Q 01/05

In a row of Egyptian hieroglyphs, which way do the animal and human signs face, giving readers a direction arrow?

A) Toward the line's start

B) Toward the line's end

C) Always toward the left

D) Always toward the right

Answer · why

A) Toward the line's start

Toward the line's start is the rule: when the figures look left, you read from left to right, and vice versa. Readers simply read into the faces.

Q 02/05

Which oval ring around royal names in Egyptian hieroglyphs did French soldiers name after their paper gun cartridges?

A) Medallion

B) Cartouche

C) Escutcheon

D) Vignette

Answer · why

B) Cartouche

Cartouche is the French word for a paper powder cartridge, whose shape the ring resembled. Egyptians called it shenu and meant it to protect the name'...

Q 03/05

Which sounds did Egyptian hieroglyphic writing normally leave out, so modern readers must guess how words were spoken?

A) Consonants

B) Diphthongs

C) Vowels

D) Syllables

Answer · why

C) Vowels

Vowels were not normally written, so the true sound of most words is lost. Egyptologists just slip an e between the consonants, which is why nfr is sa...

Q 04/05

Which animal's head, borrowed from Egyptian hieroglyphs by Sinai labourers, is thought to have grown into the letter A?

A) A ram

B) A goat

C) A horse

D) An ox

Answer · why

D) An ox

An ox is thought to hide in the letter A: its ancestor aleph, a Semitic word for the animal, began as a pictogram of the beast's head.

Q 05/05

Which French scholar announced in 1822 that he could read Egyptian hieroglyphs, helped by the Rosetta Stone?

A) Jean-François Champollion

B) Antoine Silvestre de Sacy

C) Dominique Vivant Denon

D) Auguste Mariette

Answer · why

A) Jean-François Champollion

Jean-François Champollion showed the signs mixed sounds with whole-idea pictures, a kind of script nobody had met before. He reportedly collapsed from...