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Decode the hieroglyphic message above using the translation
key below. The answer is located at the bottom of this story.

‘Words of God’

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

BY virtue of Egypt's history of literature, we know more about its society than most other ancient cultures.

Hieroglyphics were developed about 4000 B.C. Hieroglyphs were called "the words of God" and used mainly by priests. These painstakingly drawn symbols were used to decorate walls of temples.

For conducting daily business, another script known as hieratic was used. This was a handwriting in which the symbols were abbreviated to the point of abstraction.

Hieroglyphs are written in rows or columns and can be read top to bottom from left to right or from right to left. You can distinguish the direction in which the text is to be read because the human or animal figures always face toward the beginning of the line.

Hieroglyphic signs are divided into four categories:

Alphabetic signs represent a single sound. Unfortunately, the Egyptians took most vowels for granted and did not represent them. So we may never know how the words were formed.

Syllabic signs represent a combination of two or three consonants.

Word-signs are pictures of objects used as the words for those objects. They're followed by an upright stroke, to indicate that the word is complete in one sign.

A determinative is a picture of an object that helps the reader. For example, if a word expressed an abstract idea, a picture of a roll of papyrus tied up and sealed was included to show that the meaning of the word could be expressed in writing although not pictorially.

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Answer: King Tut rules

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