Древнеегипетский язык - Дмитрий Пащенко (ММФЯ-2022)

The Black Land of Egypt... It was here that people were among the first to learn to irrigate the arid land, build enormous stone buildings, and write down their speech—and it's hard to say which of these skills was the most advanced! The writing invented by the Egyptians proved so successful that it was used from the very beginning of ancient Egyptian civilization until its complete destruction during the Christianization of Egypt in the late 4th century CE—few writing systems can boast such a long history! Even today, the numerous inscriptions intricately decorating the columns, walls of temples, and tombs delight tourists visiting Egypt. However, this motley jumble of images often appears beautiful to ordinary people, but completely illegible. "I must have to memorize thousands of different symbols here, like for Chinese," a passerby thinks, and moves on to admire them, unable to comprehend the meaning of these inscriptions. But is it really that difficult? You will learn: how many symbols do you need to memorize to read ancient texts that conceal Hidden(tm) knowledge; which words should you pay attention to in a text to grasp its overall meaning, and how to recognize individual words in this jumble of images; is it even necessary to be able to read words to understand their meaning; why does an Egyptologist need to know zoology; and finally, where does the line between literature and fine art lie? May the Sun illuminate your path! Dmitry Pashchenko - Paleontologist, researcher at the Paleoherpetology Laboratory of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, author of the popular science community "Engineering Biology." The lecture was held on December 11, 2022, as part of the XVI Moscow International Physics Fair (HSE building).