This video provides a foundational guide to reading ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, presented by Rob Words with expert insights from Elona Regulski, a curator at the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. The tutorial breaks down the core principles of the writing system using artifacts from the museum, including the tomb inscription of an official named Metjen.
Key concepts covered include determining the reading direction by observing which way animal and human figures are facing, and the order of reading signs within a block (top-to-bottom). The video explains the different functions of hieroglyphs: as phonetic signs representing one, two, or three consonant sounds; as logograms representing a whole word; and as silent "classifiers" or "determinatives" that clarify a word's meaning. Other important linguistic features are discussed, such as the general absence of written vowels, the use of cartouches for royal names, methods for forming plurals, and the marking of grammatical gender. The lesson culminates in a practical demonstration, applying the learned rules to successfully decipher the hieroglyphs for the god Anubis.
A Beginner's Guide to Reading Egyptian Hieroglyphs
0:01:01 Hieroglyphs vs. Hieroglyphic: The video clarifies the correct terminology: "hieroglyphs" is the noun for the signs themselves, while "hieroglyphic" is the adjective used to describe the writing system (e.g., "hieroglyphic writing").
0:02:36 Determining Reading Direction: The first crucial step is to identify which way to read. Ancient Egyptian text is read from top to bottom, and the direction (left-to-right or right-to-left) is determined by the way human and animal figures are facing—they always look toward the beginning of the line.
0:05:41 Order of Reading: Within a word or phrase, signs are read in a specific order: from top to bottom, and then across in the established direction of the text. An exception is "honorific transposition," where the sign for a god or king is often moved to the front of a word out of respect.
0:07:07 Signs as Sounds (Phonograms): Many hieroglyphs function like letters, representing consonant sounds. The video explains that there are signs for single sounds (e.g., an owl for 'm'), two sounds (e.g., a throw stick for 'tj-n'), and three sounds.
0:10:27 A Vowel-Free Writing System: A key takeaway is that hieroglyphic writing generally omits vowels. To make the words pronounceable, modern Egyptologists insert placeholder vowels, typically an 'e' sound, between the consonants. This means we don't know for sure how ancient Egyptian was pronounced.
0:12:13 Cartouches Identify Royalty: An oval ring, known as a cartouche, was used exclusively to enclose the names of pharaohs. This feature was instrumental in the original decipherment of hieroglyphs, as it allowed researchers to easily identify and compare royal names on artifacts like the Rosetta Stone.
0:13:00 Classifiers Clarify Meaning: Many words end with a silent sign called a classifier (or determinative) that provides a contextual clue about the word's meaning. For example, a pair of walking legs indicates a word related to movement, while a seated man can indicate a person or profession.
0:15:25 Forming Plurals: Plurals were typically formed in one of two ways: by repeating a sign three times, or by adding three small vertical strokes at the end of the word.
0:17:37 Punctuation and Gender: The writing system contains no punctuation. Additionally, nouns have grammatical gender (masculine or feminine), with feminine words often marked by a small bread loaf sign.
0:18:22 Deciphering a God's Name: The video concludes by applying all the learned rules to read the hieroglyphs for the god of the underworld. The signs spell out "Inpu," which was the ancient Egyptian name for the god we know by the Greek name, Anubis.