MUSIC Philip Bohlman
HUMAN EVOLUTION
AFRICAN HISTORY
Bernard Wood
John Parker and Richard Rathbone
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea
Paul Wilkinson
BUDDHIST ETHICS
JAZZ Brian Morton
Damien Keown
MANDELA Tom Lodge
CHAOS Leonard Smith
MEDICAL ETHICS
CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead
Tony Hope
CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy
THE MIND Martin Davies
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE
NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
Robert Tavernor
PERCEPTION Richard Gregory
CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
CONTEMPORARY ART
Jack Copeland and
Julian Stallabrass
Diane Proudfoot
THE CRUSADES
PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards
Christopher Tyerman
THE RAJ Denis Judd
Derrida Simon Glendinning
THE RENAISSANCE
DESIGN John Heskett
Jerry Brotton
Dinosaurs David Norman
RENAISSANCE ART
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson
Geraldine Johnson
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta
SARTRE Christina Howells
THE END OF THE WORLD
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
Bill McGuire
Helen Graham
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn
TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Michael Howard
Martin Conway
For more information visit our web site
www.oup.co.uk/vsi
Penelope Wilson
HIEROGLYPHS
A Very Short Introduction
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford o x 2 6 d p
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Penelope Wilson 2003
The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published as an Oxford University Press Hardback 2003
First published as a Very Short Introduction 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available
ISBN 13:
–
978 0–19–280502–7
ISBN 10: 0–19–280502–9
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
List of illustrations ix
1
The origins of writing in Egypt 1
2
Hieroglyphic script and Egyptian language 17
3
Hieroglyphs and art 38
4
‘I know you, I know your names’ 56
5
Scribes and everyday writing 70
6
The decipherment of Egyptian 86
7
Hieroglyphs in the modern world 103
Notes 111
Chronology 118
Further reading 120
Index 123
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank George Miller at OUP for first approaching me to write this book and Emily Jolliffe for helping me through the process.
I was lucky enough to be taught by Professor ‘Peter’ Shore and some of the discussions here stem directly from him, though some years ago now. I was especially glad to track down the Nekau II scarab discussed in Chapter 7 as I remembered it as a Christmas homework exercise from my first year at university. It has taken until now for me to realize how interesting it was. I would like to thank Roger Dickinson, Wendy
HUMAN EVOLUTION
AFRICAN HISTORY
Bernard Wood
John Parker and Richard Rathbone
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea
Paul Wilkinson
BUDDHIST ETHICS
JAZZ Brian Morton
Damien Keown
MANDELA Tom Lodge
CHAOS Leonard Smith
MEDICAL ETHICS
CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead
Tony Hope
CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy
THE MIND Martin Davies
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE
NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
Robert Tavernor
PERCEPTION Richard Gregory
CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
CONTEMPORARY ART
Jack Copeland and
Julian Stallabrass
Diane Proudfoot
THE CRUSADES
PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards
Christopher Tyerman
THE RAJ Denis Judd
Derrida Simon Glendinning
THE RENAISSANCE
DESIGN John Heskett
Jerry Brotton
Dinosaurs David Norman
RENAISSANCE ART
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson
Geraldine Johnson
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta
SARTRE Christina Howells
THE END OF THE WORLD
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
Bill McGuire
Helen Graham
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn
TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Michael Howard
Martin Conway
For more information visit our web site
www.oup.co.uk/vsi
Penelope Wilson
HIEROGLYPHS
A Very Short Introduction
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford o x 2 6 d p
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Penelope Wilson 2003
The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published as an Oxford University Press Hardback 2003
First published as a Very Short Introduction 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available
ISBN 13:
–
978 0–19–280502–7
ISBN 10: 0–19–280502–9
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
List of illustrations ix
1
The origins of writing in Egypt 1
2
Hieroglyphic script and Egyptian language 17
3
Hieroglyphs and art 38
4
‘I know you, I know your names’ 56
5
Scribes and everyday writing 70
6
The decipherment of Egyptian 86
7
Hieroglyphs in the modern world 103
Notes 111
Chronology 118
Further reading 120
Index 123
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank George Miller at OUP for first approaching me to write this book and Emily Jolliffe for helping me through the process.
I was lucky enough to be taught by Professor ‘Peter’ Shore and some of the discussions here stem directly from him, though some years ago now. I was especially glad to track down the Nekau II scarab discussed in Chapter 7 as I remembered it as a Christmas homework exercise from my first year at university. It has taken until now for me to realize how interesting it was. I would like to thank Roger Dickinson, Wendy
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