EGYPT wasnef the first places where peple began t write. The Egyptians did nt write with letters likeurs， but with signs that lked like little pictures-a lin， a spear， a bird， a whip. This picture-writing was called hierglyphics-see if yu can say hi-er--glyph-ics. Perhaps yu have seen， in the puzzle sectinsf a newspaper， stries written in pictures fr yu t guess the meaning. Well， hierglyphics were smething like that.
Here is the namef an Egyptian queen written in hierglyphics. Yu wuld never guess her name frm this funny writing. Her name was Hatshepsut. Can yu say it？ It"s nt as hard as it lks at first. Hat SHEP sut.
She was the first wman ruler knwn t histry.
A king"sr queen"s name always had a line drawn arund it， like thene yu see arund the namef Hatshepsut， inrder t mark it mre prminently and give it mre imprtance. It was smething like the frame that we put arund a fine picture t make it lk better where it hangsn the wall.
There was n paper in thse days and s the Egyptians wrten the stalksf a plant called papyrus that grew in the water. They pressed the thick stalks until they were thin and flat and lked like paper. It is frm this name papyrus that we get the name paper. Can yu see that paper and papyrus lk and sund smething alike？ The Egyptians" bks wereHatshepsut in hierglyphic writing 用象形文字写成的 哈特谢普苏特written by hand，f curse， but they had n pencils nr pens nr ink with which t write. Fr a pen they used a reed， split at the end， and fr ink a mixturef water and st.
Their bks were nt madef separate pages likeurbks， but frm lng sheetsf papyrus pasted tgether. This was rlled up t frm what was called a scrll， smething like a rllf wallpaper， and was read as it was unrlled.
Striesf their kings and battles and great events in their histry they used t writen the wallsf their buildings and mnuments. This writing they carvedint the stne， s that it wuld last much lnger than thatn the papyrus leaves.
All theld Egyptians， wh wrte in hierglyphics and knew hw t read this writing， had died lng since， and fr a great many years nne knew what such writing meant. But a man fundut by accident hw t read and understand hierglyphicsnce again. This is the way he happened t d s.
The Nile separates int different streams befre it flws int the MediterraneanSea. At the muthfnef these streams is a prt called Rsetta.
ne day sme sldiers were digging near Rsetta when they fund a stne， smething like a tmbstne with three kindsf writingn it. The tp writing was in pictures， which we nw call hierglyphics， and nne understd what it meant. Belw this was written what was suppsed t be the same stry in the Greek language， and a great many peple d understand Greek. Allne had t d， therefre， t findut the meaningf the hierglyphics， was t cmpare the tw writings. It was like reading secret writing when we knw what the letters stand fr. Yu may have tried t slve a puzzle in the backf yur magazine， and this was just such an interesting puzzle，nly there was nne t tell the answers.
The puzzle was nt as easy as it sunds， hwever， fr it tk a clever man almst twenty years t slve it. That is a lng time fr anyne t spend in trying t slve a puzzle， isn"t it？ But after this key t the puzzle was fund， men were able t read allf the hierglyphics in Egypt and s t findut what happened in that cuntry lng ag.
This stne is called the Rsetta Stne. It is nw in the great British Museum in Lndn and is very famus， because frm it we were able t learn s much histry that wetherwise wuld nt have knwn.
We knw that Egypt was a fine place t live. It was chieflyn accuntf a habitf the river Nile-a bad habit yu might at first think it-a habitf flding the cuntrynce a year.
It rained s hard that the water filled up the river Nile，verflwed its banks，and spread water and mud farutver the land， but nt very deep.
The peple knew when theverflw was cming. They invented a calendar t keep trackf it. After mstf the water dried up， it left a layerf rich， dark， mist earthver the whle valley. This was a natural fertilizer， like cmpst that smef yur families may use in yurwn gardens. This fertile sil made it easy t grw dates， wheat， andther gd things t eat.
