Question

Egyptians developed hieroglyphics as a system of writing. In addition to scribes, who used hieroglypics to record important information?

Answer 1

Only the higher classes of society could read hieroglyphs. This usually included priests and government officials. The main reason for this was the fact that education was not widespread or easily accessible to the masses in Egypt. Due to the restricted nature of this knowledge, when the political and social structure of Egypt changed, the knowledge of how to decipher these symbols died out, and they were only deciphered once more in modern times.

Answer 2

The hieroglyphics were used by priests and government bureaucrats. Therefore, only high-class people used hieroglyphics.

 

EXPLANATION:  

The Egyptian hieroglyphic script was a writing system used by ancient Egyptians to represent their language. Since the elegance of their images, Herodotus and other significant Greeks convinced that Egyptian hieroglyphics were sacred things. Therefore, they were called 'holy writing'.  

 

The word hieroglyphics derives from the word hiero which means 'holy' and glypho which means 'writing'. These two words are from Greek. In the language of ancient Egyptian, hieroglyphics were called medu netjer, 'the words of the gods' because it was thought that writing was the gods’ invention.

 

The script consisted of three types of signs: logograms, signifying words; phonograms, signifying the sound; and determinatives, positioned at the end of words to help clarify their meaning. As a consequence, several signs employed by the Egyptians were much higher than the alphabetical systems, with more than a thousand different hieroglyphs used early and then reduced to around 750 during the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BC).  

In 1820 AD, the Frenchman Jean-François Champollion notably described hieroglyphics using the 2nd century BC Rosetta Stone with triple text Hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek. Egyptian hieroglyphs are recited either in columns from in rows from the right or from the left or top to bottom.  

 

As Egyptian writing grew, various versions of Egyptian hieroglyphic texts were developed besides traditional hieroglyphics. There were also two cursive counterparts: hieratic and demotic.

 Hieroglyphic was the oldest version of the manuscript, depicted by a sophisticated pictorial look. These signs are usually found in monument inscriptions and burial contexts.

 Hieratic was made by priests and temple writers who wanted to simplify the hieroglyphics writing process. Therefore, it became gradually piecemeal and passed down into the 'priestly' hierarchical text.

 Demotic was even shorter, this script was lack of pictorial traces known as demotic 'popular' came to the use for around the 7th century BC. The Egyptians often called it sekh shat, which means "writing for documents".

LEARN MORE:  

If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, we recommend you to also take a look at the following questions:

• What is the definition for hieroglyph? brainly.com/question/9246972

• Which of these best describes hieroglyphics? brainly.com/question/316761

KEYWORDS : Hieroglyphics, Egyptians’ Writing System, Herodotus  

Subject  : History

Class  : 10-12

Sub-Chapter : Egyptians’ Writing System