How To Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-By-Step Guide To Teach Yourself (Mark Collier & Bill Manley)
This is probably the world’s most difficult language. I’m into my 5th week of hieroglyphs lesson. My hieroglyphs lecturer, who’s a PhD student doing research in the area of Egyptology, told us that not many people were literate then and were hence unable to read hieroglyphs – they were meant only for the the eyes of the Egyptian Gods.
And no wonder. The language is unequivocally incomprehensible, no matter how hard those symbols try to mimic nature and its surroundings. It’s also obvious that my lecturer is struggling to get the language through to us. In my humble opinion, it is the saddest phenomenon that could happen in human civilisation: invent a language for the purpose of communication, not with our fellow species, but with some mythical make-beliefs, rendering unnecessary suppression of the commoners by the elites. Perhaps, it also reveals how vulnerable man is, regardless of his status and might, to the enigmatic and sometimes unpredictable mother earth.
In an effort to persist on my journey into the ancient mystics, I finally came across this book on Amazon.com which cost only GBP7.40 – GBP2.59 less than the original price. It’s a used book, but looks and feels (and smells) as good as new. I was so happy to see the bundle laying in my postbox today!
This is actually the older edition of the book, but the reviews for it are good and it’s cheaper than the current edition. It will definitely be good enough to get me through the basic grammar and vocabularies of hieroglyphs as well as pull me through my lessons, though I predict the last chapter is probably where my entrancing journey into the world of ancient Egypt will end.
No more excuses for not learning German anymore.
