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| 0:00 | · | Just have a look at these hieroglyphs. |
| 0:02 | · | They're pretty aren't they? |
| 0:04 | · | But they're also gibberish, right? |
| 0:07 | · | Well, by the end of this video, I promise you that they won't be. |
| 0:12 | · | You're going to understand exactly what this means and why |
| 0:16 | · | and you're going to understand what a load of other hieroglyphs mean too. |
| 0:20 | · | Let's get started with another RobWords. |
| 0:24 | · | This is the Egyptian Museum inside Berlin's Neues Museum. They've been |
| 0:28 | · | kind enough to let me loose among all of these astounding ancient artefacts. |
| 0:32 | · | Did you know that ancient Egypt was already ancient before it was over? |
| 0:37 | · | Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of the Ninja air fryer |
| 0:40 | · | than to the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza. |
| 0:43 | · | Amazing. |
| 0:44 | · | Anyway, many of the sarcophagi – or sarcophaguses, take your pick – |
| 0:48 | · | that you see surrounding me are adorned with these curious signs. |
| 0:53 | · | Writings from ancient times. |
| 0:56 | · | Writings that we call hieroglyphics. |
| 1:00 | · | Or do we? |
| 1:01 | · | I would say hieroglyphs. |
| 1:02 | · | That's Ilona Regulski, curator here, and a world authority on Ancient Egypt. |
| 1:08 | · | So I just got it wrong. |
| 1:09 | · | What's the difference between hieroglyphs and hieroglyphics? |
| 1:12 | · | It's not written in stone, no pun intended. |
| 1:15 | · | Not intended, are you sure? Yeah. |
| 1:17 | · | Hieroglyphs is the noun. |
| 1:20 | · | Hieroglyphic is the adjective. |
| 1:23 | · | So you refer to hieroglyphic writing, |
| 1:26 | · | but they are hieroglyphs. |
| 1:28 | · | Hieroglyph literally means "sacred carving" and Ilona's going to help us get to grips |
| 1:33 | · | with the basics of learning how to read them |
| 1:36 | · | using the real life Egyptian artefacts here at the museum, |
| 1:39 | · | beginning with this monumental – quite literally – inscription from |
| 1:43 | · | the tomb of a district governor called Metjen. |
| 1:47 | · | This is his name, Metjen. |
| 1:50 | · | I'm going to show you how to read that, but first: |
| 1:53 | · | What's the overall message of what we're looking at here? |
| 1:57 | · | Yeah. This is part of a biography. |
| 1:59 | · | It's actually the oldest biography we have from ancient Egypt and maybe in the entire world. |
| 2:05 | · | Wow |
| 2:05 | · | I don't know of any other biographical text that consists of long sentences |
| 2:10 | · | that we have anywhere, really, from 2600 BC. |
| 2:15 | · | So this is more than 4,000 years old. |
| 2:17 | · | Unbelievable. So this is perhaps the oldest, detailed life story in the world. |
| 2:22 | · | So how on earth do we understand it? |
| 2:24 | · | Well, if you ever find yourself presented with some hieroglyphs for whatever reason, |
| 2:29 | · | your first thought might be, "Where do I start?" |
| 2:33 | · | And that is a very appropriate question, |
| 2:36 | · | because the first thing you need to work out before you can start reading |
| 2:39 | · | is where the thing begins and in which direction you should read it. |
| 2:44 | · | Well, Ancient Egyptian texts are read from top to bottom, like we're used to, |
| 2:49 | · | but they can be read either from left to right, like we read, |
| 2:53 | · | or from right to left. |
| 2:58 | · | Confusing. |
| 2:59 | · | However, there is a very clever way to immediately know which direction you're dealing with. |
| 3:04 | · | If you look at the entire text, if you zoom out a little bit, |
| 3:08 | · | we know that we start reading on the right-hand side. |
| 3:12 | · | How do we know this? |
| 3:14 | · | Because we have certain signs that have clear fronts and backs, |
| 3:18 | · | like a bird or human being, or here this decapitated animal. |
| 3:24 | · | They all look… |
| 3:25 | · | It's meant to have no head? |
| 3:26 | · | Yes, it's meant to be like this. |
