When you purchase through links on our site , we may gain an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
For chiliad of years , theancient Egyptiansinscribed hieroglyph on tombs , papyri and , in some cases , pyramids .
But when were hieroglyph invented ? Research show that they emerged about 5,200 years ago , at around the same time another writing system , call cuneiform , was being invented inMesopotamia .
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs carved into sandstone at the Temple of Kom Ombo in Aswan.
" German excavations at Abydos in Egypt have revealed hieroglyphical inscriptions from [ circa ] 3200 BC,“James Allen , a prof emeritus of Egyptology at Brown University , told Live Science in an electronic mail . Similarly , Ludwig Morenz , an Egyptology professor at the University of Bonn in Germany , told Live Science in an email that Egyptian hieroglyph were create " around 3300/3200 BC . "
Allen said " the hieroglyphic system first come along pretty much fully make , either because its beginnings were inscribe on perishable textile [ that have not survived ] or because it was invented by an strange genius . "
Related : How older is ancient Egypt ?
Cuneiform script on a clay tablet that dates to the first millennium B.C.
Why were hieroglyphs invented?
Why hieroglyphs were invented is a root of public debate , Marc Van De Mieroop , a history professor at Columbia University , wrote in the second edition of his book " A story of Ancient Egypt " ( John Wiley & Sons Ltd. , 2021 ) .
At the clip hieroglyph were invented , Egypt was unifying into a single state and organization may have been a grounds for their invention . It " is coherent that a state of Egypt ’s size of it and complexity required a flexible system of accounting that could keep information on the nature of trade good , their quantities , provenance and destination , the mass in bearing of them and the date of dealings , " Van De Mieroop wrote in his Good Book .
Another theory is that hieroglyph were invented to help glorify gods and the king , Van De Mieroop write , noting that some early carvings showing kings contain hieroglyphs . " The glorification of the king may have been one of the driving forces in the script ’s excogitation , " he wrote .
What is the oldest living writing system?
The Egyptians make hieroglyphs at around the same time as cuneiform was invent inMesopotamia . Which system was invented first is a matter of debate among scholars .
Allen argues that Egyptian hieroglyph were invented first , saying that the earliest cuneiform inscriptions date to around 2900 B.C. However , many scholars discord .
For instanceOrly Goldwasser , an Egyptology prof at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote that cuneiform was belike developed first . " Based on the grounds at hired man , it seems most likely that writing was birth in Mesopotamia , " Goldwasser wrote in a chapter of the book " Pharaoh ’s Land and Beyond : Ancient Egypt and Its Neighbors " ( Oxford University Press , 2017 ) .
In either vitrine , cuneiform and hieroglyphs are quite different , and the two organisation appear to have develop independently of each other . " Cuneiform and hieroglyphic are too dissimilar for the one to have influenced the other directly , " Allen order . Cuneiform sign " symbolise whole word or syllable , " while hieroglyphs " map intelligence or individual consonants " and do n’t represent vowel , Allen noted .
— How onetime are the Egyptian pyramid ?
— Was ancient Egypt a desert ?
— Why did ancient Egyptian Pharaoh of Egypt discontinue build pyramids ?
While there was some contact between the people of Egypt and Mesopotamia , hieroglyphic were grow within the Nile Valley , Morenz said . Goldwasser write that while the two systems are quite dissimilar , it ’s potential that the design of cuneiform in Mesopotamia help cheer Egyptians to invent hieroglyphs .
The last known Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription dates to A.D. 394 , according to theUniversity of Memphisin Tennessee . By that point in time in time , other writing systems such as Coptic were being used in Egypt . Knowledge of how to scan and write hieroglyphs became lost and it was n’t until the nineteenth hundred , with thedecipherment of hieroglyph , that they were read again .
