Imhotep was angry. He’d spent the better part of the day speaking to slaves and workers about the Pyramid that was being built. They weren’t getting it despite his best efforts. He took a deep breath and tried again.
“Right, now what’s the problem?” He asked. Khamet looked at his sandals. He was hot and the sun cream that they gave him would need a top up. He wasn’t a slave, but the Slave master was fingering his whip in a meaningful way that did not inspire him with any confidence that what he was about to say would not be met by a swift flick around his ear. Still, nothing ventured.
“Well,” Khamet started, “its these instructions see.”
“What about them? They’re very clear to my mind” Imhotep cut in.
“No, with respect Sir they aren’t. Me and the lads are a bit confused by them”, said Khamet.
“In what way?”, asked Imhotep.
“Squiggly line 3 times, Dog faced man holding a staff, two birds singing at each other then there’s a load of people walking in a line. Um, what does that actually mean Sir?” Khamet decided to go for it.
Imhotep sighed then got angry. “Take the block and put it on the other one!”.
“Ahh, gotcha! Then what? There’s more lines and pictures”. Imhotep stormed off. Why? Why didn’t they understand simple hieroglyphics what could be done so they actually did? The Pharaoh would be dead, and all wrapped up, literally, well before it was finished at this rate.
What they decided to do was scale back the hieroglyphics into something that the workers could understand. Like with anything you’re Reading Web design, a technical manual, flat pack furniture if the instructions are clear then life becomes a lot easier. Some people who know about making that happen are the Reading web design team http://www.starwebinnovations.co.uk/.
As the ancient Egyptians did not have the internet they created a form of writing instructions on wax tablets. This was the basis for our modern alphabet. It’s thought that only a few in Egyptian society like Imhotep were able to understand all of it anyway. It was totally impractical as a form of communication to the masses and was seen more as way of identifying who the top dogs were in society. The more you understood the higher up the society food chain you were.
“Right, I’ve had a thought and made this”, said Imhotep.
“Ahh, it’s another set of instructions is it?” said Khamet.
“Yes, but this time I’ve given you a little guide, so you can tell what it all means” replied Imhotep not a little smugly.
“So, it’s this stone is it Sir. Fancy!” said Khamet.
“It is”, said Imhotep. “Don’t go losing it though, I don’t want someone digging it up in years to come and using it to translate our hieroglyphics so that they can better understand our mysteries”.
“No worries Sir, I’ll give it to my wife Rosetta to look after, it’ll be safe with her…”, replied a confident Khamet as he set off back to work.
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