Origin Of Heiroglyphics Essays - Egyptian Languages,

Origin of Heiroglyphics Origin of Heiroglyphics Ancient Egypt conjures up thoughts of a great civilization, one very advanced for its time. The Ancient Egyptians invented all different forms 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 origin of these hieroglyphics seems to also to be misunderstood by many people. Some think that since the Egyptians were such a close, rigid society that they invented the form of writing called hieroglyphics, but that is simply not true. The origin of using pictures to represent things can be traced all the way back to caveman times, but the main influence for the Egyptians came from the land of Sumer. In fact, the beginning of Egyptian civilization was very similar to that of the Sumerians. By 500 b.c., farming settlements were established all along the Nile River (Warburton, 69). Civilization in Egypt brought problems similar to those that arose in Sumer, but it was the growing government bureaucracy, not business, that created the need for writing, and the eventual development of hieroglyphics. Because the Nile flooded every year, the Egyptian farmers had begun to build dikes 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 (Warburton, 70). 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, the upper-class, and the ever powerful priests in charge, became a huge, rigid network that managed everyone's 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 (Warburton, 74). For a long time before then, the Egyptians had been trading gold and linen with many other countries from throughout the middle east. In exchange, they got timber, gems, copper, and perfume (World Book Encyclopedia, 224). While trading in the land of Sumer, the Ancient Egyptian traders must have noticed how helpful a written language was and how it could help their governments bureaucracy function much more smoothly. Then, they brought back the idea back to Egypt, where it was quickly and openly accepted. The Egyptians, however, did not acknowledge the borrowing from Sumerian culture. Instead, they believed that writing had been invented by their god of learning, Thoth, so they called it "words of the gods" (Warburton, 70). And since written words came from the gods, they had magical powers. By carving a person's name on a tomb or monument, the Egyptians believed that they were helping to keep that person alive if they had passed on. Similarly, by erasing a person's name from the inscriptions would make the person disappear. Words were so powerful that putting a written list of objects in a tomb was the same as putting the objects in themselves. Since the Egyptians believed that a person's life was bound up in his name, the Egyptian Kings often had five names, the most important being the throne and birth names (Harris, 18). Egyptians developed this gift from the gods into their own unique writing system, using the pictograms they borrowed from the Sumerians but drawing them in a very different style. When the Egyptians first started writing, they used simple pictures to represent objects, just as the Sumerians had. In combination, these pictures could also narrate an event. 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. Also, the power of the kings was growing and so was their desire to glorify themselves, especially on the massive tombs they had built. They could not use pictograms to write "The King triumphed over his enemies in a mighty victory" (Helfman, 42). The priests, who at the time, were the only ones who could read and write, responded by developing ideograms and then phonograms, as the Sumerians had. Ideograms were pictorial symbols that were used to convery abstract ideas (Encyclopedia Americana, 179). For example, the symbol of the sun could also indicate the idea of ?day' or ?light.' The symbol for the thorn could also mean ?sharp.' 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

Tin essays

Tin essays Tin has been known since ancient times. It has been traced back to the Egyptians in 2000 BC when it was used in bronze. Tin's name comes from the Etruscan god named Tinia. Its chemical symbol, Sn, is an abbreviation of its Latin name, Stannum. Tin is found on both land and in the sea. Major tin producing countries include Malaysia, Indonesia, Bolivia, Thailand, Russia, and Brazil. Unfortunately for these countries? economies, the huge demand for tin has dropped drastically since the production of aluminum. Aluminum is easier and cheaper to produce. Tin is in about fiftieth place on the list of elements most commonly found in the earth's crust. Scientists estimate that the crust is about 1-2 parts per million of tin. Stannum has a melting point of about 232 degrees Celsius. It is a soft and weak metal, so it is never used by itself. Tin is non corrosive. It can also conduct heat and electricity very easily. Tin has no taste and no smell. Stannum has three naturally occuring forms that include white tin, gray tin, and brittle tin. White tin is the most common. It is metallic and malleable and occurs when temperatures are above 13.2 degrees Celsius and below 161 degrees Celsius. White tin turns into gray tin when temperatures dip below 13.2 degrees Celsius. Gray tin is brittle and powdery. The third form of tin, brittle tin, occurs at temperatures above 161 degrees Celsius. A strange property of tin is its ability to make a screeching sound when it is bent. This sound is referred to as "tin cry." Tin reacts slowly in dilute acids, but quickly in concentrated acids. It also reacts easily in alkaline solutions. Another interesting fact is that ten naturally occuring isotopes and fifteen radioactive isotopes have been discovered. The process of separating tin from other compounds is relatively easy. The process begins with washing the mixture over riffles. It's like a wash board with its wavy accordion fold look. The tin set ...