Voices on Papyrus: teacher key

Ancient Egypt, grade 7 edition, written for 7th grade. Hieroglyphs went unread for years until a stone found in 1799 helped crack them. Papyrus rolls then let one crew of pyramid workers speak.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What do hieroglyphs stand for?
   • Only numbers
   • Words or sounds (answer)
   • Only pictures of gods
2. What was papyrus made from?
   • Clay
   • Animal skin
   • A plant (answer)
3. What three kinds of writing are on the Rosetta Stone?
   • Hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek (answer)
   • Greek, Latin and Arabic
   • Only hieroglyphic
4. How did Champollion find the name of Ptolemy V?
   • By digging in Giza
   • By reading a diary
   • By comparing the hieroglyphs with the Greek translation (answer)
5. Who announced in 1822 that hieroglyphs were deciphered?
   • Thomas Young
   • Champollion (answer)
   • Ptolemy V
6. What did Champollion show about hieroglyphs?
   • They mixed signs for sounds with signs for meanings (answer)
   • They were only decoration
   • They were all numbers

Words

• hieroglyphs: Egyptian picture-writing
• papyrus: reed paper
• decree: official order
• scribes: trained writers
• deciphered: decoded