Hieroglyphics and paleolithic cave paintings have a lot of similarities to each other but they also have many differences as well. Hieroglyphics were developed by a more sophisticated society, the Egyptians and then later adopted by other cultures. Cave paintings were simplistic and the earliest form of written communication. Both were used to tell stories and show what life was like during the respective periods. Cave paintings used pictures but no words, whereas hieroglyphics used words or symbols but no paintings to convey messages.
Hieroglyphics were the main form of record keeping during the ancient Egyptian time period. They were made up of pictures or symbols that had specific meaning and were used on tombs and pyramids as a way to honor the lives of ancient Pharaohs and the Gods, and to ensure safe passage to the underworld. Hieroglyphics were also used in ancient temples and on sacred texts. They were often referred to as “The Language of the Gods” and were believed to have been discovered by Thoth, the God of knowledge. Hieroglyphics are often hard to decipher since it’s not an actual spoken language and the many symbols have multiple meanings.
It wasn’t until 1798 that the Europeans even considered the idea of translating the ancient hieroglyphs of Egypt. The idea began when Napoleon Bonaparte led a military expedition to Egypt to secure trade for the french. He also took with him various scientists who recorded all that they saw, pyramids and hieroglyphs included. Then, a year later, the Rosetta Stone was discovered during the construction of an addition to a military fort. Its discovery sparked a frenzy among the French, who had previously been guessing at the definitions of the hieroglyphics.
The Rosetta Stone is a slab of rock that has the same message inscribed three different times using three languages of the time it was created, Hieroglyphics, Greek, and Demotic. Many of the French hoped that the Rosetta Stone would be a viable way of translating hieroglyphics but it would be years before scholars would translate all three inscriptions. In 1814 Thomas Young was the first to make a significant breakthrough concerning the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone. He used a code breaking technique that uses what symbols one already knows to try and read the rest.
Thomas Young studied the Rosetta Stone and noticed that some of the hieroglyphs were circled. Guessing that it could be the name of someone important, he searched through the Greek text hoping to find a name that would line up. Upon further investigation he noticed the name Ptolemy, which he used to match up to the symbol. Thomas Young’s translation of the Rosetta Stone was more of a rough draft than anything else and had many mistakes. Sadly, out of nowhere he quit trying to translate it, leaving the translation unfinished.
However, he still left a good basis for the next man by the name of Jean-Francois Champollion, who in 1822 would finish Young’s work. Almost fifty years later, the first paleolithic cave paintings would be discovered in Spain by Don Marcelino and his daughter. These paintings depicted bison and were the work of the Magdalenian people. These people used the natural elements of the rock to give their paintings dimension. They most likely would have used things found in nature, such as berries and stones to etch and paint their drawings.
Most of the paleolithic cave paintings that have been discovered are of animals. A few paintings of humans have been found but an animal is always used for the person’s head. Scholars theorize that cave paintings depict what was most important to the people of the time. If this theory is correct, then the Paleolithic people would have valued animals. Scholars can only theorize about these ancient paintings because there are no writings to analyze and gain further insight. It’s much like trying to figure out the intent of an artist when looking at a painting today.
It would be near impossible to know exactly what and why they painted what they did. Much more can be conveyed with written word that simply doesn’t exist in a painting. Unlike the hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone, paleolithic cave paintings have no basis for deciphering their meaning. When archeologists discover cave paintings, they are usually forced to guess the meanings behind them, much like Napoleon and his men had to hypothesise about the hieroglyphics before the Rosetta Stone’s translation.
The hieroglyphic writings give greater insight into the Egyptian culture than the cave paintings give us into the paleolithic period, as we can read the stories instead of trying to guess the what and why of a painting and the intent of the person that did the painting. Even though the people of the paleolithic era and the ancient Egyptians never came in contact with each other, they both used a form of communication to tell stories and leave records, giving future scholars insight into their lives and what mattered most to them.