This is a handy and colourful illustrated guide to reading, writing and understanding ancient Egyptian names, epithets, titles and phrases. The Egyptians believed that the creator god Ptah brought the world into being by naming everything in it. Names had great power, and kings often over-wrote their own names on the monuments of earlier rulers. A person's name was a vitally important part of them, and the Egyptians were very concerned that their names should be recorded, remembered and spoken. Criminals and those who had fallen out of favour could be punished - wiped out of history - by having their names destroyed or defaced. The hieroglyphic script provided a beautiful, flexible and expressive means to write the names of humans, gods and animals. Angela McDonald explains the meanings of Egyptian personal names and how they were made up and demonstrates how they were written in different ways to convey various shades of meaning

• The hieroglyphic script
• People and their names
• Gods and their names
• Animals and their names
• Practical hieroglyphs - words and pharses in Egyptian
• How to draw your own hieroglyphs - some hints and tips