the.com/hieroglyphic

Ancient Egyptian script so literal it drew a picture of an owl to mean the letter M.

means A writing system that uses pictures and symbols to represent sounds, words, or ideas, or (loosely today) anything so cryptic it might as well be in one.

from From Greek 'hieroglyphikos,' stitched from 'hieros' (sacred) and 'glyphein' (to carve) — literally 'sacred carving.' Greek visitors to Egypt saw these picture-signs mostly on temple walls and tombs, carved by priests, so they assumed the script itself was holy script reserved for gods and the dead. In truth, Egyptians used hieroglyphs for everyday records too, but the 'sacred' label stuck in the word long after anyone could actually read what it was carved to say.

name origin
Greek for sacred carving, coined by priests
decoded via
Rosetta Stone, same text in three scripts
cracked by
Champollion, using Cleopatra's name as the key
not pictures
many symbols represent sounds, not objects
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