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What is glyphic writing? »Its definition and meaning

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Glyphic writing is considered one of the first organized writing systems, it is based mainly on symbols and simple drawings, it is considered typical of some ancient civilizations such as: the Egyptian, the Mayan and the Hittites and only the scribes, members of the royalty, people with high positions or wealthy were those who knew the art of reading and writing for this reason only they used this method. This system was used for an approximate period of 3,500 years and was only used in official writings on the walls of the temples, some of the oldest inscriptions found date back to 3,000 BC.

In Egyptian culture around 6,900 signs were invented, the disappearance of this form of writing was mainly due to the impracticality of the method, since at the end of the Egyptian civilization millions of hieroglyphs, many of Greek origin, were used, which greatly complicated the Reading, because of the invasion and conquest of various empires, new languages ​​such as Greek and Latin were introduced to this culture, this being the cause of the eradication of said system, the Christian religion also contributed to that, since it is a religion monotheistic and most of the glyphic writings made reference to Egyptian gods.

The Mayan culture also used this method of writing, painting on ceramics, walls and codex (written book format) they also carved wood and stones with these figures, many of these writings although different, could have the same meaning, but also a The same glyph may have two different meanings, there is the complexity of reading these symbols, the oldest writings found so far date from the 3rd century BC the Mayans used this system until the conquest of the Spanish since they, having a Christian belief, considered sacrilege the writings of the Maya, and many of the writings were burned for that reason.

Among the most important hieroglyphs found can be named:

  1. Rosetta Stone: this was discovered in 1799 by the French expeditions organized by Napoleon Bonaparte, but it was not until the 19th century that it became relevant, since with the studies of the Egyptologists Jean-François Champollion and Thomas Young who thanks to their knowledge in the Greek language they managed to decipher the writing on that stone. The stone is currently in the British Museum in London.
  2. The Narmer Palette: it is a carved stone discovered by Quibell and Green in 1898 in the Temple of Horus, this is actually a cosmetic palette, that is, it was used as a deposit where pigments for makeup were mixed. It is currently in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.