Thus the
hieroglyphic group 
was written as
one sign in hieratic and then converted back into hieroglyphic as 
.
To write one word,
several combinations of different signs could be chosen. Practical motivations,
such as the space available to write the words, and religious or mythological
motivations would often determine the choice of signs. Thus we find the sign 
, which is a combination of the solar disk (the solar god Re) and a cat (reading
mi, derived from the word miw, "cat"), which reads mi
ra and translates as "like the solar god Re", an expression
usually written as 
. This
particular sign, however, is more often than not used in ritual scenes on temple
walls where the forces of evil threaten the very existence of the temple. It
represents the solar god Re as a cat, and as such, the solar god himself is a
dangerous creature who annihilates the forces of evil. As a representation of
belligerent solar god, the sign itself helps in repelling these forces of evil
and thus participates in the meaning of the ritual scene (see also: Writing and
Magic).
Another example would be the writing of the name of
the god Ptah, ordinarily written as
, but in some texts also as 
.
The choice of each sign can be explained by its phonetic value: the first sign
(on top) is read p, the second (below, left) t and the third
(below, right) H. But if we know that the first sign also represents the
notion "heaven", the second "earth" or "coming into
existence" and the third "infinity (in numbers)" and we also know
that Ptah was one of the creator-gods, this particular writing of Ptah’s name
gets a different meaning all together: "an infinity of heaven and
earth", or in other words a constant renewal of the creation of heaven and
earth and thus a reference to Ptah as creator of the universe.
One of the ways to write the word "nun", the
name of the primaeval waters out of which the entire creation came into
existence, is 
. The hieroglyph
representing a child can be read n(w)n, the lake determines the meaning
of this word. The image of a child rising from the water also symbolises the
appearance of life out of the primaeval waters.
This sort of writing is often called
"Ptolemaic" writing, because it is mainly found on monuments that are
dated to the Greek-Roman era. This name, however, does not mean that
"Ptolemaic" writing was invented by the Ptolemaic rulers or by the
Greeks who came to live in Egypt.
It is mainly, but not solely used for inscriptions on
the walls of temples, such as the temple of Horus in Edfu. These texts were
composed by Egyptian priests, not by Greeks, not even influenced by
Greeks. The tendency to use the hieroglyphic writing in this manner predates the
Greek conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great. The increase in the number of
signs and their meaning shows us not a decaying and dying culture, but an
inventive and creative mind bent on honouring Egyptian gods in a typical
Egyptian manner.
As already hinted in the previous part,
hieroglyphic writing was (sometimes) considered as of a magical nature. The
individual hieroglyphs could possess a magical force that could be either
benevolent or evil. A hieroglyph representing a scorpion, for instance, would
often be drawn without its poisonous tail to prevent it from doing any harm. The
determinative in the name of the demon Apophis 
is a snake that is being stabbed or cut, thus magically repelling the evil that
emanates from the writing of Apophis’ name. The writing of the phrase
"like Re" with a hieroglyph representing a cat crowned with a solar
disk was also the result of such magical considerations (see above).
The same connection between writing and magic could
also result in the cutting out or deleting of names of unpopular people, demons
and even gods. During the Amarna-period, the many names of the god Amun would be
struck from the walls, and less than a generation later, the very same thing
would happen to the names of Aton, Akhenaten and his relatives. In destroying
the names of hated beings, harm was done magically to the beings themselves. The
persecution of names was thus much more than an effort to remove a hated person
from memory.
Language: Aspects of writing | Linguistic Features | Hieroglyphs etc.Gods
Gods: Isis | Ra | Set | Osiris | Qebhsennef | Maat
Pyramids: Building stones | Egypt Land of the pyramids | Canstruction of Pyramids | Huni's Pyramid | Zoser's step Pyramid | Sneferu's Pyramid | The solar Boat | The grest pyeamid of cheops | Chephren's pyramid | Senusert I's pyramid | Sphinx
Paint: Introduction | Subjects of paint scenes
sports: Introduction | Chariots-training horses | Running | Combating sports | Aquatic sports | Competition | Games and toys | Acrobtics
jewellery: Introduction | Gold | Silver | The precious & semi-precious Stones | The substitutes of precious stones | Same kinds of jewellery | Discoveries of jewellery
Sculpture: Introduction | Old kingdom statues | Middle kingdom statues | New kingdom statues