Hieroglyphics: prospering

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Popular translations of the enigmatic Egyptian hieroglyphics into the Roman alphabet abound. But the ancient symbol system actually has many more complex rules governing its use—and during the era of the pharaohs, only a privileged few could read or write the symbols.

Despite appearances, most symbols do not represent the thing pictured; instead, they each denote a different phoneme (a basic unit of sound), or a category of meaning. The hieroglyphic system comprised the basic "alphabet" of single-consonant symbols, broader sets of two- and three-consonant symbols, and determinative symbols (symbols without phonetic value that put strings of consonants—words—into some context, thereby giving them specific meaning). During Egypt's classical period (1539-1292 BC) hieroglyphs numbered about 700, though grew considerably in number through proliferation by scholars in later years¹.

For example, the ancient hieroglyph counterpart for our verb "to prosper" would be drawn as:

The hieroglyph can be broken down into three symbols for sounds:

which makeup the spoken part of the Egyptian word, and the final two symbols,

the lasso and the papyrus scroll tell the reader what meaning the word has, since the same pronunciation in a different context can mean different things. As the Greeks' presence in Egypt grew (beginning in the fourth century BC) and rulers of Greek descent took the Egyptian throne (the Ptolemies, from 305 to 30 BC), hieroglyphics could be used strictly for their phonetic value to spell out their names, as shown here for Alexander the Great in this "cartouche" (a symbol that denoted a pharaoh's name):

Alexander cartouche from "Fascinating Hieroglyphs" p58

With the decline of the Egyptian language, hieroglyphics were used by fewer and fewer people, and became more associated with magical incantations. The last message recorded in hieroglyphic was carved in stone at the Egyptian temple at Philae, circa August 24, 394 AD².

Raising and increasing revenue in complex times is a challenge. How do you maintain revenue streams? How do you keep your organization stable and healthy? How do you prosper? Effective communications can make a difference.

Throughout our nearly quarter century of helping organizations achieve their goals, we have developed communication programs that anticipate the future for organizations of diverse scale and scope—start-up to centenarians. Explore our client credentials, learn more about how we think, follow the trail below to more information about Egyptian hieroglyphics, or contact us to learn how we can help you build effective communications systems.

1, 2. Encyclopaedia Britannica p1038.

Writing Encyclopaedia Britannica. 15th ed. 2002.

Jacq, Christian. Fascinating hieroglyphics: Discovering, decoding, & understanding the ancient art. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 1997.

Loprieno, Antonio. Ancient Egyptian: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

McDermott, Bridget. Decoding Egyptian hieroglyphs: How to read the secret language of the pharaohs. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001.

Parkinson, Richard. Cracking codes: The Rosetta Stone and decipherment. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1999.

Rossini, Stephane. Egyptian hieroglyphics: How to read and write them. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1989.

Wrixon, Fred B. Codes, ciphers & other cryptic & clandestine communication: making and breaking secret messages from hieroglyphics to the Internet. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 1998.

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