ABSTRACT
The first objective of Egyptologists was to understand and translate the language. In order to make advances in this field, it was necessary to acquire new texts, and therefore, from the earliest period, scholars set out to make exact copies of the inscriptions on the monuments. Since so many of the inscribed, standing monuments were exposed above ground, it was possible for Egyptologists to produce good copies of the inscriptions, and these epigraphic studies preceded scientific excavation. By the beginning of the twentieth century, techniques to record and publish the monuments had been satisfactorily developed.
