Difficulty: Easy
Correct Answer: Hieroglyphic script
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
This question focuses on the writing systems of the ancient world. Ancient Egyptian civilisation developed a distinctive picture based script that appears on temple walls, tombs and monuments. Knowing its proper name is basic general knowledge for history and archaeology related questions.
Given Data / Assumptions:
• The question mentions an ancient Egyptian script using picture symbols.
• It is specifically associated with carvings on temples and monuments.
• Several different scripts from different cultures are listed in the options.
• We need to choose the script most strongly associated with Egypt and with picture writing.
Concept / Approach:
The formal writing system of ancient Egypt is known as hieroglyphic script. Hieroglyphs are stylised pictures representing objects, ideas, sounds or syllables. Egyptians used hieroglyphs for religious texts and monumental inscriptions, while later they also developed cursive forms and other scripts such as hieratic and demotic for everyday writing. Among the options, hieroglyphic script is the one that clearly matches the description in the question.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recognise that the question emphasises picture symbols on temples and monuments in Egypt.
Step 2: Recall that hieroglyphic script is literally made up of such picture symbols.
Step 3: Note that cuneiform script is tied to Mesopotamia, not Egypt.
Step 4: Understand that demotic script is a later, more cursive Egyptian script, but not the main picture based monumental writing.
Step 5: Select hieroglyphic script as the correct answer.
Verification / Alternative check:
Descriptions of the Rosetta Stone and other Egyptian artefacts explain that the top part of the stone is in hieroglyphic script, the formal monument style. Museum labels, school textbooks and documentaries consistently use the term Egyptian hieroglyphs when referring to these picture symbols. This repeated evidence confirms that hieroglyphic script is the name the question is asking for.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Cuneiform script: This wedge shaped script was used in Mesopotamia by Sumerians, Babylonians and others, not by Egyptian temple scribes.
Demotic script: An Egyptian script used later for everyday and administrative writing, but it is not the classic picture based monumental script.
Phoenician alphabet: An early alphabet used by the Phoenicians in the Levant, not the picture writing of the Nile valley.
There was no script in ancient Egypt: This is incorrect, because Egypt had several developed writing systems including hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic.
Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes confuse demotic with hieroglyphic when they see the Rosetta Stone mentioned, because the stone uses both. A simple way to keep them separate is to remember that hieroglyphs are the formal picture signs carved on stone, whereas demotic is a later, faster script for everyday use. When a question highlights picture symbols on monuments, hieroglyphic is the safe and correct choice.
Final Answer:
The ancient picture based script of Egypt carved on temples and monuments is known as the hieroglyphic script.
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