Read the Carving: The Household Things Inside Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Many of the pictures that make up Egyptian hieroglyphs started out as objects people handled every day. The Collector ends its three-part series by tracing those ordinary things into the signs that carried them onto inscriptions and painted surfaces. For anyone who has stood in front of an Egyptian piece in a New York gallery and taken the carving for decoration, the series makes a useful point. Much of what looks ornamental is a picture of a household object doing the work of a word, and it shows how ancient Egyptians lived at home.

With reporting from The Collector.