2019-08-23T12:52:00-07:00
Hieroglyphs (from the Greek ἱερογλύφος) or mido-nitro in ancient Egyptian, because hieroglyphics is a Greek word, but in Egyptian it is mido-nitro, spiritual signs or “sacred inscription,” and the term, as used by scholars of the writing system, indicates a category of pictorial writing system under which Egyptian hieroglyphs and other writing systems fall. Including the Maya and Chinese writing in its early days.
The word Allah among the ancient Egyptians meant mdw nṯr
The word “hieroglyph” is derived from the Greek words “Hieros” and “Glophos”, which mean “sacred writing”, indicating that it was written on the walls of sacred places such as temples and tombs, and “inscribed writing” because it was executed in relief or intaglio on the walls of immovable monuments. (Buildings) and movable antiquities (statues, paintings, etc.).
History of Egyptian writing
The ancient Egyptian language was written in four scripts: hieroglyphics, hieratic, demotic, and Coptic. These scripts did not appear all at the same time, but rather came within a chronological sequence that expresses the long period of time that the ancient Egyptian language experienced and at the same time expresses the intellectual maturity of the ancient Egyptian man. Who realized that the requirements of life may require, from time to time, that there be consistency between it and the tool that expresses language, which is writing, and because the hieroglyphic script – the script of complete signs – is the oldest, longest-lasting, clearest and most beautiful Egyptian script, the Egyptian resorted at some points in time to simplifying it. This was represented in the hieratic script, then another simplification was resorted to at a later stage, and this was represented in the demotic script, which means that there is a clear linear relationship between the three scripts. As for the fourth script of the ancient Egyptian language, which is the Coptic script, it was written in the Greek alphabet, adding to it seven signs of ancient Egyptian writing in its demotic form, the pronunciation of which was not available in the Greek signs.
In addition to the hieroglyphic system, another writing system was found that is more streamlined, concise, and easier in handwriting, which is the hieratic script, which was used to write religious, medical, administrative, scientific, and literary documents. Its development is considered parallel to the development of the hieroglyphic script, and is not descended from it or built on it.
While the Demotic script was derived from the Hieratic in later eras… After the Greek colonization of Misr and the mixing of the Egyptian and Greek cultures, another writing system was devised to write the Coptic language – which is the style that the Egyptian language reached in that historical period – which is the Coptic script based on the symbols of the Greek alphabet.
Ancient Egyptian history is divided into thirty dynasties, a division drawn up by the ancient Egyptian historian “Manethon,” who wrote the history of Misr in Greek at the commission of the Ptolemaic king “Ptolemy II” around the year 280 BC. Modern historians placed these dynasties within the framework of historical eras such as the eras of the Old and Middle Kingdom. Modern, etc. In addition to the historical eras, there are linguistic eras regarding the ancient Egyptian language. One of the results of this long time span of the ancient Egyptian language was the occurrence of changes in grammar, morphology, spelling rules, and in assignments and phonetic values. Through studies carried out by specialists in the ancient Egyptian language, it was possible to divide the language into eras, each era characterized by certain linguistic characteristics.
The language in the ancient era was the stage of laying the first building blocks in building the Egyptian language, and it began from the First Dynasty and continued until the middle of the Eighth Dynasty. Historically, this stage corresponds to the Archaic Era (the First and Second Dynasties), the Old Kingdom era, and the Seventh and Eighth Dynasties of the Transitional Era. the first. The texts of this linguistic period appear clearly in the antiquities of the Old Kingdom and in the Pyramid Texts.
In the Middle Ages, the characteristics of this linguistic stage appeared in the period from the middle of the Eighth Dynasty, and continued until the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and this stage represents the stage of complete maturity for the ancient Egyptian language. Historically, it covered some dynasties from the First Transition Era, the Middle Kingdom, the Second Transition, and the beginning of the New Kingdom.
Whereas in the modern era, this linguistic stage appears clear in dynastic texts from the second half of the Eighteenth Dynasty until the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, meaning historically it includes the New Kingdom and the Late Era.
The Demotic stage is a stage that began in the eighth century BC and continued until the fifth century AD. It is a linguistic stage, even if it was written in a different script, which is the Demotic script.
The Coptic stage was a linguistic stage that began approximately in the third century AD, and ended officially, but not actually, with the entry of Islam into Misr in 641 AD, when it began to be gradually replaced by the Arabic language, even if they continued together for a long period.
Writing system
In its hieroglyphic script, the ancient Egyptian language was written horizontally and vertically from right to left, except in cases where it is necessary to change the direction of writing to fit the direction of a particular view or text on an architectural element of a special nature. Also, coordination and aesthetic form sometimes require that some texts be written from Left to right.
As for hieratic and demotic, they were always written from right to left. The direction of the text in relation to hieroglyphic writing can be determined according to the direction of signs with a face and a back, such as humans, animals, birds, and reptiles. If the faces of birds and humans face to the right, we see them from right to left.
As for the development of writing in Misr, which is a development that is evident through the emergence of four scripts of the ancient Egyptian language mentioned before, the development from one script to another, and thus the relationship between the scripts of this language, can be confined within the framework of three scripts: hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic. Due to the presence of a clear linear relationship in most cases, which relationship does not exist with regard to the fourth script, which is the Coptic script, which is written in Greek letters.
Several factors imposed the development of the ancient Egyptian language scripts, including the nature of the writing material, the writing tool, the subject, and the multiplicity of human activities, especially economic and administrative ones.
Writing on stone and stone structures in general requires that the marks be written in their complete form and that they be engraved in relief or in relief. As for writing on papyrus, pottery shards, stones, and rock artifacts in general. It requires a simplified hieroglyphic script, which later developed into a more simplified script known as the hieratic script. The Egyptian was forced to simplify the hieroglyphic script in line with the nature of the writing material (papyrus) and with the increase in daily activities that required a faster script that does not require a large space, a large effort, or a high financial reward. .
Due to its closeness in its early beginnings to the short hieroglyphic script, it was called (the non-traditional hieratic script). Al-Masry took into account certain rules and controls when simplifying, trying not to disturb the basic elements that make up the sign, and because the hieratic script is a script without restrictions – like the difference between the two scripts: Naskh and Ruq’ah in the Arabic language ( The first is written with restrictions and the second is devoid of them. We must take into account the clear difference in the form of one sign. The sign (owl) was written in the hieratic script in different forms.
This difference results from many factors, including the material and tool of writing, the skill of the writer or not, and factors of time and place, and sometimes the nature of the subject. In some cases, we may find it difficult to trace the development or simplification of the sign from the hieroglyphic script to the hieratic script. This is due to the reasons I mentioned, which were changing without control.
It can be said in general that most of the hieratic signs can be traced to their development from hieroglyphs, and that at least we may find it difficult to do so for reasons related, we believe, to the skill of the writer, his physical and psychological condition when writing the text, and the extent of his interest in his pen or brush and the writing material. The oldest hieratic text found in Misr dates back to the Fourth Dynasty (2597-2471 BC), in addition to a text from the reign of King Sahure, where a group of papyrus pieces with a hieratic inscription on them were found in his funerary temple, distributed to the Cairo Museum and some foreign museums. However, this does not mean that the hieratic script has not accompanied the hieroglyphic script since its inception, but we do not have evidence of that until now.
At the end of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty (656 BC) and the beginning of the 26th Dynasty, another script appeared that seemed more simplified than the hieratic script, which was the Demotic script. It remained used in Misr until the end of the Roman era. It was a script that in its beginning was very similar to the hieratic script, and that is why it was called in its early stages the unconventional hieratic script. Then It began to crystallize and take its independent form as a demotic script with the beginning of the Ptolemaic era in the fourth century BC and throughout this era and the Roman era.
A student of the Demotic script may imagine, at first glance, that this script represents the second stage of development after the hieratic script. He may also imagine that it represents a further simplification of the hieratic script commensurate with the diversity of worldly and religious activities and their increase compared to previous eras.
Graphological studies in the field of ancient Egyptian language scripts have come a long way, but it still requires more effort and analysis to identify many of the characteristics of the journey of development of writing in Misr from hieroglyphs to demotic.
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Summary of information in official sources.
Egyptian writing went through three stages:
Hieroglyphics (5000 BC – 300 BC) (sacred writing)
Hieratic (2000 BC – 800 BC) (priestly writing)
A type of ancient Egyptian writing written with simplified symbols similar to the original hieroglyphic symbols. Since hieroglyphs were not suitable for fast writing, a shortened way of writing for practical purposes arose, known as hieratic, where each symbol replaced the original hieroglyph.
The word “hieratic” is derived from the Greek word “gramata hieratica γράμματα ἱερατικά”, which means “priestly writing” and indicates that priests were the people who used this script the most, as a large percentage of hieratic texts, especially in recent times, are religious texts, and most of them were written by priests.
The hieratic script is a simplification of the hieroglyphic script, or in other words an abbreviation of it. The hieroglyphic script, which is the script of complete signs, does not fit with the nature of worldly and religious texts, which increased with the increase in the movement of life and which required fast handwriting.
Hieratic was written on papyrus with a thin wood stick with a pointed point dipped in black or red ink at the beginning of paragraphs, in calculations, in writing punctuation marks, or when writing the names of evil creatures. Hieratic was written in vertical lines until the Middle Kingdom, and after that it was written gradually in horizontal lines from right to left.
Demotic (800 BC – 500 AD) (popular writing)
Demotic script is one of the ancient Egyptian scripts and was used to write down religious texts, scribes’ training texts, letters, and legal and commercial documents among the ancient Egyptians. It is a simplified script of the hieratic script.
This name was derived from the Greek word (δημός demos) and its relative (δημοτικός demoticos), which means “popular”. This name does not mean linking this line with the popular classes in Misr, but rather it is the line of daily transactions.
The emergence of this line came as a result of the multiplicity of activities and the large number of transactions, especially administrative ones, which require speedy completion.
This script was written on two main materials: papyrus and ostraca.
Demotic developed from hieratic, and was written like it: from right to left. Demotic texts were also written in ink, using a reed brush on papyrus leaves. They were also written on wood or linen, or carved in stone or metal.
Demotic became the writing of daily use, beginning in the middle of the eighth century BC. Until the fourth century AD.