Hieroglyphics The ancient Egyptians used writing called hieroglyphics. They started using hieroglyphics around 3000 BC hieroglyphics was a very complicated way of writing involving 1000s of symbols. Some of them where like our letters and represented sounds but some of them where different and represented entire words. Hieroglyphics was different from how we write in many ways. It could be written in almost any direction and ours is only from left to right. They didn’t use any punctuation and we use it at the end of every sentence. A single symbol could stand for a whole word and each of our letters only stands for one sound, one of their goals for hieroglyphics was to have it look like art.

Rosetta Stone In 1799 a French soldier found a special stone in the city of Rosetta. This stone had the same message in hieroglyphics and Greek. This was important because it helped to translate hieroglyphics.

Papyrus The Ancient Egyptians usually wrote on tablets or walls, but sometimes they would write on paper called Papyrus. Papyrus paper was made from a tall reed like plant called Papyrus. Egyptians would weave the reeds together to make paper.

Scribes Since writing in hieroglyphics was so complicated, it took years of education and practice to to be able to. The people who wrote were called scribes. They would start training at around 6 or 7. In ancient Egypt being a scribe was a good job. You didn’t have to play taxes or join the army.

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