Teach Yourself Hieroglyphics [Paperback]

Ronald L. Bonewitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2001 | Series: Teach Yourself (NTC)

This book introduces you not only the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians but also those of the Mayans and Aztecs. Teach Yourself Hieroglyphics presents the development of writing, Egyptian grammar, and the Mayan calendar. In addition, the book includes blank cartouches to practice drawing your own hieroglyphics..

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Ron Bonewitz is a geologist who has worked as a consultant on archaeological digs in Central America.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (April 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0658013300
• ISBN-13: 978-0658013300
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,603,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this book!, June 5, 2001

By 

G. Wilson (Cattai, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Teach Yourself Hieroglyphics (Paperback)

This book was written by a "trained geologist", and purports to teach the basics of ancient Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphs. I can't comment on the Mayan section (which is very small), but the Egyptian section is woeful.

As a trained Egyptologist, I have often thought the Teach Yourself series should have a volume on Egyptian HIEROGLYPHS (NOT hieroglyphics!), so I grabbed this when I saw it. It is hopeless. The author has not realised that Egyptian hieroglyphs can be read from left to right OR from right to left, depending on which way the signs face. Therefore he has transliterated all his examples backwards.

DUH! BASIC mistake.

There are other mistakes in the book. If you want to learn to read Egyptian hieroglyphs, read Collier & Manley's How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide To Teach Yourself.

Teach Yourself Books did not do themselves a favour by publishing Ron Bonewitz's book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat disappointing but not an unmitigated disaster, February 22, 2006

By 

J. K. Bonner "book addict" (Tujunga, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Teach Yourself Hieroglyphics (Paperback)

First, let me say that I am not an Egyptologist (as one of the reviewers below). I bought the book as I have an interest in ancient history and also languages. I gave this book a 3+. It doesn't really cover the ancient Egyptian language very well, and I wish that the author had dispensed with the Mayan and concentrated more on the Egyptian language.

However, I do take issue with the first reviewer below who claims: "The author has not realized that Egyptian hieroglyphs can be read from left to right OR from right to left, depending on which way the signs face. Therefore he has transliterated all his examples backwards."

On page 12 one reads: "Hieroglyphics were generally written from right to left-just as modern Arabic-unless there was a particular reason to write them from left to right. ... In this book hieroglyphs are written from right to left, because most inscriptions the reader will want to decipher are written this way. When looking at an inscription, it is easy to tell whether to read it right to left or left to right: the figures in the inscription face the direction from which it is to be read."

Comments from readers more familiar with Egyptian hieroglyphs are solicited.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a good start, June 6, 2006

By 

random reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself Hieroglyphics (Paperback)

This is a good beginner's book for this beautiful ancient language. Most of the entire book deals with ancient Egyptian, but there are a few chapters discussing Mayan hieroglyphs as well. The Egyptian text I believe is Middle Egyptian, as it is the most common type of Egyptian I think. The basic "alphabet" is discussed, along with the confusing ideograms, logograms, phonograms, determinatives, etc. There are exercises as well, some are very short, and when you get to the last chapters, you translate somewhat of a long text. All the answers can be found in the back of the book. For Mayan, the basic "alphabet" is discussed as well. There is one whole chapter discussing mayan calenders and numbers, and it is quite interesting. Overall, this is a good book to start out with. However, there are some problems with learning the Middle Egyptian, regarding the way it's read. At some parts, I found it difficult to translate the Egyptian into English because of the way the hieroglyphs were placed. Also, the section for Mayan in the book was too small. The author should have expanded more, because Mayan is just as interesting as any ancient Egyptian language. After reading this book, I would read the book by Mark Collier which goes in more detail for Middle Egyptian. Plus, alot of the exercises from this book seem to come from Collier's book.