Hieratic is noted for its cursive nature and use of ligatures for a number of characters. Initially, hieratic could be written in either columns or horizontal lines, but after the twelfth dynasty (specifically during the reign of Amenemhat III), horizontal writing became the standard. Hieratic script, unlike inscriptional and manuscript hieroglyphs, reads from right to left. Trust no brother, know no friend, make no intimates." 1514–1493 BC) reads: "Be on your guard against all who are subordinate to you. Of the letters, many are internal letters that were circulated within the palace and the local settlement, but others were sent from other villages in the oasis to the governor.Ĭharacteristics An exercise tablet with a hieratic excerpt from The Instructions of Amenemhat (dated to the eighteenth dynasty reign of Amenhotep I, c. These tablets record inventories, name lists, accounts, and approximately fifty letters. At the time the tablets were made, Dakhla was located far from centers of papyrus production. About five hundred of these tablets have been discovered in the governor's palace at Ayn Asil (Balat), and a single example was discovered from the site of Ayn al-Gazzarin, both in the Dakhla Oasis. ![]() There are some hieratic texts inscribed on stone, a variety known as lapidary hieratic these are particularly common on stelae from the twenty-second dynasty.ĭuring the late sixth dynasty, hieratic was sometimes incised into mud tablets with a stylus, similar to cuneiform. There are also hieratic texts written on cloth, especially on linen used in mummification. ![]() Besides papyrus, stone, ceramic shards, and wood, there are hieratic texts on leather rolls, although few have survived. Thousands of limestone ostraca have been found at the site of Deir al-Madinah, revealing an intimate picture of the lives of common Egyptian workers. During the Roman period, reed pens ( calami) were also used. Most often, hieratic script was written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus, wood, stone, or pottery ostraca. In fact, it is often possible to detect errors in hieroglyphic texts that came about due to a misunderstanding of an original hieratic text. It was also the writing system first taught to students, knowledge of hieroglyphs being limited to a small minority who were given additional training. In general, hieratic was much more important than hieroglyphs throughout Egypt's history, being the script used in daily life. During the Græco-Roman period, when Demotic (and later, Greek) had become the chief administrative script, hieratic was limited primarily to religious texts. Through most of its long history, hieratic was used for writing administrative documents, accounts, legal texts, and letters, as well as mathematical, medical, literary, and religious texts. Uses and materials One of four official letters to vizier Khay copied onto fragments of limestone (an ostracon) Hieratic continued to be used by the priestly class for religious texts and literature into the third century BC. Demotic arose in northern Egypt and replaced hieratic and the southern shorthand known as abnormal hieratic for most mundane writing, such as personal letters and mercantile documents. Although handwritten printed hieroglyphs continued to be used in some formal situations, such as manuscripts of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, noncursive hieroglyphic script became largely restricted to monumental inscriptions.Īround 650 BC, the even more-cursive Demotic script developed from hieratic. ![]() Hieratic developed as a cursive form of hieroglyphic script in the Naqada III period of Ancient Egypt, roughly 3200–3000 BC. Hieratic can also be an adjective meaning "f or associated with sacred persons or offices sacerdotal." Development The term derives from the Greek for "priestly writing" ( Koinē Greek: γράμματα ἱερατικά) because at that time, for more than eight and a half centuries, hieratic had been used traditionally only for religious texts and literature. In the second century, the term hieratic was used for the first time by the Greek scholar Clement of Alexandria to describe this Ancient Egyptian writing system. It was primarily written in ink with a reed pen on papyrus. Hieratic ( / h aɪ ə ˈ r æ t ɪ k/ Ancient Greek: ἱερατικά, romanized: hieratiká, lit.'priestly') is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BC until the rise of Demotic in the mid-first millennium BC. For the distinction between, / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). U+13000–U+1342F (unified with Egyptian hieroglyphs)
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