Direction
Egyptian hieroglyphs can be written either left-to-right, like English or Finnish for example, or right-to-left, like Arabic and Hebrew. To determine which direction a given piece of text was written in, look at the glyphs which depict animals, birds, and people. The figures nearly always face the beginning of the text, and you can start reading there. Here is a sample text with some people and animal glyphs. We’ve colored those red so you can spot them more easily.
𓅱𓀀𓎡𓀁𓈗𓃙𓇋𓃀𓅱𓀀𓇋
The figures face to the right. Therefore, your reading should start at the right, and proceed to the left. Now, here’s the same text if it were written from left-to-right (and we’re not highlighting the figures in red this time):
𓅱𓀀𓎡𓀁𓈗𓃙𓇋𓃀𓅱𓀀𓇋
By “default” the Egyptians wrote from right-to-left. But they had no trouble with writing left-to-right if that’s what an illustration required, or if two texts were being carved on either side of a doorway, in which case each side’s text usually faces inwards. Usually in these lessons our text will be written left-to-right simply because that’s easier to read within the left-to-right English text, but you should practice reading and writing glyphs in both directions.
Quadrats
The Egyptians didn’t just write one hieroglyph after another down a line, but “packed” the glyphs into neat little groups. Here is another sample of text written in two rows.
We’ve drawn dashed red lines between groups of glyphs which are roughly square or rectangular, in which the glyphs are packed neatly. Each of these groups is called a quadrat. The typical way to find the order of the glyphs in a text is:
- Identify left/right direction by looking at the figures.
- Break the glyphs into quadrats.
- Read the quadrats one by one, in the order dictated by the direction in step 1, and one row at a time.
- Within each quadrat, read the glyphs top-to-bottom, and left-to-right again following the overall direction.
We can see a number of figures facing to the left, so this is a left-to-right text. So we go through the quadrats one by one, and put numbers on the glyphs. This gives us the full order of the text:
Important note about quadrats in these lessons
Most of our hieroglyphs will be rendered in a font rather than as full images. We are using some of the latest in web design to ensure that glyphs will get stacked into quadrats as much as possible. This works on desktop browsers and on iOS; I’ve not yet tested it on Android devices.
In cases where quadrat layout is particularly important, we will create an image file containing the glyphs (for example, in the Exercises for this lesson). But in general, if none of the glyphs in a line of text in these lessons seem to be stacking, it’s probably your browser. If in doubt, be sure to look at the browser test page and see how things are displaying for your browser (and you may have different results on different devices).
Exceptional arrangements
There are always exceptions to how quadrats are put together. For example, look at this text, which we’ve written twice. On the left, you see that the quail chick and semicircles (highlighted in red) are in an unusual diagonal arrangement. This is how they were actually written.
If they were put in order, since the chick is tall and the semicircles were short, they’d look as they do on the right, with ugly gaps above and below the semicircles. Therefore, the unusual diagonal arrangement was more pleasing. In general, when reading Egyptian, a certain flexibility is called for. Always keep in mind that hieroglyphs are not just writing; they are artwork.
Cartouches
Notice how both versions of that text were enclosed in a rounded rectangle with a perpendicular bar at the “last” end (the end of the rectangle where the text actually ends, based on the direction of the text).
That is a cartouche (kar-TOOSH), from the French for “cartridge”, as in, firearms cartridges, which the rectangle’s shape suggested. The bar of the cartouche is always at the “final” end of the cartouche, that is, the ending of the text within it.
A cartouche is used for framing the name of a king or queen of Egypt. The names of other people are never in cartouches, not even their children (unless they become kings or queens themselves, of course). Later on we will learn more about the names of pharaohs and how they are specially written, but for now, if you see a cartouche, you know it’s the name of a king or queen.
Columns
In addition to rows, hieroglyphs can be written in columns. You still use the figures to determine left-to-right or right-to-left. That will let you order the columns. Then divide each column into quadrats and red from top to bottom, reading each quadrat as you would with row text.
The images to either side show you the text above where we numbered the glyphs, except written in columns, once in each direction as the Egyptians would have done when flanking a door.
Summary: The Basics of Writing
- The overall horizontal direction of a hieroglyphic text can be left-to-right, or right-to-left, as the architecture or illustration demands, although the Egyptians defaulted to right-to-left.
- The animals and people face left or right so they look towards the beginning of their block of text.
- Hieroglyphs tend to be grouped into aesthetically-pleasing blocks called quadrats.
- Some groups of glyphs are written in rounded rectangles with a bar at the “far” end. These frames are called cartouches, and they enclose the names of kings or queens.
- Hieroglyphs can be arranged in columns of text as well as in rows.