| 3:28 | · | They look at the beginning of the text. |
| 3:30 | · | So we know in this case that we have to start reading here. |
| 3:33 | · | There are a few exceptions to that with religious text, |
| 3:36 | · | but in general, this is the rule. |
| 3:38 | · | So look for the people and animals, |
| 3:39 | · | and they will always be looking at the beginning, |
| 3:42 | · | staring into your face as you approach them. |
| 3:45 | · | Now, you may already know that the Rosetta Stone – |
| 3:47 | · | the ancient tablet containing the same message in Greek, Demotic and Hieroglyphic script – |
| 3:53 | · | was of course key to deciphering hieroglyphics. |
| 3:56 | · | So I am delighted to say that this video is sponsored by |
| 3:59 | · | [most of the ad text redacted] |
| 4:37 | · | One of the fascinating things I learnt from Babbel is something |
| 4:40 | · | that Swedish has in common with Ancient Egyptian. |
| 4:43 | · | It has no word for "the". |
| 4:46 | · | [the rest of the ad text redacted] |
| 5:20 | · | So we already discussed the direction in which you read an overall text, |
| 5:23 | · | but you'll notice that in hieroglyphs, words, like our pal Metjen's name, |
| 5:28 | · | which can be written like this, or like this, which it is in this case, |
| 5:32 | · | are written in their own little blocks with some signs next to one another, |
| 5:37 | · | and others one on top of the other. |
| 5:39 | · | So again, we need to know in which order to read them. |
| 5:44 | · | And, once again, there are simple rules. |
| 5:47 | · | Just read into the front of the faces again |
| 5:50 | · | and read the top signs before the bottom ones.. |
| 5:53 | · | So our dead fella's name should be read in this order. |
| 5:56 | · | Or if the text were linear: like this. |
| 5:59 | · | Now, as with any good linguistic rule, there are exceptions. |
| 6:03 | · | If a sign makes mention of a god, for example, |
| 6:05 | · | it'll often get boosted to the start of the word. |
| 6:08 | · | Quite right too. |
| 6:09 | · | For example, the titles of a lot of kings end with a declaration "son of Re" |
| 6:14 | · | all kings being direct descendents of the Sun god, Re or Ra, |
| 6:18 | · | represented by the sign of the sundisc. |
| 6:20 | · | Despite this "Re" being at the end of their names, the sundisc usually goes at the start, |
| 6:26 | · | out of Re-spect. |
| 6:30 | · | Before we can draw out Metjen's name from these hieroglyphs, |
| 6:33 | · | we need to understand what each of them means. |
| 6:36 | · | Now, sometimes, one of these little pictures represents the thing it's a drawing of. |
| 6:40 | · | Don't overthink it. |
| 6:41 | · | Sometimes an arm just means arm, or a face just means face. |
| 6:45 | · | Usually these are accompanied by a line to show you that you should take them literally, |
| 6:50 | · | but that's what they mean. |
| 6:51 | · | Or a pair of legs can just mean "legs". |
| 6:55 | · | But far more often than not, you can't take the signs on face value. |
| 7:01 | · | Not even the face. |
| 7:02 | · | They can signify a few different things. |
| 7:05 | · | Some signs are letters. |
| 7:08 | · | Some signs represent one letter. |
| 7:10 | · | For example, this wavy line here is the letter N. |
| 7:14 | · | Ah. That's the same sign as we've got here. |
| 7:17 | · | So that means an N, does it? |
| 7:19 | · | People could say this is an alphabetic letter because it's one sign for one letter. |
| 7:24 | · | But I prefer not to use this term because it's confusing because |
| 7:27 | · | we also have two-letter signs and we have three-letter signs. |
| 7:31 | · | Right, so these are the hieroglyphs that we, |
| 7:33 | · | as folk who are used to using an alphabet, |
| 7:35 | · | can most easily get our heads around. |
| 7:37 | · | Signs representing specific sounds. |
| 7:40 | · | Put these sounds in the right order and you get a word. |
| 7:44 | · | And it really does work like that. |
| 7:46 | · | This picture of a mouth on its own represents an R sound like rr. |
| 7:51 | · | A leg on its own is a b sound, and this cute little sign |
