[gavriloprincip]

Egyptian heiroglyphics are actually phonetic rather than pictorial. They are remarkably similar to the modern english alphabet.

[medved]

Egyptian heiroglyphics are actually phonetic rather than pictorial. They are remarkably similar to the modern english alphabet.

I am no expert on heiroglyphics but.... are you sure you aren't thinking of "hieratic" writing? As I've heard it, they found three kinds of writing on the Rosetta stone, heiroglyphics which had been a total mystery, hierratic writing, which was a later and phoenetic Egyptian writing, and then more modern, phoenetic writing.