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A review by michelleful
How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-By-Step Guide to Teach Yourself by Mark Collier, Bill Manley
5.0
Well it only took me 16 years since buying this book in the British Museum, and 6 months since actively starting to work on it, but I finished C&M - How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs, by Collier & Manley. YES! Such a feeling of accomplishment.
This is a great book for beginning your study of hieroglyphic Egyptian. Whether it's the absolute best I'm not sure - I've also heard that Janice Kamrin's Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide, and Hoch's grammar, are good. I'm pretty sure Bussman's Complete Middle Egyptian isn't bad either, though I've not finished that one yet. However, it's probable that this is the fastest guide to getting you started on reading actual inscriptions, since it introduces the offering formula very early, viz. Chapter 3, and honestly once you've mastered that you're guaranteed to find at least one artifact to read in any museum with a decent Egyptian collection (and which to impress passing visitors).
I've also found in working through Allen's Middle Egyptian, which is probably THE textbook, that having gone through C&M was a BIG help. Allen tends to frontload information without the full context, but thinking back to examples I'd seen in Allen helped to provide that context.
The exercises are fairly challenging, but the authors provide just the right amount of help for a dedicated student. They're very realistic since they generally consist of reading an inscription from the British Museum, sometimes photographs in quite scruffy condition, so you have to squint. But that's kinda what it's like at a real museum.
Again, great book. My copy is all scratched up because I bought the half-price as-is copy at the museum shop as an impoverished student in 2003, but I'll always cherish it - and will probably make use often of the handy-dandy reference tables in the back.
This is a great book for beginning your study of hieroglyphic Egyptian. Whether it's the absolute best I'm not sure - I've also heard that Janice Kamrin's Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide, and Hoch's grammar, are good. I'm pretty sure Bussman's Complete Middle Egyptian isn't bad either, though I've not finished that one yet. However, it's probable that this is the fastest guide to getting you started on reading actual inscriptions, since it introduces the offering formula very early, viz. Chapter 3, and honestly once you've mastered that you're guaranteed to find at least one artifact to read in any museum with a decent Egyptian collection (and which to impress passing visitors).
I've also found in working through Allen's Middle Egyptian, which is probably THE textbook, that having gone through C&M was a BIG help. Allen tends to frontload information without the full context, but thinking back to examples I'd seen in Allen helped to provide that context.
The exercises are fairly challenging, but the authors provide just the right amount of help for a dedicated student. They're very realistic since they generally consist of reading an inscription from the British Museum, sometimes photographs in quite scruffy condition, so you have to squint. But that's kinda what it's like at a real museum.
Again, great book. My copy is all scratched up because I bought the half-price as-is copy at the museum shop as an impoverished student in 2003, but I'll always cherish it - and will probably make use often of the handy-dandy reference tables in the back.