Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Hieroglyphics

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

In the great tradition of the Teach Yourself series, this one shines. I cannot comment on the Mayan section but the Egyptian one is probably the most complete, yet simple to understand, introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphics (or Hieroglyphs). It describes the main grammatic topics, including conjugation of verbs, number, possessive pronouns etc. It also includes a chapter on the "offering formula", probably the most common contruction found on monumental inscriptions. The hieroglyphic words are written from right to left (most common way) and are, of course, transliterated correctly. A great book for it price.