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...
