The site has been up and running for about a week now. I’m surprised at seeing this amount of traffic so early, but it’s nice.
So I thought, rather than writing about something related to ancient Egypt, I’d share a little bit about myself and why I began this project.
Background
In the middle of my undergrad, I transferred to a school that offered courses in Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian, Demotic, and Coptic in order to pursue a degree in Egyptology. I felt the current track I was on wasn’t leading the direction I wanted, so I decided to make the leap.
It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
I was learning about a subject I actually enjoyed. The summer after I transferred schools I visited Egypt for the first time, working on an archaeological excavation.
After returning from Egypt, still unable to make any real sense of Egyptian hieroglyphs, I enrolled in my first Middle Egyptian course. It was definitely difficult, but quite manageable. It wasn’t until the middle of the semester that it began to change. Many people either stopped coming to class, or dropped out entirely.
The class began to get easier once I started looking through multiple grammar books for different perspectives, but they didn’t always answer my questions.
It wasn’t until my last semester, when I was enrolled in Late Egyptian, that the idea for this site came to me. Below are the top 5 reasons why I began this project.
1. Consistency.
Middle Egyptian, like any language, requires consistent practice.
By creating this site, I am forced to read through my notes, flip through grammar books, and translate hieroglyphs. I want to provide the most accurate information I can for people, so I constantly check the work I do. In the process of helping others learn, I’m learning too.
2. Consolidation of material.
The power of the internet is amazing. We have access to so much information, available at any time and served up quicker than we can consume it. Although we have an enormous amount of information at our fingertips, its hard to sift through it all and find what we want.
There are some great resources out there (check out the links section), but many are difficult to find in search engines since they aren’t consistently updated. This project is my effort to consolidate information about ancient Egypt into one area. If you can’t find what you need here, not only will I help direct you to where you want to be, I will do my best to fill the gap.
3. Bring Egyptian hieroglyphs to a broader audience.
Many people want to read hieroglyphs, but they simply don’t know where to begin.
When I first started learning Middle Egyptian, I had no idea that there was a complete sign list for each hieroglyph. When I was learning Late Egyptian, it wasn’t until the end of the semester that I found out there was an excellent Late Egyptian grammar in English.
There are a lot of resources available to people, but you need to know they are out there in order to use them. By targeting a generic term like Egyptian hieroglyphs I hope to reach people interested in learning Middle Egyptian and direct them to the resources they need.
4. Help other people.
The main reason why I created this site is to help others.
I hope that the content I have created will help people learn something about Egyptian hieroglyphs. If you learn just one new thing, then I have succeeded.
I’ve tried to create a website that is easy to navigate in order to aid in this process. I want information to be easily accessible to those who want it.
5. Create a community.
It is my goal that this website draws in like-minded people. It doesn’t matter if you’re an Egyptologist, or an ancient Egypt enthusiast, you’re very welcome here.
I created an ancient Egypt forum for this specific purpose. This area is for anyone who may have a question about reading hieroglyphs, a burning desire to discuss a certain topic about ancient Egypt, or simply wants to chat. As the community grows, so does the accessibility of information and this site’s ability to help you.
Why don’t you join us?
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