There is an important collection of facsimiles at University College, London, made for Professor Petrie by Miss Paget. A large proportion of these are copied from the collections from Beni Hasan and El Bersheh; others are from coffins of later periods, and have only paleographical interest; and others are from earlier coffins in the British Museum. But the flower of the collection consists in exquisite drawings of sculptured hieroglyphics, sometimes with traces of colour, from the tomb of Phtahhotep at Saqqâra, supplemented by a few from other tombs in the same neighbourhood, and from the pyramid of Papi I. These were all copied on the spot in 1895—96.
The only critical list of hieroglyphics with their powers published recently is that of Erman, printed in his “Grammar.” The system by which he classifies the values—obscured in the English edition by the substitution of the term of “ideograph” for Wortzeichen (word-sign)—displays the author’s keen insight into the nature of hieroglyphic writing, and the list itself is highly suggestive.
In the case of an altogether different system of ancient writing that has come down to us,—the old cuneiform syllabary of the Assyrians,—dictionaries, glossaries, and other works of a grammatical character have been preserved to the present day. Documents such as these are, of course, of material aid in regard to obscure texts, but in the case of the Egyptian writing the only surviving native word-list is the Sign Papyrus of Tanis,* which is, unfortunately, of the Roman Period, when the original meanings of the signs had been well-nigh forgotten.
* Egypt Exploration Fund, Ninth Memoir, 1889-1890. This is
an extra volume, now out of print.
It has its own peculiar interest, but seldom furnishes the smallest hint to the seeker after origins. The famous “Hieroglyphics of Horapollo” occasionally contains a reminiscence of true hieroglyphics, but may well be a composition of the Middle Ages, embodying a tiny modicum of half-genuine tradition that had survived until then.
Scattered throughout Egyptological literature there are, as may be imagined, many attempts at explaining individual signs. But any endeavour to treat Egyptian hieroglyphics critically, to ascertain their origins, the history of their use, the original distinction or the relationship of signs that resemble each other, reveals how little is really known about them. For study, good examples showing detail and colouring at different periods are needed, and the evidence furnished by form and colour must be checked by examination of their powers in writing.
In investigating the powers of the uses of the signs, dictionaries give most important aid to the student. The key-words of the meanings, viz., the names of the objects or actions depicted, are often exceedingly rare in the texts. Doctor Brugsch’s great Dictionary (1867-82) frequently settles with close accuracy the meanings of the words considered in it, supplying by quotations the proof of his conclusions.*
* There has been in preparation since 1897 an exhaustive
dictionary, to be published under the auspices of the German
government. The academies of Berlin, Gottingen, Leipsig and
Munich have charge of the work, and they have nominated as
their respective commissioners Professors Erman, Pietsch-
mann, Steindorff, and Ebers (since deceased). This colossal
undertaking is the fitting culmination of the labours of a
century in the Egyptian language and writing. The collection
and arrangement of material are estimated to occupy eleven
years; printing may thus be begun about 1908.
Despite its uncritical method of compilation, Levy’s bulky
Vocabulary (1887-1804), with its two supplements and long
tables of signs, is indispensable in this branch of
research, since it gives a multitude of references to rare
words and forms of words that occur in notable publications
of recent date, such as Maspero’s excellent edition of the
Pyramid Texts. There are also some important special
indices, such as Stern’s excellent “Glossary of the Papyrus
Ebers,” Piehl’s “Vocabulary of the Harris Papyrus,” Erman’s
“Glossary of the Westcar Papyrus,” and Doctor Pudge’s
“Vocabulary” of the XVIIIth Dynasty “Book of the Dead.”
Schack’s Index to the Pyramid Texts will prove to be an
important work, and the synoptic index of parallel chapters
prefixed to the work is of the greatest value in the search
for variant spellings.
In 1872, Brugsch, in his “Grammaire Hiéroglyphique,” published a useful list of signs with their phonetic and ideographic values, accompanying them with references to his Dictionary, and distinguishing some of the specially early and late forms. We may also note the careful list in Lepsius’ “Ægyptische Lesestucke,” 1883.
Champollion in his “Grammaire Egyptienne,” issued after the author’s death in 1836, gave descriptive names to large numbers of the signs. In 1848, to the first volume of Bunsen’s “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” Birch contributed a long list of hieroglyphics, with descriptions and statements of their separate phonetic and ideographic values. De Rougé, in his “Catalogue des signes hiéroglyphiques de l’imprimerie nationale,” 1851, attached to each of many hundreds of signs and varieties of signs a short description, often very correct. He again dealt with the subject in 1867, and published a “Catalogue Raisonné” of the more usual signs in the first livraison of his “Chrestomathie Egyptienne.” Useful to the student as these first lists were, in the early stages of decipherment, they are now of little value. For, at the time they were made, the fine early forms were mostly unstudied, and the signs were taken without discrimination from texts of all periods; moreover, the outlines of the signs were inaccurately rendered, their colours unnoted, and their phonetic and ideographic powers very imperfectly determined. Thus, whenever doubt was possible as to the object represented by a sign, little external help was forthcoming for correct identification. To a present-day student of the subject, the scholarly understanding of De Rougé and the ingenuity of Birch are apparent, but the aid which they afford him is small.