Hieroglyphics

Sacred carvings or writings. The Egyptian picture-writing was originally wholly pictorial. It then became partly ideographic, and finally partly alphabetic. In the earliest shape known to us (4000 B.C.) all these stages are combined, and they continued in combination till the final decay of the system, ab. 250. Thus the picture of a lion (Egyptian lubo ) may mean an actual lion, or the idea of strength, or the sound of the letter 1. Besides the monumental carved hieroglyphics, others of a more conventional character, called Hieratic, were used on papyrus. A still more highly developed cursive form is known as Demotic. It is now widely believed that our own alphabet is derived from the alphabetic hieroglyphics by way of the Phenic i an. Thus our letter H is a pic ture of a sieve, first made as a circle with one cro -bar. The circle was turned by Phenic i an writing into a square with a cro -bar, and the upper or lower lines of the square were finally eliminated, giving the early form of the Greek H. For the deciphering of the hieroglyphics see CHAM POLL I ON, YOUNG, and ROSETTA STONE, also PAPYRUS. The term is now extended to other similar systems, of which the most important are those of Mexico and Central America. The Mayan writings have not yet been translated. Their simple elements are not numerous, but are combined to form composite characters, of which in the Dresden Codex there are ab. 700.