From 1,500 Egyptian hieroglyphs to just 22 Phoenician symbols, the history of writing is a story of radical compression. This is how a small set of sound-signs became the foundation for nearly every ...

For centuries, the meaning of the mysterious and mystical Egyptian hieroglyphs baffled the greatest minds in the world. Then, in 1799, the discovery of the most famous piece of rock in archaeology ...

Canaanite miners used their new alphabet to write on mine walls and to inscribe gifts to Hathor. The text on this statuette, running from upper left to lower right, seems to read 'mt l bʿlt,' meaning ...

An example of hieroglyphs from the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses IV. The Ancient Egyptians invented one of the earliest known writing systems used from around 3000BC. The Ancient Egyptians believed that ...

A writing board from 2030BC, used by an apprentice scribe for practicing hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs are picture symbols used by the Ancient Egyptians to show words and sounds. They were invented around ...

Who invented the alphabet, and why? First, the hard facts: The earliest evidence of what’s thought to be the world’s first alphabet is a group of 3,500-year-old inscriptions found in Egypt’s Sinai ...

Jill Kitson: Hello and welcome to Lingua Franca. This week: decoding hieroglyphics. Archaeologist Tim Murray tells the story of the Rosetta Stone. To the ancient Egyptians, writing was the invention ...

Andrew Robinson pieces together the story of who deserves the credit for deciphering the hieroglyphs. In archaeology, as in other sciences, assigning credit for achievements is often controversial.

AMENEMHAT III is one of Egypt’s lesser-known pharaohs. He made pyramids, but not on the scale of Khufu’s at Giza. He commissioned many artworks, but none that survive match the opulence of Tutankhamun ...

The alphabet, as best as historians can tell, got its start in ancient Egypt sometime in the Middle Bronze Age, but not with the Egyptians. They were, at the time, writing with a set of hieroglyphs ...