We knw als that Egypt was ruled by a king wh was called a pharah. The first Egyptian king whse name we knw was Menes. He came frm suthern Egypt and cnquered the nrth. He united the cuntry under his rule. He als declared that he was a gd. S Egyptians believed that they shuldbey him bthbecause he was king and because he was a gd. Menes lived arund 3100 B.C.
Peple in Egypt were divided int classes. Children in each class usually became what their parents had been.nly a very few ever gt t mve up.
The highest classf peple were called priests. They were nt like priestsr ministersf a church nwadays， hwever， fr there was n church at that time. The priests made the religin and rules， which everyne hadMenes， 3100 B.C.
美尼斯，公元前 3100 年
tbey as everybdy des the lawsfur land.
The priests were ntnly priests； they were dctrs and lawyers and engineers， as well. They were the best-educated class， and they were thenly peple wh knew hw t read and write， fr it was very difficult， as yu might suppse， t learn hw t read and write hierglyphics.
The next highest class t the priests were the sldiers， and belw these were the lwer classes-farmers， shepherds， shpkeepers， merchants， mechanics， and lastf all the swineherds.
The Egyptians did nt wrshipne Gd as we d. They believed in hundredsf gds and gddesses， and they had a special gd fr every srtf thing， wh ruledver and had chargef that thing-a gdf the farms， a gdf the hme， and sn. Smef their gds were gd and sme were bad， but the Egyptians prayed t them all.
siris was the chief gd， and Isis was his wife.siris was the gdf farming and judgef the dead. Their sn， Hrus， had the headf a falcn.
Manyf their gds had bdiesf men with headsf animals， animals they thught sacred. The dg and the cat were sacred animals. The ibis， which is a bird like a strk， was anther. Then there was the beetle， which was called a scarab. If anyne killed a sacred animal he was put t death， fr the Egyptians thught it much wrse t kill a sacred and hly creature than t kill even a human being.
【中文阅读】
埃及是最早开始使用文字的地区之一。埃及人并不像我们一样使用字母，而是 用看起来像小型图画一样的符号--狮子、长矛、鸟、鞭子等。这种图画似的文字 被称为象形文字--你来读读"象形文字"看。或许你曾经在报纸上的猜谜栏看过， 有些用图画写成的故事让你来猜其中的意思。是啊，象形文字和那差不多。
