The appearance of writing in Egypt

Egyptian writing was born around the year 3000 BC. C. due to the evolution of this civilization, which advances in its organization as a centralized and bureaucratic society. Writing creates history, since thanks to it the memory of the events carried out is preserved, reflecting beliefs, knowledge and spiritual life. Next, in this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we are going to study the appearance of writing in Egypt, which marked the becoming of one of the most important civilizations in ancient history.

The appearance of writing in Egypt is a fact that has its precedent in the Tinite dynasties. It is true that previously there were signs used as mnemonic figuration, but we must talk about writing from having a phonetic notation and when you can read some images given in a certain language.

During the archaic or ‘tinite’ dynastic period (3100-2725 a. C.) a considerable administrative organization of the state was constituted in Egypt, founding a new capital, Memphis, in the confluence of Upper and Lower Egypt. As a consequence, there was an impressive development of the science of writing in support of the needs of a highly centralized bureaucratic government.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we will discover the characteristics of egyptian culture.

This first form of Egyptian expression is based on the use of ideograms, which will constitute the so-called hieroglyphic writing, and that will subsequently evolve. The graphics used by the Egyptians represent the thing in question - living beings or objects. For example, a cobra with the drawing of this reptile. Within this symbology there were also nuances, since sometimes they represented the whole for one part, for example, the head of a goose for the animal itself.

In addition, they sometimes used the object as a metaphor, keeping this some similarity with the idea they wanted to express, such as relating the eye of a hawk with vision. They also relied on the use of enigmas, when they expressed an idea through an object and the relationship between them was more remote or less precise. For example, when they used ostrich feathers as a meaning of justice, since they were all the same.

Over time, this writing will become syllabic, the signs acquiring a phonetic value different from the initial figurative. In addition, the determinants will be provided, which are signs without phonetic value that indicated the meaning of the word.

The first hieroglyphic characters will be represented in stone, embossed or hollowed out, mainly on the walls of monuments, tombs and religious buildings, and also painted in papyri. They were displayed both horizontally and vertically, and were read both from right to left and to the left. the other way around, the direction of reading being determined by the gaze of humans and animals represented.

Hieroglyphic writing will be a communication system that will not be used by the entire population, due to its religious and magical character, so only priests, members of the army, officials and scribes, and pharaohs could read and write.

Hieroglyphs will remain basic in monumental writing and will continue to be used, but will appear other more practical and flexible scripts, as the hieratic and the demotic, that will be perfected according to administrative needs, using papyrus or wooden tablets. The evolution has a technical reason, as the shape of the hieroglyphic characters etched in stone was impractical for rapid transcription. Therefore, there will be a simplification of the graphics.

The hieratic writing It arises in times of the first dynasty and is used mainly by priests. It coexists with the monumental inscriptions in stone but it is a writing based on a simplification of the hieroglyphic signs, with quite important alterations, passing to a rather arbitrary use of the motifs naturalists. Hieratic writing will soon give way to the demotic, that includes an even greater simplification of the hieroglyphs and signs, with greater stylization. It will be applied in administrative documents by scribes, and in daily life and commerce.