Most ancient Egyptians were illiterate. They tilled the soil, fished in the river, harvested crops or responded to the commands of their superiors. Royal families operated at an entirely different level. After all, they were themselves god-like.
Ordinary people were generally excluded from the main temple sites which were reserved for the priesthood and obviously the blessed rulers with their families and entourages.
None of this is new to you. In the western world, Egyptian iconography been familiar for decades. We may not know what it all means but we have seen it. Some of us have long known of the principal Egyptian gods: Ra, Osiris, Anubis, Isis, Amun and Horus - the falcon god.
Ancient Egypt coloured both the Greek and Roman worlds. Those invaders marvelled at what had been achieved in The Land of the Pharaohs over countless centuries and sought to adopt that knowledge, attach themselves to that wonderment.
And always the symbolism, the hieroglyphs. With this blogpost there are just a few examples of random images of messaging I chose to photograph - speaking to us from three or four thousand years ago.
Mind blowing.
Translations of what is written in the last photo would be interesting.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could enrol on an Egyptology course at Melbourne University Andrew.
DeleteThrilling. Like the granite head of Amenhotep.
ReplyDeleteI live up the road from the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum (Glasgow).
As a child of five I could not stay away from the Egyptian Room.
My first experience of the numinous occurred there. The Ka. Terrifying.
Jung described the numinous as any inexplicable non-rational experience.
Numen. Numina. The divine force or forces.
Muhammed in the Hira Cave in Jabal al-Nour. The Cave of Light.
He was terrified and had to be comforted by his first wife Khadija.
It's an interesting place to tour if you're willing to consider the history.
ReplyDeleteSuch an interesting place to visit. You will relive your trip forever.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos. I asked my buddy ChatGPT about the last photo and this is what he said:
ReplyDeleteThose are Egyptian hieroglyphs, but I can’t reliably translate this image as-is.
Here’s why:
• Hieroglyphs aren’t just pictures — they represent sounds, words, and grammatical markers within the Ancient Egyptian language.
• To translate them properly, you need:
• the full inscription in sequence
• clear grouping into lines (reading direction matters)
• context (tomb, temple, name cartouches, etc.)
⸻
What can be said from the image
• The symbols include common signs such as:
• birds (often sound values such as “a” or “w”)
• eyes (linked to the Eye of Horus)
• seated figures and tools
• The layout suggests a decorative or commemorative inscription, likely from a tomb or temple wall
Mind blowing indeed and how I wish I could decipher such things.
ReplyDeleteGlad you both enjoyed your holiday so much. Obviously very educational, it should leave us very humble that proper civilisations existed before ours.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine the thrill of seeing it all "live" (if you can say that about things thousands of years old). I remember being fascinated with archaeology ever since my early teens when I read a book about that and various ancient mysteries around the world. Not so fascinated as to actually learn to read hieroglyphs myself, though...
ReplyDeleteSo long ago, and they seemed to have been much further advanced than other civilisations at that time.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing the tales they'd tell with their carvings.
ReplyDeleteWhat will the people of 3,000 years from now, think of what we leave behind?
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder if perhaps humans are devolving from our ancestors.
ReplyDeleteThere is a convenient book on learning to read hieroglyphics, one that was used at Oxbridge. I bought it on Amazon and actually gave it a try... it's tricky, as Traveller noted above. I gave up.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of a written version of sign language. Very cool and so amazing to be able to have seen them in person.
ReplyDeleteI did a 6-week hieroglyphic course a few years ago just for fun. I learned all the alphabet and lot of words too. If you need any translation just let me know 😂
ReplyDeleteI was mesmerized by the hieroglyphs too, though your post captures the mysteries better than my matter-of-fact ones did! I liked the scarab beetles. I took lots of scarab photos.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't think a tourist would salivate so much in the desert... but I would! And you did, as well. Such a joy to behold. I am green with envy. Well, no green here yet either, but the snow is melting at a speedy pace, and that's all I can wish for. Enjoy, enjoy these ancient images. What a thrill.
ReplyDeleteBonnie in Minneapolis
When my sister and I were little, we were heavily into all things Ancient Egypt, especially my sister. For her tenth birthday, she was happy to have us all go on a bus to Munich to see the touring exhibition of Tut-Ankh-Amun's treasures. As a young adult and then once more later, she visited Egypt twice and would now LOVE to see the newly opened Kairo museum (she remembers the old one very well).
ReplyDeleteMy niece in York studied Egyptology. I wonder whether she'd be better at working out the inscription on your last photo here than ChatGPT :-D
I know people that have gone to Egypt and not indulged in any of the ancient history or culture. I don't get how you can do that, it's so appealing and fascinating.
ReplyDelete