As material for this research
served the following sources: A.A. Abrahamyan "Hieroglyphs",
St. T. Melik-Bakhshyan "Signs or Hieroglyphs", the researches
by P.G. Safyan, G. K. Karakhanyan, A. A. Martirosyan on the rock arts
of Syunik, Vardenis, Jermajour and Gegama mountains. About 300 rock
arts and 267 hieroglyphs are used in the research including o Indian,
Hetitian and Egyptian hieroglyphs as well. In the main pages of the
web site, one may see the rock arts on the left side where the part
in the red circle has an obvious resemblance to the hieroglyphs placed
on the right. This research drives to a conclusion that the Armenian
rock arts served as a huge treasury for creating Armenian and foreign
hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs and signs have a great role in the history
of writing (the international term ideogram comes from the Greek words
"idea" and "I'm writing"). Usually the hieroglyph
is considered as a kind of writing on the primary level of development
as they express not the complete words or their various parts, which,
of course, do not have any grammatical rules. Consequently, during their
interpretation and right reading they make serious difficulties and
obstacles. Egytians, Shoumers and the Chinese used this type of writing.
Hieroglyphs occur at the nations who had close relationship with the
early culture of writing including Armenians. Hieroglyphs are presxdsew32erved
in Armenian language, especially in the manuscripts, dictionaries with
grammatical content. Their titles are as follows: "Book of Wise
Signs", "Interpretation of First Writings", "Explanation
of Signs", "Armenian Book of Signs and Their Interpretation",
"Signs' Book" etc.
Among all the signs containing manuscripts that we have in Armenian,
the oldest one dates back to 1564. These signs have rather developed
forms and according to the specialists, their origin goes back to the
14th century. Since the middle of the 18th century, the specialists
of Armenology were interested in hieroglyphs. Mkhitar Sebastatsy was
the first to be interested in hieroglyphs. In his book "Haikazan
Gender's Grammar of Old Armenian" (Venice 1730) he had published
different opinions. Among them were M. Emin, V. Langluan, G. Zarbhanalyan
who confirm that hieroglyphs are the ancient variants of Armenian letters,
which had been used before the creation of the mesropian alphabet, during
the pagan period as shorthhand in stenography. In his book "Armenian
Letters" the famous philologist Hr. Acharyan contradicted these
statements bringing rather serious and essential approvals and showed
that Armenian hieroglyphs appeared long after the invention of Armenian
letters that is why in the system of hieroglyphs about 300 images have
no connection with them. Those are simply summaries of separate words
created with mesropian letters, which have no even a common and firm
principal. For example in one of the cases, the word is ideographed
with initials:
B= Bartugh, Z= zoravor, V=
Vardan etc.
In another case, the sign o is added to the initial either on the left
or on the right, for example:
oB = Benjamin, do = dahekan,
bo = banali
In certain cases, the summery
is formed with the first and the last letters:
Dl = Daniel, gl = govel, gr = gavar etc.
Sometimes not the last but one of the middle letters is added to the
first letter:
Tg = tagavor, grp = gavarapet
Alternatively, the same with some ornaments:
Choop = chartarapet, vok = vasn aysorik
Usually the consequence of the letters is changed:
Ghg = geghetsik, Nb = Benjamin
In other cases despite the summery rules, any letter is chosen from
the word and it contains in itself the whole hieroglyph:
Ghgh = aghaghak, O = Anton, r or sh = ashakert, Dr = Alexandr, g or
i = Egiptos, M = Eremia, vgh = shavigh, mm umemn, tztz = Astvatzatzin
etc.There are also some summaries (hieroglyphs) invented from Armenian
letters, which obey to no rule, for example:
vr = bambasely, e or r = Abisoghom, z = Mkhitar, g = ashkhar, tz = aparanq.
The problem of the relationship between Armenian and foreign hieroglyphs
is another topic of interest. Hr. Acharyan proves that the Armenian
forms (Arousiak, Erkinq, Erkir, Ashkhar) were created based on foreign
names of constellations (Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer,
Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn). However, they are
so much changed and developed that have no resemblance to their ancestors.
In the "Book of Wise Signs" the main part of the hieroglyphs
have no connection with Armenian letters and hieroglyphs. These kinds
of signs are either the drawn symbolic images of the word or the alternated
versions of the ancient ones. The main words that are worth to pay attention
are as follows:
Ator trchun sirt gavazan
Astgh eghjyur erajshtutyun chakat
Lusin vishap ashtarak chanaparh
Ksherk seghan matani mard
Astichan nshkhar tapanak akanj
Lyarn shushan lezu tagavor
Ptugh patvandan khach etc.
Very often, the hieroglyphs are declined in handwritings and achieve
prefixes or suffixes. In that case, the Armenian letters are widely
linked with the hieroglyphs.
The above-mentioned statement proposed by Hr. Acharyan proves the idea
according to which the Armenian hieroglyphs by their role and importance
are not at all, as the ones used in ancient world, because they appeared
during the presence of Armenian alphabet and not before it as a prototype.
The Armenian hieroglyphs are signs, which consist of images and letters.
With the help of these signs, people saved the precious paper and parchment
and had the opportunity to express long ideas on rather small areas.
More than thousand years ago, our ancestors had also expressed their
ideas on the rocks. They managed to create various art masterpieces.
Unfortunately, not all of them are interpreted.
There are thousands of rock arts, which are spread throughout the Armenian
mountainous regions. By their essence, they express a great meaning.
Long before the creation of hieroglyphs, there had been rock arts, which
could be a valuable "dictionary" for the creators of the medieval
Armenian hieroglyphs. If we accept that the creators of those hieroglyphs
were acquainted with the rock arts created centuries ago, which is of
course undeniable, then they could borrow many elements and their meanings
may have a lot in common. By the way, it is like it. You will be convinced
about all these after watching our research results. In this site, we
placed not all the rock arts of Armenian regions. Only Gegama, Syunik
and Vardenis mountains are included. Realizing similar signs in hieroglyphs
and rock arts, we are aimed at proving the fact that the bases of hieroglyphs
are the rock arts. They are considered to be not only the bases of Armenian
but also of Indian, Hetitian and Egyptian hieroglyphs. However, there
is also an opinion that the bases of foreign hieroglyphs are not the
rock arts but the Armenian hieroglyphs. In both cases, the foreign impact
on the Armenian hieroglyphs is excluded, because whenever Indian, Egyptian
and Hetitian hieroglyphs were created they could not be more ancient
than the Armenian rock arts created thousand of centuries ago. Probably,
their impact on the Armenian ones is excluded. Nevertheless, the adverse
effect is possible.
LILIT QOCHARYAN
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