Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Picture Writing 3000 BC

Scholars tried to figure out this writing system after it had been "dead" for 1500 years. The symbols were such realistic pictures that for years they were thought to symbolize what they looked like. But the symbols could not be read as the things they pictured.

In form the system had not evolved beyond pictures, but in function it had evolved into a combination system like cuneiform.

A copy from a thirteenth century B.C. inscription in the temple of Ramses II at Thebes. The pictures say, "Aset, great female, mother of the god, mistress of heaven.