Egyptian hieroglyphs
Escritura jeroglífica egipcia
- Date
- c. 3200 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Abydos (tomb U-j, Umm el-Qaab), Upper Egypt
- Credited to
- Predynastic Egyptians (Naqada III, Dynasty 0)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Mixed system of logograms, consonantal phonetic signs and determinatives, used on monuments and in its cursive hieratic form on papyrus. It is the first script with a uniconsonantal phonetic component, a distant precursor of the alphabet.
The labels from tomb U-j at Abydos (c. 3250 BCE) rival Uruk IV in antiquity; the direction or existence of influence between Egypt and Mesopotamia remains debated.
What it led to
- Legitimation of the pharaoh through monumental inscriptions and the royal name in serekh and cartouche
- Centralised administration of the Nile, cattle censuses and grain taxation
- Religious and funerary texts (Pyramid Texts) that fixed a state theology
- Inspiration for the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet from its uniconsonantal signs
Built on
- Proto-cuneiform writingc. 3300 BCE
- Naqada potters' marks
- Ivory labels
- Narmer Palette
Made possible
- 365-day civil calendarc. 2800 BCE
- Egyptian hieratic scriptc. 2700 BCE
- Proto-Sinaitic alphabetc. 1850 BCE
- Medical papyrus
- Egyptian civil calendar