"A lot of kids say hieroglyphics is hard, because it is hard," Mr. Loula said, adding he had kids of all ages trying the activity Friday. Some could write their names and draw easily. Others couldn't.

Children can dig for fossils and learn hieroglyphics during a range of activities at a country estate in Lincolnshire. Belton Estate, near Grantham, will run its Big Dig archaeology event from 19 July ...

Her children Jessica, 6, and Joseph, 4, both wrote their names in hieroglyphics. "Ithink it's very interesting,"Jessica said. The interesting part was using animals instead of letters, she said.

The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799, and its subsequent decryption, revealed the secrets of the pharaohs hidden in the hieroglyphic script.

Ramesses II was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who reigned from 1279 BCE to 1212 BCE; he lived to be over 90 years old and may have fathered around 100 children, according to the Egypt Museum.

Analysis of hieroglyphic texts, recently explained by Egyptologist Victoria Almansa-Villatoro for Sapiens, suggests that they might have. The clue is in the Ancient Egyptian word for iron.