| 7:55 | · | called the loaf represents a t sound. |
| 7:59 | · | Line them up and you get a hieroglyphic rendering of my name, |
| 8:04 | · | R-b-t |
| 8:05 | · | Robert. |
| 8:06 | · | You should try doing this with your own name. |
| 8:08 | · | Pop it in the comments as well. |
| 8:09 | · | Here are some more of the single letter hieroglyphs. |
| 8:12 | · | This horned viper represents a fuh sound, an F. |
| 8:15 | · | This little rectangle, sometimes called the stool or mat, represents a puh, a P sound. |
| 8:21 | · | This adorable little quail chick is usually transliterated as a w, |
| 8:25 | · | although it can make an oo sound. |
| 8:27 | · | The reed is gentle yuh sound, transliterated with an i, |
| 8:32 | · | the tethering rope makes a tuh or tjuh sound, |
| 8:36 | · | and this owly guy is a muh. |
| 8:40 | · | Now, I mention specifically those last two because lookie here, |
| 8:45 | · | they feature in our dead fella's name. |
| 8:47 | · | And remember what order we said we had to read them? |
| 8:50 | · | So say it with me: m-tj-n. |
| 8:55 | · | It's our guy's name, Metjen. |
| 8:57 | · | But what of this left-over character? |
| 9:00 | · | Well, do you remember how Ilona just mentioned that there are |
| 9:02 | · | also hieroglyphs that represent two letters… |
| 9:05 | · | We also have two-letter signs. |
| 9:07 | · | [In booming slo-mo] Two letter signs. |
| 9:09 | · | Well that's what this is. |
| 9:10 | · | It's known as the throw stick and it represents a T and an N together, pronounced tjen. |
| 9:17 | · | That's right, it makes the same sound as these two signs together, |
| 9:21 | · | the end of the name Metjen. |
| 9:23 | · | So we have a doubling up here, don't we? |
| 9:26 | · | And that's because these two signs are technically what are called complements. |
| 9:31 | · | What they're doing here is telling you what that stick means, |
| 9:35 | · | because that stick has lots of different meanings in different contexts. |
| 9:39 | · | It can mean "throw" or even "foreigner", depending on where it is. |
| 9:44 | · | But no. In this case it's there because of the sound it makes, |
| 9:47 | · | and these two other signs are confirming that. |
| 9:50 | · | You might be thinking, "Hold on, that stick is the wrong side of the bird." |
| 9:55 | · | And technically, yes it is, |
| 9:57 | · | and I'm very impressed that you noticed. |
| 9:59 | · | Ilona told me it was probably just an artistic choice by whoever inscribed this. |
| 10:03 | · | Although, I have noticed some scribes like to put sticks next to the front of birds |
| 10:07 | · | to make it look a bit like they're sitting on it. |
| 10:09 | · | I don't know if that could be it. |
| 10:11 | · | Maybe. |
| 10:12 | · | But I digress. |
| 10:14 | · | I now need to speak about something you'll no doubt have noticed |
| 10:17 | · | and that's that r-b-t and m-tj-n, seem incomplete. |
| 10:22 | · | We've missed off a load of the letters from the word, haven't we?. Why? |
| 10:26 | · | Well, that is because hieroglyphic writing is a vowel free zone. |
| 10:31 | · | Hieroglyphs generally only cover the consonants. |
| 10:34 | · | Again, there are exceptions like the "ee" sound at the end of a name like Senbi, |
| 10:39 | · | or the oo sound in Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza. |
| 10:43 | · | But otherwise, they honestly aren't there. |
| 10:47 | · | Like they aren't there in Metjen. |
| 10:49 | · | So how do we know what these words sounded like then? Well… |
| 10:55 | · | we don't. |
| 10:56 | · | Not based on the hieroglyphs anyway. |
| 10:58 | · | It's possible to get clues from later versions of the language, like Coptic. |
| 11:01 | · | Or for the names of Kings, we can look at what people speaking other languages called them, |
| 11:06 | · | but otherwise Egyptologists don't know for certain |
| 11:08 | · | what the vowel sounds between the consonants actually were. |
| 11:12 | · | Therefore, to enable them to make sense of the words before them, |
| 11:14 | · | Egyptologists instead insert their own, I suppose, placeholder vowels. |
