Old Nubian script
Escritura nubia antigua
- Date
- c. century VIII · confidence medium
- Place
- Faras, Wadi Halfa, Sudan
- Credited to
- Scribes of the Christian kingdom of Makuria
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
An alphabet based on Coptic, with letters borrowed from the Meroitic script, used in the Christian kingdom of Makuria to write Old Nubian, the oldest documented Nilo-Saharan language. Its texts include scripture, liturgy, contracts and letters.
The oldest dated texts are from the 8th century; the language survived until c. 1500. Faras (now beneath Lake Nasser) is the best-known site.
What it led to
- administration and liturgy in the local language of Christian Nubia
- the oldest corpus of a Nilo-Saharan language
- the archaeological recovery of Faras during the Nubian campaign (1961-64)