DOCUMENT 5
AUTHOR: Jimmy Dunn
TITLE: The Abbott Papyrus
WHERE: Tombs
YEAR: 1996
URL:
www.touregypt.net/abbottpapyrus.htmThe rest of the papyrus is in bad shape, but it seems that on the 19th Athor, year 16, the commission returns its mandate and a new commission is set up by the king. The next day the head of the west of the town reminds the other members of the commission of the breaking into the graves of Sobekmesef and of Queen Nub-shas. Later the facts ascertained by the old commission are found to be false and testimony in favour of the accused is cited.
DOCUMENT 6
AUTHOR: Larkin Mitchell
TITLE: Earliest Egyptian Glyphs
WHERE: Archaelogical Institute of America
YEAR: 1999
URL:
www.archaeology.org/9903/newsbriefs/egypt.htmlBone and ivory tags, pottery vessels, and clay seal impressions bearing hieroglyphs unearthed at Abydos, 300 miles south of Cairo, have been dated to between 3400 and 3200 B.C., making them the oldest known examples of Egyptian writing. The tags, each measuring 2 by 1 1/2 centimeters and containing between one and four glyphs, were discovered by excavators from the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo in the predynastic ruler Scorpion I's tomb. Institute director Günter Dreyer says the tags and ink-inscribed pottery vessels have been dated to 3200 B.C. based upon contextual and radiocarbon analysis. The seal impressions, from various tombs, date even further back, to 3400 B.C. These dates challenge the commonly held belief that early logographs, pictographic symbols representing a specific place, object, or quantity, first evolved into more complex phonetic symbols in Mesopotamia.
DOCUMENT 7
AUTHOR: Marie Parsons
TITLE: The History of Ancient Egyptian Writing
WHERE: Intercity Oz, inc.
YEAR: 2003URL:
www.touregypt.net/featurestories/writing.htmHieroglyphic: The ancient Egyptians called their script mdju netjer, or "words of the gods." Hieroglyphs were the earliest form of Egyptian script, and also the longest-lived. It is the most familiar to the modern observer, when staring in awe at the columned halls at Karnak, the beautiful tomb paintings in the Valley of the Kings and Queens, and on sarcophagi and coffins
DOCUMENT 8
AUTHOR:
TITLE: The Ancient Egyptian Scribe
WHERE: InterCity Oz, inc.
YEAR: 2001
URL:
www.touregypt.net/magazine/mag02012001/magf2.htmHow do we know so much about the ancient lives of the Egyptian people? True, we have statues and also artwork covering the walls of tombs. This gives us a pretty close idea of what ancient Egyptian lives were like. But the best picture comes from the words they wrote. The ancient Egyptians wrote down everything-from magic spells and curses to medical procedures and lists of food supplies given to the pyramid builders.
Scribes had to learn more than 700 hieroglyphic signs-some representing ideas and objects; others representing sounds. Because the language was so complex, young scribes-almost always boys from wealthy or royal families-would attend school for years to become adept at writing and reading. And the training was rigorous. Boys as young as six or seven would practice writing on ostraca-flat stones or broken pieces of clay pottery. Archaeologists have found many ostraca with texts of amusing animal tales or stern moral tracts that were dictated by the scribal teachers. Students also had to learn mathematics so that a number of high-level professions would beopen to them: tax collector, treasurer, quartermaster or architect.
DOCUMENT 9
AUTHOR: Caterine C. Harris
TITLE: Ancient Words
WHERE: InterCity Oz, inc.
YEAR: 2001
URL:
www.touregypt.net/magazine/mag05012001/magf7.htmIn modern times, we take for granted the privilege of knowing how to read, write, and express ourselves with words. The art of writing is a creative gift that is often overlooked in our world of technological breakthroughs. Today we have computers with word counters, spell checkers, rhyming dictionaries, and endless resources of information, that has produced a world full of instant novelists, book writers and poets. In ancient Egyptian times, however, only the scribes and a few select people knew how to read and write. The task of recording history, expressing everyday and extraordinary happenings was the responsibility of the scribe in ancient Egypt.
DOCUMENT 10
AUTHOR: Marie Parsons
TITLE: Hieroglyphs and Their Decipherment
WHERE: InterCity Oz, inc.
YEAR: 1999
URL:
www.touregypt.net/featurestories/Hieroglyphics.htm