100 Hieroglyphs: Think Like an Egyptian

by Barry J. Kemp

How characters used in ancient Egyptians' writing system offer a fascinating insight into their priorities, concerns, and beliefs, and entire worldview  Using a set of hieroglyphs, this book takes readers on a journey through the Egyptian mind, revealing not only aspects of day to day life in ancient Egypt, but gradually building a picture of the historical and mythological references that were the cornerstones of Egyptian thought. Egyptian culture is divided from the present by several millennia, a lost people, and a dead language. Much can be discovered about this civilization from its physical remains, but perhaps the greatest insights into the Egyptian mind come from hieroglyphs. Unlike the western alphabet, an arbitrary set of symbols not anchored in reality, each Egyptian hieroglyph visually denotes a concept central to Egyptian thinking, so the language and its written form is intimately bound up with the imaginative world of the Egyptians. These 100 Egyptian hieroglyphs provide access to a unique culture and help readers understand a fascinating, long-vanished world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Egyptology, Language, Egypt, Ancient History, Academic

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Professor Barry Kemp is Emeritus Professor of Egyptology at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. He has been Field Director at Tell el-Amarna since 1977, pioneering excavations formerly for the Egypt Exploration Society, and now as The Amarna Project supported by the Amarna Trust. His important publications include Amarna Reports, I-VI (EES, 1984-95) and Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilisation (Routledge, 2nd ed., 2006).

Reviews

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic little book, and fills a niche I don't think I've ever seen before. There are a lot of pop "guides" that will teach you how to spell your name in roughly equivalent hieroglyphs, but they're not terribly accurate and they communicate nothing about what the language was really like or how the world of the Ancient Egyptians actually worked.

This book has very little to do with language and linguistics, and everything to do with unpacking the public and private lives, the kings and servants, the lovers and warriors who filled this amazing society. By studying where their common words come from, this book reveals a lot about how they lived, died, worshipped, and saw the world around them.

It's a lot more insightful than supposedly scholarly historical studies, but so accessible you can read it as a coffee-table book. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Egyptology, Near Eastern Civilizations, anthropology, history at large, or who just wants the alien world of the distant past to be more easily understood.

[Lalu Zam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very comprehensive compilation of Hieroglyphs as an intro to the life of the Ancient Egyptians. Hieroglyphs are not meant as a writing system only. It contains meaning and both as symbol and actual letter for the word itself. The process of making words involves the meaning of the individual hieroglyph that reflect the concept of the said word. For example the word "to be existence" has the same Hieroglyph with word "to form", "to change form/grow up" and a bunch of other words. All of these words contain the same hieroglyph (a scarab bettle), because they essentially part of process of "existence".

The Hieroglyphs are also a medium that immortalised the beliefs of Ancient Egyptians, their cultures, way of life and other aspects of their existence. Overall, this book is great as introduction to the Ancient Egyptian history.

[Connie D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic way to learn about life in ancient Egypt (and learn some basic hieroglyphs)! Kemp has organized this beautifully so each hieroglyph concept leads into the next (e.g. road, donkey, chariot, boat traveling upstream).

Although there is obviously serious research behind each small essay, including ancient writings of all kinds, it's very readable.

However, i recommend taking your time and focusing on a few ideas at a time, letting them sink in, before continuing. There are lots of great details and a lot to remember if you want to.

[James Frase-White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating compendium of hieroglyphs, and the stories behind them. It is filled with not jus historical information for it gives, with that so much more. The whole history of the region becomes part of the lore, not just the Nile and northern Africa, for the whole Middle Eastern backdrop and complex societies also come into play. A fascinating study that I read in between other books I was reading, for it was like having an intellectual "cocktail hour" to relax, and think.

[Paula Martino · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent reference book for my personal art history library.

[Natbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written, interesting with a unique point of view.

[Mirrani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an amazing find for me. I ran into it at my local used book store and thought it would be a unique way to look at the Ancient Egyptian language and culture, since I would be able to see both at the same time. We often talk about how language influences culture and the other way around, but we never really get to see how it all started.

Don't let the size of this book fool you, there is more information here than you would expect. Each of the 100 hieroglyphs is explored in a page or two, but that explanation is why the hieroglyph is as it is, which covers much of the culture of Egypt, from housing to phonetics.

My only quarrel is that some of the hieroglyphs are more in depth than others. It is explained how most researchers believe the word "land" is pronounced - "ta", but many words like "mud" have no pronunciation with them. It would have been an all-encompassing experience to have included that, but then this book wasn't really meant as a dictionary, but of a study in language and culture.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Egyptologist Barry Kemp takes 100 of the most important hieroglyphs and explains their place not only in the Egyptian language but in Egyptian culture. The result is fascinating, informative and accessible to the non-Egyptologist reader. This book works both as an overview of Egyptian culture for the merely curious, and also as a starting point for anyone who is interested in beginning an in-depth study of Ancient Egypt.

[Lou Pare-Lobinske · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like a mini-dictionary with an entry for each of 100 hieroglyphs, including a picture of the hieroglyph and a history on each one. For example, the entry on the sun (number 5) raises some interesting questions about Akhenaten's motivation. My only regret is that there are only 100 hieroglyphs in the book.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great - taking 100 common hieroglyphs and using them to make a guide to how ancient Egyptians thought and acted in everyday life, and how they saw the world.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the structure of the book, and I learned a lot! The writing is engaging and accessible.