Episode 30 - Hieroglyphics

One-Time Pod

12/11/19 • 9 min

by Daniel Kim

One of the oldest written languages ever, Egyptian hieroglyphics have remained an unsolvable mystery for hundreds of years. And while the intent was not to hide any sort of message, the process of figuring out the correlation between hieroglyphic characters and its meaning took centuries to figure out, which is why they can be considered one of the earliest forms of cryptography known to mankind.

Works Cited

Cryptographic hieroglyphic writing. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/hieroglyphic-writing/Cryptographic-hieroglyphic-writing.

This article helps make the connections between hieroglyphics and cryptography: how the two relate, or rather how hieroglyphics are the earliest example of cryptography. The fact that this ancient language confused many experts for centuries shows the complexity of the language and the cracking of them would be difficult.

Dirda, M. (2012, August 22). Book World: ‘Cracking the Egyptian Code,’ by Andrew Robinson, explores hieroglyphs. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-world-cracking-the-egyptian-co de-by-andrew-robinson-explores-hieroglyphs/2012/08/22/db83be96-e0f5-11e1-a19c-fcfa365 396c8_story.html.

The actual cracking of the hieroglyphics is what I want to focus on, because this is essentially what I believe makes this language a cipher language. This will go into who figured out the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphics and how he/she was able to figure it out.

Scalf, F., & Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. (n.d.). The Rosetta Stone: Unlocking the Ancient Egyptian Language. Retrieved from https://www.arce.org/resource/rosetta-stone-unlocking-ancient-egyptian-language.

Related to the source above, this will go into the actual cracking of the cipher language. Specifically, the Rosetta Stone was an instrumental part of the process, so I want to touch upon the rock that holds the secrets of the Egyptians.

Scoville, P. (2019, October 10). Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/Egyptian_Hieroglyphs/.
This article will help me get into a lot of basics of Egyptian hieroglyphics, such as its purpose, how it was constructed/made up, and how it was used back in the time of the ancient Egyptians.

Singh, S. (2011, February 17). History – Ancient History in depth: The Decipherment of Hieroglyphs. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/decipherment_01.shtml.
This article, which is actually written by Singh, is an overview of everything from above. This covers mostly its constructs, how it was cracked, as well as several geniuses of the 17th and 18th centuries that were obsessed with the phenomenon.

Audio Sources

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Egyptian Ceremony

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Dark Tension Rising

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War Drums

Inspirational Background Music

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Wind

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Title: Jazzy by LiQWYD