这张图（参见第 30 页图）就是用象形文字写成的一位埃及女王的名字。从这种可笑的书写上，你永远也猜不出她的名字。她的名字叫哈特谢普苏特。你能读出 来吗？其实它并不像最初看上去那么难读。"哈特-谢普-苏特"，分开读就容易了。 她是历史上为人熟知的第一位女王。
就像你看到的，哈特谢普苏特的名字周围圈了一道线，国王或女王名字的四周 总是画了一条线，这是为了使它显得更突出更重要。正如为了让一幅精美的画挂在 墙上显得更好看，我们就给它加上画框是一样的。
当时还没有纸，所以埃及人就把字写在一种植物的茎秆上，这种植物叫纸莎草， 生长在水中。他们不断按压纸莎草厚实的茎秆，直到它们变得像纸一样又平又薄。 "纸"这个词正是我们从"纸莎草"的名字借用来的。你能看出来英语中"paper"和 "papyrus"这两个词不仅拼写，而且读音也很相似吗？当然，埃及的书都是手写的， 但他们没有我们书写用的铅笔和钢笔，也没有墨水。他们将芦苇秆一端做成笔，将 烟灰和水和在一起当墨水。
他们的书也不像我们现在的书这样一页一页组合而成，而是将长长的一张张纸 莎草片粘在一起而做成的。将它们卷起来就成了所谓的卷轴，有点像一卷墙纸，展 开就可以读。
埃及人曾经将他们历史中有关于他们的国王、战争和重大事件的故事写在他们 建筑物的墙上和纪念碑上。这里说的写是指刻在石头上，这样就比写在纸莎草上会 保存更长时间。
所有那些会写会读这种象形文字的古埃及人都早已死了，很长一段时间里没有 人懂这种文字的意思。不过，有个人偶然间发现了如何阅读和理解象形文字。下面 就是事情的经过。
尼罗河在流入地中海之前有好几条不同的支流，其中一条支流的入海口有一个 叫罗塞塔的海港。
有一天，几个士兵正在罗塞塔附近挖掘，突然发现了一块石头，有点像墓碑，上 面刻了三种文字。最上面的文字是我们称为象形文字的那种图画，没人知道它的意 思。下面刻着希腊文，它的内容据推测和上面象形文字一样，而现在很多人都懂希腊 语。因此，要想读懂这段象形文字，所要做的就是比较这两种文字。当我们知道这些 字母表示什么意思的时候，这就像读懂密码文字一样。你或许曾试图解开你杂志背面 的谜题，解读这些象形文字也同样是个有趣的谜题游戏，只不过没有人公布答案。
但是，这种谜题不像它听起来那么容易，因为一个聪明人花了几乎二十年时间 才解开它。对任何人来说，花这么一段时间解谜题实在够长的，不是吗？不过，解 谜的"钥匙"找到后，人们就可以读懂埃及所有的象形文字了，从而就能知道很久 以前这个国家到底发生过什么事。
这块石头被称为"罗塞塔石碑"，现保存在伦敦的大英博物馆，十分有名。因为 正是从这块石头上，我们才能了解如此多的历史，否则这些历史我们就无从得知。
我们知道，埃及非常适合人居住，这主要是因为尼罗河的一个习性--刚听说 你可能会认为这是个坏习性--每年河水都要泛滥一次。
雨季，太多的降雨导致尼罗河里的河水猛涨，然后河水溢出河岸，水和淤泥冲到远处，淹没了土地，好在并不太深。 古埃及人知道河水泛滥何时到来。他们发明了一种历法来记录它的规律。等到绝大部分河水退去，整个河谷就留下一层肥沃湿润的黑色泥土。这是一种天然的肥 料，就像你们有些家庭在自家花园里使用的堆肥一样。这种肥沃的土壤很适合种植 大枣、小麦和其他好吃的作物。
我们也知道古代埃及是由国王统治的，埃及人把他们的国王叫做"法老"。我们 知道第一位埃及法老名字叫美尼斯，他来自埃及南部，征服了埃及北部。他统一国 家后，就宣布自己是神。所以，埃及人认为他们应该服从他，因为他既是国王，又 是神。美尼斯生活在公元前 3100 年左右。
古埃及人被划分成不同等级。每个等级的孩子长大了通常成为他们父母同一等级的人，只有很少一部分人可以改变身份，提升到更高等级。 等级最高的人被称为僧侣，但是，他们和今天教会里的牧师或神甫不一样，因为那时还没有教会。僧侣们制定宗教教义和教规，每个人都得遵从，就像现在人人 都要遵守国家法律一样。
僧侣不仅是祭司，还是医生、律师和工程师。他们是受教育程度最高的等级， 只有他们会读、会写，你可能猜得出学习读、写象形文字有多难。
祭司下面第二高的等级就是士兵，再往下就是下等阶层--农民、牧羊人、店 主、商人、手工艺人，最下等的是猪倌。
古埃及人不像我们现在这样信仰一个上帝，他们信仰的神成百上千，男神、女 神都有。他们认为每种事物都有一个特殊的神来支配和掌管--农神、家神等。有 些神是善的，有些神是恶的，但是古埃及人向所有的神祈祷。
欧西里斯是他们的主神，伊希斯是他的妻子。欧西里斯既是农业神又是冥神。 他们的儿子荷鲁斯长着鹰的头。他们有许多神都长着人身和兽头，他们认为这些动 物都是神圣的。狗和猫都是神圣的动物。朱鹭，一种看上去像鹳的鸟是另一种。还 有一种叫"圣甲虫"的昆虫也是神圣的。如果有人杀死了神圣的动物，他就会被处 死，因为古埃及人认为杀死一个神圣而圣洁的生物比杀死一个人的罪恶更大。
公元前 3000 年