Online Activities: Ancient Egypt

Many fine books are now widely available – and at reasonable prices – to help people who would like to learn to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. Which one might be best for you? Here is a selection of books in print that you should be able to find at good bookstores, along with comments about their content. Some of these would make excellent additions to school or community libraries. Since Archaeologists and Egyptologists often become intensely interested in their future professions at around age eleven, notes suggest those books which will be most helpful to younger readers. Some are less demanding than others, but none of these have been ‘written down '.

All of these books are meant to be studied and used without the help of a teacher. College-level grammatical textbooks can be found at the end of this bibliography.

Hieroglyphs Without Mystery: An Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Writing
By Karl-Theodor Zauzich

Zauzich and Roth do not teach much grammar, but they do show how some of the most common types of inscriptions work. This book will also prepare those who want to study more seriously for the work ahead. Keen readers of any age can make good use of this excellent book.

Translated and adapted for English-speaking readers by Ann Macy Roth. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992. 121 pages, colour plates and many black and white illustrations, available softcover and hardbound.

How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-By-Step Approach to Teach Yourself
By Mark Collier and Bill Manley

This is a terrific book for people who'd like a little more grammar. Collier and Manley use more complex texts than Zauzich and Roth, and are more demanding of the student. The text is very clearly set up, with each lesson building on the last. By the time you have finished working your way through, you will be able to read some fairly complicated inscriptions. You'll even be able to write notes to your Egyptologically-minded friends in simple but correct Middle Egyptian. The emphasis on grammar may make this book difficult for younger readers.

Berkeley: University of California Press,1998. 179 pages, hardcover, black and white illustrations.

Hieroglyphs: The Writings of Ancient Egypt
By Maria Carmela Betro

Professor Betro gives a good introduction to hieroglyphs, then proceeds to discuss over two hundred of the more common sign. Each one is shown in its usual form and its more common variants, and is accompanied by a description its meaning and use. This book will not teach you how to read inscriptions, nor will it help you with grammar, but it can be a pleasant way to get used to the various signs and their meanings. [As with many books which have been translated from another language, sometimes non-English spellings are maintained, and this can cause a little confusion.]

New York: Abbeville Press, 1995. Translated from Italian by S. Amanda George. Hardcover, 251 pages, black and white illustrations.

Hieroglyphs and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt
By Werner Forman and Stephen Quirke

Dr. Quirke uses Werner Forman's wonderful photographs of Ancient Egyptian objects to examine various aspects of Egyptian culture and civilization, particularly with regard to ideas about life after death. While it will not help you to learn to read heiroglyphs, this book will increase your appreciation of the skill and ideas of the peoples who lived along the Nile. This book would make a fine present for someone who really loves Ancient Egypt, and for people who have begun to study the language.

London: British Museum Press, 1996. Hardcover, large format, 196 pages, beautifully illustrated in full colour.

Fascinating Hieroglyphs: Discovering, Decoding, and Understanding the Ancient Art
By Christian Jacq

Dr. Jacq is a an enormously popular author of fiction set in Ancient Egypt. The English edition of this book, however, does not do justice to his scholarship. There are many serious errors, possibly due to difficulties in translation. Dr. Jacq's approach to hieroglyphs is interesting, but the present edition cannot be recommended.

New York: Sterling Publishers,1996. Hardcover, 224 pages, black and white illustrations.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs for Everyone: An Introduction to the Writing of Ancient Egypt
By Joseph and Lenore Scott

This fine book has recently been reissued in paperback. Clearly written and very well set-up. You will learn the history of the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, and pick up a very useful vocabulary. Numbers, the calendar, the Rosetta Stone, gods, and the position of the scribe in Ancient Egyptian society are all described.

New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1968. Softcover and hardback available, 96 pages, two-tone illustrations. Age eleven and up.

Reading Egyptian Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture
By Richard H. Wilkinson

Dr. Wilkinson chose one hundred hieroglyphs which commonly appear in Egyptian art. Each hieroglyph is shown in several forms, from various media, such as monuments, Books of the Dead, tomb and coffin decoration. Each hieroglyph is examined for its significance in Egyptian imagery and thought. An excellent book to enhance the study of the Ancient Language and Culture. Very useful for artists and graphic designers wishing to use Egyptian motifs.

London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. Hardcover.

Understanding Hieroglyphs: A Complete Introductory Guide
By Hilary Wilson

This book could be used by students from eleven to ninety. It not only covers the history of the decipherment of Ancient Egyptian, with clear and useful chapters on Royalty, the Priesthood, Counting and Marking Time, but also has many useful charts of the most common names, royal titles, names of cities, and epithets. A good book to keep on hand for quick reference as well as a reasonable introduction to the subject of hieroglyphs.

Lincolnwood Illinois: Passport Books, 1996. Softcover, 192 pages, black and white illustrations, hand-drawn hieroglyphs.

If you've truly fallen in love with Egyptian hieroglyphs, here are the books you'll need to pursue your romance. The good news is that these books are in print; the bad news is that they are fairly expensive. You might find them at University bookstores, or you can order them from your local bookseller or directly from the publisher.

A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian
By Raymond O. Faulkner

You can't learn a language without a dictionary! Dr. Faulkner's hand-written Egyptian-to-English dictionary is essential for serious study.

Gardiner, Sir Alan. Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. ( Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1969.) While some of Gardiner's ideas about how sentences work in Ancient Egyptian have been questioned or superceded, this is still an invaluable book. One of the most important parts is Gardiner's sign list – a chart that organizes seven hundred odd hieroglyphs according to type (i.e. A – Man and his occupations; B – Woman and her occupations; G – birds; K – fishes and parts of fishes; M- plants and trees, down to Aa - unclassified.) Most other books in English about Egyptian hieroglyphs follow this arrangement. While it is possible to teach yourself Egyptian using Gardiner's Grammar, it is not easy unless you have an extensive background in languages, nor is it recommended.

Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1981. Hardcover, 327 pages.

Middle Egyptian Grammar
By James Hoch

Several fine new grammars are replacing Gardiner in University classes in hieroglyphs. Dr. Hoch's is remarkably clear and straightforward. Hoch has the happy facility of making complicated ideas seem perfectly comprehensible. The book is so well organized, that it is possible to use it to teach yourself Middle Egyptian. Imagine a grammar book being a pleasure to read and to use!

Mississauga: Benben Publications, (1997). With sign-list, about 380 pages.

English-Egyptian Index of Faulkner's Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian
By David Shennum

Very useful if you have Faulkner, this book is not intended to stand on its own.

Malibu California: Undena Publications, 1977. Softcover, 178 pages.