| 11:19 | · | This usually involves just putting in an E or an eh sound in between the consonants. |
| 11:23 | · | This is not meant to sound like ancient Egyptian, |
| 11:26 | · | it's just supposed to help with the reading. |
| 11:29 | · | But it means that a lot of our modern attempts at ancient Egyptian words have eh sounds in them |
| 11:35 | · | where originally they potentially didn't. |
| 11:37 | · | Take Metjen. His name might have been Metjen. |
| 11:40 | · | But it might have been Matjin, Mutjan or Metjun. |
| 11:45 | · | Nobody really knows. |
| 11:46 | · | If somehow I managed to travel back in time to ancient Egypt, install myself as King |
| 11:50 | · | perhaps by showing off my fancy CASIO watch |
| 11:53 | · | And I died a regal death, the scribes might have written this above my tomb. |
| 11:58 | · | And modern day Egyptologists would be calling me "Rebet". |
| 12:03 | · | Rebet the First. |
| 12:05 | · | By the way, how do you like my cartouche? |
| 12:06 | · | The cartouche is the ring around my name. |
| 12:10 | · | Having one is an honour reserved only for royal names. |
| 12:13 | · | It was the realisation that the signs written within these easy-to-spot rings |
| 12:17 | · | were the names of Pharaohs that was key to deciphering hieroglyphs. |
| 12:21 | · | For example, on the Rosetta Stone researchers were able |
| 12:23 | · | to cross-reference the signs in the cartouches |
| 12:26 | · | with the names written in the Greek and Demotic versions. |
| 12:30 | · | Pretty smart. |
| 12:31 | · | Ilona actually spent a good period of her career with the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum. |
| 12:36 | · | So let's get her help with understanding some more of the types of hieroglyphs |
| 12:40 | · | other than the literal ones and the ones that represent sounds, as we've discussed. |
| 12:45 | · | What others are there? |
| 12:46 | · | We have signs that can represent an entire word |
| 12:50 | · | or we have signs that we call classifiers, |
| 12:54 | · | which means that it enhances the meaning of the group of hieroglyphs that precedes it. |
| 13:00 | · | Now classifiers are really interesting. |
| 13:03 | · | They're sometimes called determinatives too, |
| 13:05 | · | but don't let the academic names put you off, |
| 13:08 | · | they're one of my favourite aspects of hieroglyphic writing. |
| 13:10 | · | What they do is give you a little hint as to what the word they're attached to means. |
| 13:15 | · | This is way more useful than it sounds. |
| 13:19 | · | If two "words" are otherwise identical, the classifier is going to help you tell them apart. |
| 13:24 | · | So, imagine if we had two ways of writing "present". |
| 13:28 | · | One where we put a little picture of a gift after it |
| 13:31 | · | and another where we put a clock. |
| 13:34 | · | You'd never be in any doubt as to which of the two meanings of present was meant by the word. |
| 13:40 | · | Or a better example: say if we wrote one version of "bow" with a picture of a weapon, |
| 13:45 | · | another with a picture of some clothing, |
| 13:48 | · | and another with a picture of a person. |
| 13:49 | · | You'd be able to tell apart a bow and arrow, |
| 13:52 | · | a bow on a baby's booties, |
| 13:53 | · | and a "bow", an action. |
| 13:56 | · | And if we had another with a picture of a ship, |
| 13:59 | · | you'd know we meant the bow of a boat. |
| 14:02 | · | This is how classifiers work. |
| 14:04 | · | Here's how they play out with hieroglyphs. |
| 14:06 | · | The word for a scribe, somebody who writes, |
| 14:10 | · | or the verb to write, or the noun, a book, |
| 14:14 | · | uses the same core of letters, so it's the same stem of the word. |
| 14:17 | · | The classifier will tell you what it is, which one of it. |
| 14:21 | · | So the scribe will have a seated man. |
| 14:24 | · | The verb will have the same stem. |
| 14:27 | · | The book will have the classifier of the papyrus roll. |
| 14:30 | · | So, if you start learning, if you start reading, you "sesh" |
