Bad Bird: Egyptology for the Little Guy

Here are some resources I have found helpful. Just click on the underlined links.

1. Hieroglyphs.net is a fun web site that includes an online dictionary and daily and weekly quizzes.
2. Eternal Egypt offers virtual tours of several museums.
3. Egyptology.com claims to have the best links for Egyptology.
4. Egyptology Resources is another good source of links.
5. National Geographic online has a nice article on Egyptian Love Poetry.
6. If you want to become a professional Egyptologist, you will have to deal with German and French. A comprehensive website in French is L’ Égypt éternelle.
7. Children’s Books for the Study of Ancient Egypt lists other sites and books, including an illustrated children’s version of “The Shipwrecked Sailor.”
8. “Virtual Secrets of Knowledge” has downloadable hieroglyphic flashcards, along with cuneiform.

Here are some essential books.

1. For anyone wanting to learn hieroglyphs by self-study (better would be to form a small group of motivated and interested friends) the place to start is How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself, by Mark Collier and Bill Manley (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). In the Revised edition (2003) the authors express their amazement that the first edition sold over 100,000 copies. (Link to Amazon) The focus of the book is inscriptions in the British Museum, which are typical of inscriptions in many museums. Since many of these inscriptions are captions with regular formulas and relatively simple grammar, they make an ideal starting point for learning to read hieroglyphs.

2. A helpful companion is Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs by Henry George Fischer. The practice of learning to draw or write the hieroglyphs is an effective way to learn them. Amazon
3. Aidan Dodson’s The Hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt is a marvelous illustrated account of the history of Egyptian Hieroglyphic writing and its deciphering. Amazon
4. Back in 1973 when I was in high school in Kansas, James Wasserman was working in a bookstore in New York and came across Budge’s facsimile edition of the Papyrus Ani and became obsessed with the Book of the Dead. The resulting labor of love is his fabulous facsimile publication of the papyrus. The photos have been digitally enhanced; for purists this my be like colorizing old movies, but for amateur enthusiasts the result is wonderful. The edition includes a translation by Raymond Faulkner and commentaries by Ogden Goelet. As splendid is the art in the papyrus Ani, the actual text is inferior to others available. Faulkner’s translation is based on a reconstructed ideal text, and therefore does not always match the hieroglyphs in this edition. It is a book that belongs on the coffee table of every Egyptophile. Amazon
5. After mastering Collier’s introduction the next obvious step is a full grammar. James P. Allen’s Grammar is now considered the standard textbook for Middle Egyptian. After a fling with Polotsky’s “standard theory” Egyptologists have now returned to a more verb-based understanding of the language. Amazon
6. Gardiner’s classic work is still needed for reference, and is available at a relatively affordable price. Amazon

7. 

   Faulkner’s Concise dictionary is also still affordable. Amazon

8. If you make it this far you will want something to read. At $60.00 J. F. Borghouts’s Hierogram: A Reference Grammar of Middle Egyptian With Reading Texts is cheap by Brill’s standards. Amazon (no image). The Egyptian Reading Book by A. de Buck is a collection of Middle Egyptian literary texts.
   
9. Amazon lists several other books on Egyptian language, history, culture, art and architecture. I plan to check into several of these in the future, and I will update you on what I think. What are your favorites? By the way, beginners should avoid the ubiquitous and inexpensive works of Budge, which are outdated and would be confusing.
10. When you are ready to start writing Egyptian Glyphotext is available for 100 Euros or a 30 day free trial. I will take the free trial and let you know how I like it.