Ancient Egypt is perhaps the most facinating of the ancient civilizations. Even the Ancient Greeks thought themselves to be a young and inexperienced society compared to the Egyptians. Indeed, the Ancient Egyptian civilization was one of the longest in the west, beginning in approximately 3000 B.C., and lasting until nearly 300 B.C. What is amazing about the Egyptian's culture is not their rapid growth and development, but their ability to preserve the past and last with relatively little change. For example, today in the United States we drastically change the style of our clothing each decade, while Egypitan dress did not vary over the thousands of years. Theirs was a civilization where the past lived in the present. .
Ancient Egypt is a starting point in the history of western art. Pyramids and sphinxes have become symbols of Egypt, but a closer look reveals artistic genius in many forms. Besides pyramids and sphinxes, the Egyptians are known for hieroglyphics, or a form of picture writing. Hieroglyphics uses small pictures which represent different words, actions, or ideas. There were over 700 of these letters. Some pictures stood for whole words. A series of wavy lines meant "water." All of the letters in heiroglyphcs were consonants. The Egyptians did not write vowels and did not use any punctuation.
Hieroglyphics were very intricate and must have taken a very long time to write. It is no wonder that most egyptians couldn't read or write. Gradually hieroglyphics were simplified and an easier system, called hieratic script, was developed. The original hieroglyphics were reserved for writing on buildings and tombs, while hieratic was used for everyday purposes, such as recording taxes, and were written in ink on egyptian paper, called papyrus. Hieratic was replaced by demotic, another simplified version which could be written flowingly and quickly, like script. Demotic is found with hieroglyphics and Greek on the Rosetta Stone.