| 14:33 | · | Okay, it can be this, this, this, this. |
| 14:35 | · | And then the classifier will tell you which one of those you have to choose. |
| 14:39 | · | And it's particularly elegant that the classifier does give you a genuine hint. |
| 14:43 | · | Even if you don't understand hieroglyphs, the idea that movement is expressed by two |
| 14:47 | · | walking legs is a very easy one to relate to, isn't it? |
| 14:50 | · | Yeah. |
| 14:51 | · | Here are some more classifiers. |
| 14:52 | · | This guy attached to a word tells you it relates to a god or a king. |
| 14:57 | · | It often appears in Gods' names. |
| 14:59 | · | And this tiny sparrow fella tells you that you're dealing with something small |
| 15:05 | · | Or in fact, by extension, something bad, |
| 15:09 | · | which seems harsh on sparrows. |
| 15:11 | · | I like them |
| 15:12 | · | So those are classifiers. They're kind of cool. |
| 15:14 | · | Not that cool. |
| 15:15 | · | That cool. |
| 15:17 | · | Now where next? Well, there are a few things left to discuss. |
| 15:20 | · | In fact "things" is an example of one of them. |
| 15:24 | · | Let's talk about plurals. |
| 15:25 | · | Now, we turn one into the many by sticking an -s or -es at the end of it, usually. |
| 15:31 | · | But that is not how the ancient Egyptians did it. |
| 15:35 | · | You see the round hieroglyph there? |
| 15:36 | · | Yeah. |
| 15:37 | · | Three times, the same hieroglyph usually means a plural. |
| 15:41 | · | And the hieroglyph itself depicts a city. |
| 15:44 | · | That's a city? |
| 15:46 | · | Yes. So well, in the very simplified form that- |
| 15:49 | · | It's abstract. |
| 15:50 | · | It's very abstract. It's actually the main crossroads of a city, |
| 15:53 | · | and cities were probably around. |
| 15:55 | · | So tripling the sign is one way to make a plural. |
| 15:58 | · | Another is more similar to our method of adding an S. |
| 16:01 | · | You can be created by adding this guy, the quail chick. |
| 16:07 | · | So, this is bird. The singular bird, despite the word itself already having two birds in it. |
| 16:15 | · | To make that the plural birds, we can add the tiny quail. |
| 16:19 | · | It's then also convention to add three little dashes to reinforce the plurality. |
| 16:24 | · | And all together that's "birds". |
| 16:28 | · | Sometimes the scribe won't bother with the quail and just do the three dashes, |
| 16:31 | · | which makes sense to me. |
| 16:33 | · | Ilona showed me an example. |
| 16:35 | · | Here the plural is written with three vertical strokes rather than repeating the sign. |
| 16:40 | · | It's quite a complicated sign, the scribal palette. |
| 16:43 | · | So they were efficient by just indicating the plural with three strokes. |
| 16:48 | · | So he was the head of the scribes of the temple to ḥw.t-nṯr n Imn. |
| 16:52 | · | What Ilona's showing us there are cursive hieroglyphs. Handwritten ones. |
| 16:56 | · | They're beautiful. |
| 16:57 | · | This is an amazing papyrus. |
| 17:00 | · | It's actually a religious text that helps the deceased live in the afterlife. |
| 17:06 | · | And to have a long papyrus like this, the person must have been of very high status, |
| 17:11 | · | must have been able to afford a text like this. |
| 17:14 | · | But this is a very common scene where the heart of the deceased |
| 17:17 | · | is weighed against the feather of Ma'at. |
| 17:19 | · | A feather, of course, is very light, so your heart has to be very light. |
| 17:23 | · | So it's a judgement scene. |
| 17:25 | · | And if it's more heavy than the feather, |
| 17:27 | · | then this monster will eat you. |
| 17:29 | · | Eek. |
| 17:30 | · | I could watch Ilona reading hieroglyphs all day. |
| 17:33 | · | But instead, let's talk about a few extra features of them. |
| 17:37 | · | One of them is that they have no punctuation. |
| 17:41 | · | There are no little marks to tell you when one thought ends and another begins, |
| 17:45 | · | nothing to encourage a pause for breath, or to flag up speech. |
| 17:48 | · | There's no punctuation, period. |
| 17:52 | · | Full stop. |
