Adopt-A-Character Grant to Support Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Got story updates? Submit your updates here. ›

The Adopt-a-Character program has awarded a grant to support further development of Egyptian hieroglyphs in the Unicode Standard. The initial grant allows a Unicode encoding expert to participate in a meeting at the University of Cambridge on Egyptian hieroglyphs, with the goal of progressing the representation of Unicode Egyptian hieroglyphs, including extending the repertoire.

Why it matters

Egyptian hieroglyphs date back thousands of years and represent an important part of the world's written legacy, capturing significant literary, historical, and religious works. Improving the support for Egyptian hieroglyphs in the Unicode Standard will aid academics and the general public in accessing and studying this ancient writing system.

The details

The meeting is hosted by the working group 'Informatique et Egyptologie' of the International Association of Egyptologists and will take place from July 11-12, 2016. The three new format control characters approved by the Unicode Technical Committee in January 2016, as well as a large preliminary proposal for additional Egyptian hieroglyphs, will be discussed at the Cambridge meeting.

• The Adopt-a-Character grant was awarded in 2026.
• The Cambridge meeting on Egyptian hieroglyphs will take place from July 11-12, 2016.
• In 2009, a core set of Egyptian hieroglyphs was published in Unicode 5.2.
• In January 2016, three new format control characters were approved by the Unicode Technical Committee.

What’s next

The Cambridge meeting is a further step in the process of improving the support of Unicode Egyptian hieroglyphs.