Deciphered, read, understood, made out.
Unintelligible, that cannot be understood.
Expounded, explained, interpreted.
Were Hieroglyphics employed before or after Alphabetic Writing?
They were undoubtedly employed at first from necessity, not from choice or refinement; and would never have been thought of, if alphabetical characters had been known. This style of writing must be reckoned as a rude improvement upon picture-writing, which had previously been used. Hieroglyphics were employed by the Egyptian priests in after times, as a kind of sacred writing, peculiar to themselves, and serving to give an air of mystery to their learning and religion, though fallen into disuse for other purposes.
What materials were employed by ancient nations in Writing?
The Eastern nations used tables of stone, brass, and wood, so that the characters were engraved instead of being written in the usual manner. The instrument used in writing on wood, was made of metal, and called a style. For stone, brass, &c., a chisel was employed. When the bark and leaves of trees, skins, and other materials of a more pliant nature, superseded the above-named tables, the chisel and the style, or stylus, gave way to the reed and cane, and afterwards to the quill, the hair pencil (as now used by the Chinese,) and the convenient lead pencil.
Engraved, inscribed with the graver, a tool used in engraving on stone, &c.
Pliant, yielding, easily bent.