Translated, hieroglyphics means “sacred carving.” Hieroglyphics were a form of writing that developed out of early pictographs and were very sacred to the ancient Egyptians. Writing was advancing at the time and the Egyptians needed to keep up with other civilizations. 

The idea of Egyptian Hieroglyphics was originally came to Egypt through trade. Hieroglyphics evolved for over 3,500 years as symbols representing phrases. At the start hieroglyphics were very hard to decipher. One picture could have many meanings and there would be no way to tell which was right. As the Egyptians evolved their written language, they added logograms and ideograms. Logograms were symbols representing words and were used to add more specific meaning to phrases. Ideograms conveyed the tone of the message whether it was sad, serious, or happy. This helped the people reading the hieroglyphics better understand what the meaning was. By 2000 B.C.E. Hieroglyphics had developed into the iconic form of writing we know today. 

Hieroglyphics were a very complex and creative script with over 750 symbols and thousands of variations. There was one common alphabet in which all the symbols represented words, sentences, and phrases. Their pictures would resemble people, animals, body parts, plants, buildings, and objects. There were no vowels used, no spaces between words, and punctuation was unnecessary. Hieroglyphics were also confusing in that they could be read left to right, right to left, or top to bottom. The reader could adjust accordingly by the way the figures were facing. Writing in ancient Egypt was a very job specific skill. Most writing was done by government officials, priests, and scribes.

Hieroglyphics were of major importance to the ancient Egyptians. First of all, Egyptian culture and religion admired the written language. Hieroglyphics covered the walls of tombs and monuments. They used hieroglyphics to make offering lists in tombs to provide information about the person for the gods that would bring them to the afterlife. Secondly, hieroglyphics allowed the Egyptians could keep records of their history such as birth and death records, family lines, and laws that would stay valid for years. Lastly, it created more job opportunities. The invention of hieroglyphics provided new jobs such as scribes, government administration, and architectural design. These jobs were important to the preservation of Egyptian culture and history.