We went on a two week Nile Cruise three weeks after our Greek cruise that included our trip to Troy. We scheduled the trip to attend the first general admission day at the GEM; Grand Egyptian Museum. I wasn’t as prepared for this trip as well as I would like. I only peripherally encountered Egyptian History reading about the bronze age collapse, 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline, Modern Scholar, A History of Ancient Israel, also by Eric Cline and a history of Megiddo (known in the Bible as Armageddon). It took me a while to understand the timeline in Ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egyptian history spans millennia, typically divided into the Predynastic (before c. 3100 BCE), Early Dynastic, Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, followed by Intermediate Periods, the Late Period, and foreign rule (Persian, Greek/Ptolemaic, Roman), culminating in Islamic conquest and modern Egypt. Key eras include the pyramid-building Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BCE), the powerful New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BCE) with pharaohs like Tutankhamun and Ramesses II, and the Ptolemaic dynasty (332–30 BCE) ending with Cleopatra. Google AI (egyptian history timeline)
https://egyptianmuseumcairo.eg/historical-timeline
https://www.worldhistory.org/image/12835/timeline-of-ancient-egypt/
Lower and Upper Egypt were united and the capitol was in lower Egypt near the Nile Delta. This phase of development was known as the Old Kingdom. They built pyramids in Gaza and Saqqara, as well as the Sphinxes. There were also graves called mastabas in both Saqqara and Giza. Hieroglyphs were starting to appear at this time. They did not have the wheel at this time.
The Middle Kingdom came to an end when Egypt was invaded by the Canaanites. Two significant technical advantages possessed by the Canaanites were the chariot (pulled by horses) and composite bows (range advantage). They were called the Hyksos, which means foreigner. They ruled lower Egypt roughly from 1650 BCE to roughly 1550 BCE. ( I saw a recent article in Science in the News that suggested it might have been even 100 years longer)
The New Kingdom started when Ahmose reunited Egypt. The new capitol was at Luxor in Upper Egypt. The tombs were placed on the Valley of the Kings. This was ancient Egypt’s peak and came to an end with the bronze age collapse.
Finally we saw some ruins from the late period also around Luxor.
Our Egyptian Cruise (Viking Cruise Lines)
Day 1: Saqqara
Day 2: Grand Egyptian Museum (Opening Day for General Admission)
Day 3: Return to Saqqara (Imhotep Museum) and Egyptian Museum Cairo
Day 4: Return to GEM and Giza
Day 5: Fly to Luxor and Karnak
Day 6: Balloon Ride and Dendra
Day 7: Valley of the Kings
Day 8: ESNA
Day 9: Abu Simbal
Day 10: Philae and Komomba
Day 11: Edfu
On the whole, this was the busiest cruise I can remember. Egypt and Egyptians are very proud of their history. There is much more than can be seen in a two week adventure. There wasn’t time to stop, relax and reflect.
I did not go into this adventure with a plan on how to blog about it. My thoughts evolved as we progressed.
One area of interest was the evolution of Ancient Egyptian writing:
Ancient Egypt used several writing systems, primarily Hieroglyphs (formal, pictorial, for monuments), Hieratic (cursive hieroglyphs for everyday use), Demotic (even more cursive, later everyday script), and finally Coptic (Greek-based alphabet for the final stage of the language). These scripts evolved over millennia, with hieroglyphs being the oldest and most ornate, representing sounds, ideas, and whole words, used by trained scribes for sacred texts and monumental art, while simpler forms handled administration and daily life. (Google AI: ancient egyptian writing systems)
Key Writing Systems
- Hieroglyphs (c. 3100 BCE onwards): The formal, sacred script with over 1,000 symbols, combining logographic (word), syllabic (sound), and alphabetic elements.
- Use: Temples, tombs, monuments, religious texts, and sometimes on papyrus.
- Hieratic (c. 3000 BCE onwards): A cursive, simplified version of hieroglyphs used for administrative, legal, and literary documents.
- Use: Papyrus, ostraca (pottery shards), letters, records.
- Demotic (c. 7th Century BCE onwards): An even faster, highly cursive script developed from Hieratic for everyday use, becoming the common script of later Egypt.
- Use: Contracts, letters, popular literature.
- Coptic (c. 4th Century CE onwards): The final stage of the Egyptian language, using the Greek alphabet with added letters for Egyptian sounds.
- Use: Christian religious texts, replacing Demotic.
So, one interest was the translation of the Hieroglyphs. It turns out that the Rosetta Stone is not unique:
Yes, there are other “Rosetta Stones”—multiple copies of the same Ptolemaic decree and other similar multilingual inscriptions exist, like the Canopus Decree and Philae Obelisk, which helped scholars fill in missing text and confirm decipherment, making the original Rosetta Stone one of many keys to understanding ancient Egypt, not the only one.
The Rosetta Stone is located in The British Museum in London. Meg had to make a side trip to see it. She also arranged for a private tour to see it unobstructed.
We made a special effort to see all of the non Rosetta Stone, Rosetta Stones. They were distributed across the sites we visited. There were also examples of all the styles of ancient writing.
One thought was to try to get translations of some of the hieroglyphs for fun and learning.
Tools & Methods
- Google Fabricius (AI): Uses machine learning for identification and basic translation (English/Arabic), available through Google Arts & Culture, good for learning and simple tasks.
- Mobile Apps: Apps like “Hieroglyph Translator” (Android) and “Hieroglyph Pro” (iOS) offer dictionaries and translation features, useful for quick lookups.
- Specialized Software: Jsesh is a program for transcribing (not translating) hieroglyphs, helping with proper layout and encoding.
- Online Dictionaries & Resources: Websites like egyptianhieroglyphs.net and dictionaries based on Gardiner’s Sign List provide comprehensive vocabulary and grammar.
We were able to identify several cartouches routinely including Alexander the Great.
A cartouche is a versatile term for an ornamental oval or oblong design, most famously the looped oval framing royal names in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, but also a decorative feature framing map titles in cartography, or a simple paper lid used in French cooking to keep food submerged while allowing steam to escape. The name comes from the French word for “gun cartridge,” which the oval shape resembled to Napoleon’s soldiers in Egypt.
In Ancient Egypt (Hieroglyphs)
- Definition: An oblong loop with a horizontal line at one end, enclosing the hieroglyphs for a pharaoh’s or queen’s name.
- Purpose: A symbol of divine protection for the royal name, signifying eternity.
- Origin: Evolved from the shen ring, becoming common under Pharaoh Sneferu (Fourth Dynasty).
Our first guide was wearing a Cartouche with her name engraved on it. Wink remarked it was lovely and the guide said she knew where we could have them made with our names. Wink and the girls each had a Cartouche made for them. It was engtertaining.
One of the things I am contemplating is to present the original image of the tomb carving and the Chatgpt colorization of the same image. This will allow one to visualize what it was like as it was made.
I have not decided how to proceed.
What I have now are three blogs: Introduction (this blog), Valley of the Kings Balloon Ride and Nile Bird Watching.
My next Egypt blog will probably be Imhotep and how I proceed from there is uncertain.
Mark, Wink, Meg and Kate-Lynne