1 June 2001

Egypt, Hieroglyphics and the Bible

My daughter recently bought an artefact from a suspicious looking Egyptian in a London street. It is a small Anubis (the god who weighs one's heart before allowing entry into the afterlife) with hieroglyphics round the base, about two thirds of which are readable. We have enjoyed learning to read these and deciphering a little. In the process, I discovered that the Web is a surprising treasure house of Egyptian studies, from touristy introductions to the highly academic information.

1) GENERAL BACKGROUND - LIFESTYLE, MAPS ETC.
2) EGYPTIAN HISTORY AND RELIGION
3) BIBLE PARALLELS AND CHRONOLOGY
4) READING HIEROGLYPHICS - TUTORS AND SIGN LISTS
5) WRITING HIEROGLYPHICS - TRANSLATORS AND FONTS

Even if Egypt isn't your 'thing', do try out the last link on this page. It will print out your name in Hieroglyphics in large high-quality signs - good enough to hang on the wall.
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1) GENERAL BACKGROUND - LIFESTYLE, MAPS ETC.
Egyptian Antiquities
- interesting info put in an interesting way.
http://touregypt.net/antiq.htm
Ancient Egypt Links
- links from academic archaeology to tourism.
http://personalwebs.myriad.net/steveb/egypt.html
Teachernet links for Egypt
- very organised, serious, though somewhat 'popular'
http://member.aol.com/TeacherNet/AncientEgypt.html
Who's Who of Egypt
- huge number of people, though very brief notes on each.
http://touregypt.net/who/
Maps of Ptolemaic Egypt
- all the latest archaeological finds and other maps
http://www.houseofptolemy.org/housemap.htm
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2) EGYPTIAN HISTORY AND RELIGION
Ptolemaic Egypt
- links to academic sites for Egypt from 3rd C BCE to Byzantine times
http://www.houseofptolemy.org/
Index of Egyptian History
- all 32 Dynasties. Good overview linked to detailed essays
http://www.friesian.com/notes/oldking.htm
Genealogy of the Egyptian Kings
- a superb example of genealogies on the web, with academic references.
http://www.geocities.com/christopherjbennett/
Egyptian Book of the Dead
- translation of the Papyrus of Ani
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~drokk/BoD/
Religion and Philosophy of Egypt
- academic treatise suggests Egypt was the source of Greek thought
http://www.friesian.com/greek.htm
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3) BIBLE PARALLELS AND CHRONOLOGY
Evidence for Israel in Egypt
- straightforward article on Joseph in Hyksos Egypt
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a027.html
Dating the Exodus
- a proposed redating of virtually everything.
http://www.ldolphin.org/montgochron.html
- David Rohl site, challenging traditional Egyptian chronology.
http://www.nunki.net/index.html
- criticism of David Rohl
http://www.bga.nl/en/discussion/echroroh.html
- the Hyksos date and Bible chronology
http://bibleorigins.homestead.com/Exodus1540BCHyksos.html
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4) READING HIEROGLYPHICS - TUTORS AND SIGN LISTS
Short Introduction to Hieroglyphics
- a fairly straightforward 'teach yourself Hieroglyphs'
http://webperso.iut.univ-paris8.fr/~rosmord/Intro/Intro.html
Hieroglyphics.net
- a good visual hieroglyphic dictionary, to and from English
http://hieroglyphs.net/000501/html/000-016.html
Hieroglyphics Sign Lists
- comprehensive sign list with a proposal for computer coding
http://24.8.193.241/1563/Hieroglyphica.htm
- a huge collection of 4700 hieroglyphic ideograms
http://www.ccer.ggl.ruu.nl/hiero/
Egyptology Resources
- academic resources, compiled by Cambridge Egyptologists
http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/egypt/index.html
Pronunciation of Ancient Egyptian
- a detailed examination, with example sound files
http://www.friesian.com/egypt.htm
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5) WRITING HIEROGLYPHICS - TRANSLATORS AND FONTS
Hieroglyphic Translator
- claims to translate sentences into Hieroglyphics
http://www.torstar.com/rom/egypt/
Hieroglyphic fonts
- 800 signs distributed across 4 font sets for Windows. Free.
http://personalwebs.myriad.net/steveb/egyptian/glyphttf.zip
- collection of fonts, Mac & Windows, free and demos
http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/lang/Egyptian.html
- 4700 signs with a program to write them. Good but pricey.
http://www.ccer.ggl.ruu.nl/ccer/EXTLIB.HTML
Write your name in Hieroglyphics
- lots of sites offer this, but none as pretty as this one.
http://www.upennmuseum.com/cgi-bin/hieroglyphsreal.cgi

3 comments:

David IB said...

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