ABC of Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Front Cover
Ashmolean Museum, 1994 - Foreign Language Study - 48 pages
The ancient Egyptians used pictures - each representing a word, a syllable or a sound - for writing. The alphabet itself consisted of 24 signs and there were over 700 different signs in all. These signs, or letters, are known as Hieroglyphs and were first used around 3000 BC and only replaced by coptic (a form of Greek script) in the fourth century BC as being considered unsuitable for the writing of Christian texts.

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1994)

Jaromir Malek holds a doctorate in Egyptology from Charles University, Prague and is the editor of the Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. He resides in Oxford, England.

Bibliographic information