Hieroglyphs were the earliest form of Egyptian script, dating back to circa 3100 B.C. They were used mainly in religious and ceremonial settings and were inscribed on tombs, temples, statuary and funerary objects. Hieroglyphs consist of ideograms-signs that stand for ideas or things-and phonograms-signs that represent sounds in the language. They also include "determinatives," signs that clarify the meaning of a word in a particular context.

Although hieroglyphs can be written horizontally or vertically, from left to right or right to left, complex sets of rules ensure their proper reading. Scribes were extensively trained and highly respected for their skill, especially because making elaborate hieroglyphs took a great deal of time. To keep records efficiently, scribes developed hieratic, a cursive adaptation that abbreviated the strokes necessary to form a hieroglyph. A third script, called demotic, shortened the signs even further. It appeared late in Egyptian history, approximately in 650 B.C.

Literate individuals composed an elite and powerful segment of Egyptian society. Though most people had little formal training in reading and writing, they still could recognize many hieroglyphs inscribed in family tombs, in temples where they worshipped and in the form of amulets they wore to ensure health and well-being.

Hieratic script
Letter with hieratic inscription
c. 1550-1295 B.C., New Kingdom
Papyrus, ink
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1927, 27.3.560

In this letter written in hieratic, a cursive form of hieroglyphics, a man informs his employer of the spread of malicious gossip and how the problem must be addressed. The papyrus was found near the temple at Deir el-Bahri in western Thebes.

Demotic script
Mummy label in demotic script
2nd to 3rd century A.D., Ptolemaic period
Wood, ink
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Helen Miller Gould, 1910, 10.130.1132

This demotic inscription is a brief funerary offering, with the name of the owner (Psenpnoute) and his parentage written on a stela-shaped mummy label. Such a label, placed with the body during mummification, identifies the deceased for all eternity. Demotic is a simplified version of hieratic, the cursive form of hieroglyphics that was used primarily by priests.

During the reign of Amenhotep III (ca. 1390-1352 B.C.), a series of large scarabs were released at his command to celebrate events such as hunting lions or the construction of an enormous lake (this example).
Photograph courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Rogers Fund,
1935. 35.2.1.