Friday, June 12, 2009

Learning Hieroglyphics...


I'm learning to read hieroglyphics...
trying to anyway...

Hieroglyphics: the sweet-looking writings of the ancient Egyptians.
I know what you're thinking: this guy is the biggest nerd I've (n)ever seen!

Well, yes... I am...
BUT I figure it will help me in my hopeful future as an archaeologist/historian/professor/whatever else...

This stuff is hard! Going into it, I knew that it was going to be difficult... but wow! I knew that I had to learn all the symbols and the combinations of symbols... but it somehow slipped my mind that even though we can transliterate them into what phonetically sounds like English, I also have to learn the Egyptian language in order to be able to read anything but names... although I have to say... to be able to look at a hieroglyph on a massive stone column or a piece of papyrus and be able to tell who the symbols are referring to is pretty freakin' sweet if you ask me...

anyway... there are a couple more books I need that are much better than this one such as Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs and Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian. They go hand-in-hand and I think they'll be very useful...

I honestly think Egypt will be the next foreign land I scamper off to...
Also... I found a website for buying life-size replicas of ancient artifacts such as the Narmer Palette, the Rosetta Stone, and King Tutankhamen's burial mask... those are the ones I really want anyway... hahaha... (www.museumstorecompany.com) also some canopic jars would be awesome! They're the jars that were buried with the mummies that contained the organs! hahaha! or maybe a scarab... ah... who knows what I'll end up getting...

2 comments:

  1. Hahaha, you are a big nerd...but I'm glad you're enjoying it. And yes, that is pretty sweet.

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  2. Just think, the last one you started learning was Farsi. Is this easier than that???
    Good luck with it, it would be SOOOOO cool to be able to read what you're saying.

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