Brief 4 : Write Your Own Egyptian Hieroglyphs

This week I also went to Liverpool World Museum to go round their Egyptian Exhibition, visit the Tate and the Walker Gallery to get a mini break of inspiration to re-boost me over easter. When attending Manchester Museum I started to take an interest in the way the Egyptians set out their hieroglyphs thinking from a modern point of view of setting out/design a typeface considering and analysing the rules used within typography. I bought the book below to help me and Oli Out with getting started on our publication, I thought it would be a good idea to use some of the characters to set out different chapters or themes linked around the hieroglyph being used.

The link below also really helps to clear up a myth thats been floating around about hieroglyphs that depict advanced technology within the pyramids of Giza.

http://members.tripod.com/~A_U_R_A/abydos.html

Main Things to Consider when Writing in Hieroglyphs

II. Nature of the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic writings:

The written Ancient Egyptian Language is not alphabetic. So, one can't read or (write) Egyptian words using a series of simple letters or phonemes. It depends solely on bilateral phonetic signs. Therefore, any Egyptian word could be written in avariety of ways depending on what proper bilateral signs should be used.

III. Reading Rules:

The following important rules and remarks should be followed **strictly** for the sake of correct reading (and writing) of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic texts, taken from the 'Alsaadawi's Theory On True Hieroglyphs':

1. The sequence of reading successive signs should be followed exactly, and there is no exception for that.

It means that one could never read the second or third sign then return to read the first sign. This is an absolute ERROR.

2. There are two groups of basic Egyptian Hieroglyphs: