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Egyptian hieroglyphs - Quiz
Contributed by: Bassett
  • 1. What type of writing system were Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs?
A) Informal shorthand system
B) Spoken-only language
C) Purely alphabetic system
D) Formal writing system
  • 2. What elements were combined in hieroglyphs?
A) Syllabic and numeric exclusively
B) Ideographic, logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic
C) Only alphabetic and numerical
D) Only ideographic and pictographic
  • 3. Approximately how many distinct characters did hieroglyphs have?
A) Less than 100
B) Around 300
C) More than 1,000
D) Exactly 500
  • 4. What material was used with cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature?
A) Metal and parchment
B) Papyrus and wood
C) Cloth and leather
D) Stone and clay
  • 5. Which script was derived from hieroglyphic writing and later evolved into the Phoenician alphabet?
A) Proto-Sinaitic script
B) Cyrillic script
C) Latin script
D) Cuneiform script
  • 6. What is the ultimate ancestor of the Phoenician alphabet?
A) Mayan script
B) Egyptian hieroglyphs
C) Greek script
D) Chinese characters
  • 7. Through which script do the Latin and Cyrillic scripts descend from Egyptian hieroglyphs?
A) Arabic script
B) Aramaic script
C) Brahmic script
D) Greek script
  • 8. Through which script do the Arabic and Brahmic scripts descend from Egyptian hieroglyphs?
A) Aramaic script
B) Greek script
C) Cyrillic script
D) Latin script
  • 9. How many writing systems are thought to have been developed without outside influence?
A) Two
B) Five
C) Three
D) Four
  • 10. Besides Egyptian hieroglyphs, which writing system was developed without outside influence?
A) Greek
B) Cuneiform
C) Phoenician
D) Latin
  • 11. When did the use of hieroglyphic writing derive from proto-literate symbol systems?
A) Early Bronze Age c. the 33rd century BC
B) Iron Age c. the 10th century BC
C) Middle Bronze Age c. the 20th century BC
D) Neolithic period c. the 50th century BC
  • 12. When was the first decipherable sentence written in the Egyptian language dated?
A) 33rd century BC
B) 4th century AD
C) 18th century BC
D) 28th century BC
  • 13. During which period was the mature writing system used for monumental inscription in the classical language?
A) Old Kingdom period
B) Ptolemaic period
C) Roman period
D) Middle Kingdom period
  • 14. How many distinct signs were used during the Middle Kingdom period?
A) About 500
B) More than 2,000
C) About 200
D) About 900
  • 15. Until when did late survivals of hieroglyphic use extend?
A) 5th century AD
B) 1st century BC
C) 1820s
D) 4th century AD
  • 16. What caused the loss of fluent readers and writers in hieroglyphs during the 5th century?
A) Invention of the printing press
B) Abandonment of the Egyptian language
C) Permanent closing of pagan temples across Roman Egypt
D) Destruction of the Rosetta Stone
  • 17. What were fluent readers and writers in hieroglyphs called?
A) Priests
B) Pharaohs
C) Glyphers
D) Scribes
  • 18. Who finally accomplished the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing in the 1820s?
A) The Rosetta Stone team
B) Jean-François Champollion
C) Howard Carter
D) Napoleon Bonaparte
  • 19. What artifact helped in the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing?
A) The Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache
B) The Coffin Texts
C) The Book of the Dead
D) The Rosetta Stone
  • 20. What is the approximate length of the entire Ancient Egyptian corpus including hieroglyphic and hieratic texts?
A) 5 million words
B) 50 million words
C) 10 million words
D) 1 million words
  • 21. What is the length of the corpus if counting duplicates like the Book of the Dead and Coffin Texts as separate?
A) Closer to 20 million words
B) Closer to 10 million words
C) Closer to 2 million words
D) Closer to 5 million words
  • 22. What is the most complete compendium of Ancient Egyptian called?
A) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache
B) The Rosetta Codex
C) The Coffin Texts
D) The Book of the Dead
  • 23. How many words does the Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache contain?
A) 5 million words
B) 1.5–1.7 million words
C) 500,000 words
D) 10 million words
  • 24. What does the Ancient Greek word hieroglyphikos mean?
A) Divine writing
B) Sacred carving
C) Temple letter
D) Royal inscription
  • 25. Which Greek word means 'I carve, engrave'?
A) Grámmata
B) Mdw.w
C) Glýphō
D) Hierós
  • 26. During which period were the glyphs called tà hieroglyphikà grámmata?
A) Middle Kingdom period
B) Roman period
C) Ptolemaic period
D) Old Kingdom period
  • 27. What was the Greek counterpart to the Egyptian term mdw.w-nṯr?
A) hieroglyphikos
B) hierós glýphō
C) hieróglŭphos
D) tà hieroglyphikà grámmata
  • 28. What does the Egyptian term mdw.w-nṯr translate to?
A) Royal commands
B) Temple letters
C) Sacred carving
D) Words of gods
  • 29. What did Greek hieróglŭphos mean?
A) A sacred writer
B) A carver of hieroglyphs
C) A temple priest
D) A reader of scrolls
  • 30. In what year is the noun hieroglyph recorded in English?
A) 1590
B) 1820
C) 1580
D) 1650
  • 31. What phonetic and alphabetical similarities did scholars use to attempt decoding hieroglyphs?
A) Coptic and Hieroglyphs
B) Arabic and Aramaic
C) Greek and Latin
D) Phoenician and Hebrew
  • 32. Which dynasty's era contained the first decipherable sentence written in Egyptian?
A) Second Dynasty
B) First Dynasty
C) Twelfth Dynasty
D) Fourth Dynasty
  • 33. Which culture's script descended from Aramaic scripts?
A) Greek and Phoenician
B) Arabic and Brahmic
C) Latin and Cyrillic
D) Cuneiform and Mayan
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