How Scholars Learned to Read Hieroglyphs
In a museum, a researcher studies a dark stone covered with three bands of writing. The top band contains carefully carved pictures; the lower bands look quite different. In a notebook, the researcher compares the scripts and marks where similar information appears. The stone is the Rosetta Stone, and its inscriptions helped scholars recover a way of reading that had been lost for centuries.
The breakthrough did not come from a single flash of inspiration. It grew from comparisons among languages, writing systems, names, and inscriptions found in different places. French scholar Jean-François Champollion made crucial discoveries, but he built on the work of earlier researchers and used evidence beyond the Rosetta Stone.
One decree, three scripts
The Rosetta Stone was carved in 196 BCE, during the reign of King Ptolemy V. It records a decree, or official announcement, issued by Egyptian priests. The decree was written in three scripts: hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek.
These were not three unrelated languages. Hieroglyphs and Demotic were different ways of writing Egyptian, while the Greek section was written in ancient Greek. Hieroglyphs were used for many formal inscriptions. Demotic was a faster, more flowing script used for a range of everyday and official purposes.
- inscriptions:
- Words or symbols written or carved on a surface.
- scripts:
- Systems of written signs used to represent language.
- decipherment:
- The process of working out how to read writing whose meaning is unknown.
- coincidence:
- A chance match between events or details.
- context:
- The surrounding information that helps explain something’s meaning.
- interpretation:
- An explanation of what something means.
- refine:
- To improve an idea by making it more accurate or precise.
- grammar:
- The rules for how words and other parts of a language fit together.
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1Why was the Greek text useful but not sufficient for deciphering hieroglyphs?
- 2How did cartouches help scholars identify possible sound values?
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About this explanatory article passage for Middle School
“How Scholars Learned to Read Hieroglyphs” is a explanatory article reading passage about Egyptian Writing, written for Middle School. It takes about 6 minutes to read (927 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.