Understanding Ancient Artists through 'Handwriting' Analysis
Clip: Season 20 Episode 3 | 1m 41sVideo has Closed Captions
Analyzing the style and shape of hieroglyphs can shed light on the ancient artists' lives.
Egyptologist and paleography expert Elizabeth Bettles analyzes hieroglyphs painted on the walls of tombs in the Theban necropolis. By identifying different "handwriting" techniques — distinct shapes, styles, spellings — she learns more about the artists themselves.
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SECRETS OF THE DEAD is made possible, in part, by public television viewers.
Understanding Ancient Artists through 'Handwriting' Analysis
Clip: Season 20 Episode 3 | 1m 41sVideo has Closed Captions
Egyptologist and paleography expert Elizabeth Bettles analyzes hieroglyphs painted on the walls of tombs in the Theban necropolis. By identifying different "handwriting" techniques — distinct shapes, styles, spellings — she learns more about the artists themselves.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship-Elizabeth Bettles wants to find the name of each artist whose work appears in another tomb in the Theban necropolis.
With tireless determination, this British paleography expert works to identify the painter of a tomb from the 20th dynasty.
♪♪ -Everybody's handwriting is different.
Everybody's handwriting is unique.
Today as it is known that that is the case, and it would have been exactly the same over 3,000 years ago, as this was.
All of this learning about the man who created these hieroglyphs, who painted them, I've got to get to know him.
So I've got to try and find his handwriting style through the shape, through -- of the sign, through how he created the sign, how he spelled things.
And at the moment, I am concentrating on doing individual hieroglyphs to find out what their shape is.
My long-term goal is to create a kind of an interactive database to be able to show people who we can name, who we know who they married, what their children's names were.
So we can learn so much about the people who were literate, who could write.
Preview | Decoding Hieroglyphics
Video has Closed Captions
Research is revealing the hieroglyphic texts from within the tomb of an Egyptian scribe. (32s)
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SECRETS OF THE DEAD is made possible, in part, by public television viewers.