| 17:53 | · | So no punctuation is one less thing to worry about, isn't it? |
| 17:56 | · | However, one thing that you do have to worry about, |
| 17:59 | · | that English doesn't have, is grammatical gender. |
| 18:03 | · | You see, nouns can be masculine or feminine, like they can in French or Spanish. |
| 18:09 | · | And you can spot the feminine ones because they have this cute little sign with them. |
| 18:15 | · | It's a loaf of bread. |
| 18:16 | · | So, I think that's all you need to get started on hieroglyphs. |
| 18:19 | · | Shall we put what we've learned to the test by bringing back this from the very start? |
| 18:23 | · | Are we ready to read it? I reckon we might be. |
| 18:25 | · | So the bird and the jackaly fella, they're pointing to the left. |
| 18:29 | · | So that means we start on the left. |
| 18:32 | · | Our first sign is the reed, right. Which, as I told you earlier, |
| 18:36 | · | represents a kind of "yuh" sound but it's written down as an i. |
| 18:40 | · | It is a consonant i, like you sometimes find in Latin. |
| 18:44 | · | Don't overthink it. |
| 18:45 | · | Which sign next? Well, it's the water isn't it? Because we work top to bottom. |
| 18:51 | · | And just as it did in Metjen's name, here it represents a nuh, an N. |
| 18:56 | · | Next we've got the box. Remember I told you it was a stool or a mat? |
| 19:00 | · | And that it makes a P sound. |
| 19:03 | · | Then we have the quail chick. Now, |
| 19:06 | · | we discussed how this could be a classifier meaning small or bad, |
| 19:10 | · | but if it were a classifier it would be at the end. And It isn't. |
| 19:15 | · | So it's here to represent its sound, which we earlier discussed was oo, like in Khufu. |
| 19:21 | · | So, so far we have inpu. |
| 19:24 | · | Interesting. |
| 19:26 | · | So what's this final sign? |
| 19:28 | · | Well, literally, it is a jackal perched atop a shrine, |
| 19:32 | · | but it is also the hieroglyph used to represent Anubis. |
| 19:37 | · | That's right, the jackal-headed guide to the underworld. |
| 19:41 | · | Did you know that Anubis – or "anyoobis", however you pronounce it – |
| 19:44 | · | was not actually his name? |
| 19:47 | · | Well, not his Egyptian one, anyway. |
| 19:49 | · | We took the word Anubis from the Greeks. |
| 19:53 | · | We did the same with others like Osiris. |
| 19:56 | · | When you think of it, they sound Greek, don't they? |
| 19:59 | · | So what was Anubis's ancient Egyptian name? |
| 20:03 | · | Well, it was… |
| 20:06 | · | Inpu. |
| 20:07 | · | Or at least, that's our best guess at it based upon these signs, |
| 20:11 | · | because taken in their entirety what we have here are the hieroglyphs used |
| 20:16 | · | by the Ancient Egyptians to represent Anubis. |
| 20:20 | · | And look we did it. |
| 20:21 | · | And I hope through all this you've seen that |
| 20:23 | · | Egyptian hieroglyphs aren't quite as mysterious as they first appear. |
| 20:27 | · | You know, it hasn't really been that long that we modern folk have been able to understand them. |
| 20:31 | · | The Rosetta Stone was deciphered in 1822, |
| 20:33 | · | which given how long ago ancient Egypt was, is pretty darn recent. |
| 20:38 | · | Since that, of course, 200 years have passed and we are still working every day |
| 20:42 | · | to try to understand the parts that we don't understand so well. |
| 20:47 | · | And we still cannot read everything fluently, perfectly. |
| 20:51 | · | So don't feel bad for not understanding every hieroglyph you see. |
| 20:55 | · | As yet, nobody can. |
| 20:58 | · | Thank you so much for watching. |
| 20:59 | · | Enormous thanks to Ilona Regulski for all of her help |
| 21:02 | · | and the Neues Museum for letting me poke around in here. |
| 21:05 | · | Thanks to Babbel for sponsoring this video too. |
| 21:07 | · | And if you liked this one, |
| 21:09 | · | I recommend signing up to my totally free newsletter at robwords.com/newsletter, |
| 21:15 | · | and then watch this video next |
| 21:18 | · | and I'll see you over there. |
| 21:20 | · | Take care. |
