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Example research essay topic: American Heritage Dictionary Egyptians Believed - 1,005 words

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When I think of ancient Egypt, I think of a Cleopatra, Marcus Aurelius, and king Tut. But they are only small details that encompass a great civilization that was far advanced for its time. The Ancient Egyptians formed many different types of literature, including poetry and short stories, and they were extremely advanced as far as art, medicine, science, and religion went. One of the more mysterious aspects to Ancient Egyptian civilization was their use of hieroglyphics.

Very few people to this day can understand the complex language. The growing government bureaucracy in Egypt was the reason that the scribes started using hieroglyphics. Most people believe that the Egyptians created hieroglyphics. The origin of using pictures to represent things can be traced back to the caveman, but the main influence for the Egyptians came from the Sumerians. Because the Nile flooded every year, the Egyptian farmers had begun to build dykes to keep the floodwaters out of towns, basins to capture and hold the water after the floods receded, and irrigation canals to distribute the water throughout the fields. Those projects required a very organized effort among every one of the farmers, and a strong central government and bureaucracy developed to manage and control this effort.

Eventually, this bureaucracy, including the king and the upper-class became a rigid network that managed everyones life. By 3100 B. C. , when the Sumerians had invented their picture writing, it had become impossible to run that network without an accurate record-keeping system. It is believed that while trading in the land of Sumer, the Egyptian traders noticed how helpful a written language was and how it could help their governments bureaucracy function much more smoothly.

They brought back samples of the language in hopes that it might help with some of their barriers. Once brought back the language was quickly adopted. The Egyptians didnt even acknowledge that the written text came from the Sumerians. They believed that writing had been invented by their god of learning, Thoth, so they called it words of the gods (Warburton, 70) or in some interpretations divine words (Nilestone). Hiero means holy and glyph means writing (American Heritage Dictionary).

Since they believed that written words came from the gods, they also believed that the words had magical powers. By carving a persons name on a tomb or monument, the Egyptians believed that they were helping to keep that person alive after they had died. Words were viewed as being so powerful that by putting a written list of objects in a tomb, it was the same as putting the objects in themselves. Since the Egyptians believed that a persons life was bound up in his name, the Egyptian Kings often had five names, the most important being the throne and birth names. Although the Egyptians basically stole this system of writing from the Sumerians, they actually formed a very unique writing system of their own.

When the Egyptians first started writing, they used simple pictures to represent objects, just as the Sumerians had. Egyptians, like Sumerians, must have quickly realized the limitations of writing with only pictograms. Their population and business was growing rapidly, requiring an even more accurate record-keeping system. The power of the kings was also growing and so was their desire to glorify themselves, especially on the massive tombs they had built. Over time the Egyptians figured out how to use the pictures to narrate an event. They could now report on events and create book-like text.

Ideograms are a character or symbol representing an idea or a thing without expressing the pronunciation of a particular word or words for it, as in the traffic sign commonly used for "no parking" or "parking prohibited" (American Heritage Dictionary). At a later stage, the picture symbols came to be used to write other words that merely sounded like the name of the object drawn. A symbol used in this way is called a phonogram. For example, a symbol that looked like a star could also represent a word meaning door. Egyptian pictograms were given the name hieroglyphics in 300 B. C.

by Greeks who visited Egypt. These hieroglyphs were more elaborate, more artistic, and much more accurately drawn than the Sumerian pictograms. Hieroglyphics were very intricate and must have taken a very long time to write. Gradually hieroglyphics were simplified and an easier system, called hieratic script, was developed. The original hieroglyphics were reserved for writing on buildings and tombs, while hieratic was used for everyday purposes, such as recording taxes, and were written in ink on Egyptian paper, called papyrus. Hieratic was replaced by demotic, another simplified version which could be written flowingly and quickly, like script.

Demotic is found with hieroglyphics and Greek on the Rosetta Stone. The main reason for the difference between Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Sumerian pictograms came from the difference in the writing materials used by the two ancient civilizations. Writing first on heavy clay with fragile reed styluses led the Sumerians to simplify their drawings. By the time the Sumerians began carving commemorative stone monuments around 500 years later, their style of writing was already well established. The Egyptians first wrote by carving on stone. Carefully chiseling fine lines one by one into the stone enabled them to make each hieroglyph a small, intricate picture that was decorative and useful.

They also used papyrus paper as stated above. Once the design of a hieroglyph was well established, it remained the same for as long as hieroglyphs were used in writing. It seems that Egyptians continued to use hieroglyphs from around 3000 B. C. until the time of the Roman Empire (Warburton, 73). Hieroglyphics were not, as many people think, exclusive only to the Egyptians.

In fact, it has been one of the very few things in their society that was adopted from another culture. Egyptian hieroglyphics, despite being so complex, and not in use anymore, are still one of the most fascinating languages of all time and one of the single greatest contributions to modern communication.


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Research essay sample on American Heritage Dictionary Egyptians Believed

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