Hieroglyph is an extinct pictographic writing template, used mainly by the old egyptian society and by some American Indian groups, such as the mayas and the aztecs.
Hieroglyphic language is considered enigmatic and difficult to understand, as there are approximately seven thousand different types of signs.
Although hieroglyphs are part of other civilizations, it was the Egyptians who most used this type of writing.
Some scholars consider hieroglyphics to be the oldest organized writing in the world, dating back approximately four thousand years before Christ.
Etymologically, this term originated from the junction of two Greek words: hieros, which means "sacred" and glýphein, which means “writing”.
Hieroglyphs were expressed through symbols and drawings, which could represent ideas, concepts, objects, animals and even emotions or feelings.
As it is considered a sacred script, hieroglyphs were used only by priests, royalty and scribes, who had the power to interpret the symbols and reproduce them.
Over the centuries and due to its complexity, hieroglyphic writing was being forgotten, until it came into complete disuse. The last hieroglyphic record would have been made around the 5th century d. Ç.
It was only in the 19th century that part of the Egyptian hieroglyphs would have been deciphered again, when the Egyptologist and French linguist Jean-François Champollion, between 1822 and 1824, would have translated some texts from the famous Stone of Rosette.
See also: the meaning of Ideogram.
egyptian hieroglyphs
For the Egyptians, hieroglyphs were a sacred script, used only for religious purposes, such as on temple walls, in tombs or sarcophagi.
The Egyptians called the hieroglyphs the medju-netjer, which means "words of the gods". According to Egyptian mythology, it would have been the goddess seshat creating the hieroglyphs and the god Thoth taught this language to the Egyptians.
Egyptian hieroglyphs would have undergone some transformations over the millennia in which it was used.
O hieratic it was a more stylized and cursive variant of the hieroglyph, ideal for painting on papyrus or clay objects.
With the growing Greek influence, writing shifted to the demotic, when hieroglyphics started to be represented in an even more stylized way, even absorbing some of the signs of the Greek writing.
The belief of the Egyptian people that hieroglyphs had magical powers was quite strong. It was said that a person's name, when written in hieroglyphics, embodied all that being's energy and soul.
If the name were damaged, the person's identity would be lost. For this reason, the pharaohs usually destroyed the plaques with the inscriptions of the names of succeeding emperors or those who were enemies.
hieroglyph or hieroglyph
Both spellings are correct in Portuguese: hieroglyph or hieroglyph.
According to the norm, this word accepts the two different types of pronunciation, thus being able to present or not the acute accent in the letter “o”.
