Meroitic script
Escritura meroítica
- Date
- c. 170 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Meroe, River Nile, Sudan
- Credited to
- Scribes of the kingdom of Kush
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A system of 23 signs, with a hieroglyphic form and a cursive one, which records consonants with an inherent vowel, like an abugida. It is the oldest script created for a sub-Saharan African language.
The oldest dated inscription is that of Queen Shanakdakheto (c. 170-150 BCE). Griffith deciphered the phonetic values in 1909, but the vocabulary remains largely unknown.
What it led to
- administration and royal monuments in the Meroitic language
- Kush's cultural independence from Egypt
- an open problem: the language is still only partly understood