The Greeks who first came across the ancient Egyptian monuments called the markings on them hieroglyphics, from the Greek words for “sacred carvings”. They thought that the symbols were used only for religious purposes, and that their secrets could be understood only by those familiar with the ancient religions. Actually, the hieroglyphics were not only carved on stone monuments but were also painted on wood and drawn with ink on papyrus , a form of paper made by the Egyptians. In more recent times, thousands of papyrus scrolls have been found preserved in the pyramids, the tombs of kings.
The Sumerians wrote on soft, damp clay, using a stylus- a piece of sharpened bone or reed for a writing instrument. When the clay hardened, the writing became permanent. The use of a stylus on the soft clay produced characters that were wedge- shaped. The name cuneiform, which is given to these symbols, means "wedge-shaped".
The oldest Sumerian tablets, dating from about 3500 B.C., contained serious of pictures of objects. The Sumerians discovered, however, that they couldn’t communicate everything they wanted through pictures. They soon came to let some of the pictures represent ideas or actions associated with them In this way, a picture of the sun could also be used for the idea of light, or heat, or a day. A picture of a foot could also mean walking or running.
Egyptian writings like Sumerian began as a serious of simple pictograms, then developed into a combination of pictograms and ideograms, and finally into phonograms or sound symbols. Unlike the Sumerians, who gradually changed their symbols into the wedge – shaped cuneiform, the Egyptians kept using their picture forms over the years.
On Tombs and walls and jewels and cliffs, Egyptians carved their hieroglyphs. Picture writing cut in stone, in amber, ivory, bronze and bone.
The complex hieroglyphics were retained for carvings on tombs and monuments, but for everyday writing the Egyptians needed something that could be done more easily and quickly. First they developed the hieratic writing, a simplified form of hieroglyphics. Much later, about 700 B.C., they began using an even simpler form called the demotic. Both of these forms were written chiefly on papyrus.
Papyrus and the scroll:
The ancient Egyptians discovered, somewhere around 3000 B.C, that they could make a kind of paper from papyrus, a reed that grew near the delta of the Nile river. Strips of papyrus were laid crosswise on a flat stone about twelve to sixteen inches square. The papyrus was then treated with gum solution and pressed, pounded, and polished until a flat sheet suitable for writing was formed. For longer writing tasks, the sheets were fastened together into a continuous band or scroll.
The Egyptians scribes wrote with a reed or brush on only one side of the papyrus, arranging their lines of hieroglyphs in columns. The papyrus scrolls had a roller - like rod at each end so that the reader could unwind one end and wind the other as he read.
A rolled up scroll could be easily carried and stored. Egyptian rulers realizing the importance of Papyrus, made its production a state monopoly, and guarded the secret of Papyrus jealously. The ancient Egyptians appeared to have used papyrus in so many ways. We know they made paper from
papyrus but they also used it to make sandals, wove it into mats, baskets and fencing, made rope and also used parts of the plant for food as well as a medicine. The reeds were bundled together to make boats and dried to make fuel for fires. There are undoubtedly other uses that the ancient Egyptians found for papyrus.
Refereces :the world of language - Egyptian-papyrus
