Ancient Egyptian writing and hieroglyphs

The ancient Egyptians developed one of the world's earliest writing systems, best known for its hieroglyphs — the elaborate picture-signs carved on temples and monuments. Despite their pictorial appearance, hieroglyphs were not a simple picture language. The system mixed signs that stood for sounds with signs that represented whole words or ideas, and others that clarified meaning, so reading it required knowing how the different kinds of sign worked together.

Hieroglyphs were used mainly for important and formal inscriptions on stone. For everyday writing on papyrus — documents, letters, accounts and literature — scribes used faster, simplified handwritten forms of the script, which could be written far more quickly than carving full hieroglyphs. Writing was a specialised skill held by trained scribes, who occupied a respected position in Egyptian society. The Egyptians also had ways of writing numbers and performing calculations for administration and building.

Knowledge of how to read these scripts was lost for many centuries after the end of ancient Egyptian civilization, leaving the inscriptions a mystery. The breakthrough came with the Rosetta Stone, a slab carrying the same decree in Egyptian hieroglyphs, a later Egyptian script, and ancient Greek. Because scholars could read the Greek, they were able to work out the values of the Egyptian signs, and during the nineteenth century the writing system was deciphered. That achievement reopened access to thousands of inscriptions and texts, transforming the modern understanding of ancient Egypt.

Frequently asked questions

Are hieroglyphs a picture language?

Not exactly; the system mixed signs for sounds with signs for whole words and others that clarified meaning, so it was more complex than simple pictures.

What did the Egyptians write on for everyday use?

For everyday documents they wrote on papyrus using faster, simplified handwritten forms of the script rather than full carved hieroglyphs.

How were hieroglyphs deciphered?

The Rosetta Stone carried the same text in hieroglyphs, a later Egyptian script and Greek; reading the Greek let scholars work out the Egyptian signs.