Egyptian and Mayan Writing Systems: Origins and Decline

Introduction to Ancient Writing Systems

The study of ancient writing systems reveals some of the most remarkable intellectual achievements in human history. Two of the most significant and well-documented of these systems are those developed by the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Maya. Though separated by geography and culture, both civilizations independently created complex written languages that served administrative, religious, and social purposes. Examining their origins, development, and eventual decline offers invaluable insight into the broader story of human civilization.

The prevailing assumption about the reason for the development of the earliest forms of writing, both in Mesopotamia and Egypt, is that they were the result of a need to record events — and were, in fact, attempts at an early accounting system. This theory is supported by evidence that "the excavated proto-hieroglyphics (claimed to be the earliest genuine writings) were inscribed on inventory tags, thus arising out of the need to convey some accounting information" (Mattessich, Richard). A similar practical drive appears to have motivated early writing across many ancient cultures.

The Egyptian language is one of the first languages to be put into written form. Some scholars have claimed that the earliest form of writing is the Sumerian language, but this contention has been put into doubt by more recent findings. Egyptian writing first appears on stone and pottery and dates back to 3,000 B.C. (Mysteries of Egypt). The earliest alphabetical writing was found in the Abydos–Luxor–Thebes region of Egypt, dating to approximately 1800 B.C.

Egyptian Hieroglyphics: Origins and Early Development

Egyptologists have found limestone inscriptions that they identify as the earliest known examples of alphabetic writing. Carved in cliffs of soft stone, the writing — in a Semitic script with Egyptian influences — has been dated to somewhere between 1900 and 1800 B.C., two or three centuries earlier than previously recognized uses of a nascent alphabet (Smith, Tony).

More recently, Egyptian writing dating to 3,300 B.C. has been discovered. A German archaeologist claimed to have found what could be the earliest known human writing — records of linen and oil deliveries made about 5,300 years ago during the reign of a king named Scorpion in southern Egypt. This discovery reopens debate over the widely held belief that the first people to write were the Sumerians of the Mesopotamian civilization, sometime before 3,000 B.C. (Egyptian writing dating to 3300 B.C. discovered).

Hieroglyphics are the most commonly known form of ancient Egyptian writing. Hieroglyphics refers to a form of communication in which "a picture of an object symbolizes a word, idea, or sound" (Ancient Egyptian Writing). The earliest Egyptian writing system used pictures to symbolize ideas, objects, and sounds, and was developed as early as 3250 B.C. (Dreyer 1998, cited in Parsons, Marie). Early Egyptian writing was difficult to decode, and archaeologists and language specialists spent many years studying the symbols. These symbols, or hieroglyphs, were also known as "sacred inscriptions" and were adapted for use in everyday life in addition to their important religious or mystical implications.

Development of Egyptian Scripts

Hieroglyphics were constituted from ideograms and phonograms. Two simpler forms of script derived from hieroglyphics were the Hieratic and Demotic scripts. As one source explains: "By the Late Period of Egyptian history, just before Alexander the Great came and left his Hellenistic influence and the Ptolemies to reign over the land of Kemet, the scribes of Egypt used three distinct scripts in their writing: hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic" (Parsons, Marie).

The translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics did not take place until the 19th century, when a black stone was found by Napoleon's soldiers near the Egyptian city of Rosetta. This stone, which became known as the Rosetta Stone, was taken to Paris in 1826 and deciphered by François Champollion. This translation acted as a key to the interpretation of other Egyptian scripts.

The Hieratic script is an adaptation of the hieroglyphic script. The difference is that the signs are simplified to make writing more rapid. Hieratic script "was the administrative and business script throughout most of its history, and recorded documents of a literary, scientific, and religious nature. It was most often used on papyrus rolls or sheets, or on bits of pottery or stone ostraca" (Parsons, Marie).

Hieratic script was replaced by Demotic script — which means "popular script" in Greek — in the Late Period of ancient Egyptian history, around 600 B.C.E. After this time, Hieratic script was reserved for religious documents. It should also be noted that there is another form of Hieratic script known as cursive hieroglyphic, which was a simpler form of hieroglyphic signs. By the Hellenistic period, Demotic was the script in general use; it is a cursive script derived from the hieratic. Demotic writing documents typically relate to commercial, legal, and administrative subjects.

Hieroglyphics and Hieratic scripts can be translated today, while Demotic is usually transliterated directly into the letters of the English alphabet. Many texts can now be read to glimpse how the Egyptians spoke of themselves, their gods, and their history. After 400 A.D., the Egyptian language was written in the Greek alphabet, with several extra letters added to represent Egyptian sounds that did not exist in Greek. This form of the Egyptian language is known as Coptic, which was eventually replaced by Arabic — the language spoken in Egypt today. The ancient Egyptian tongue died out; only the hieroglyphics remain to remind us that it ever existed.

Conclusion: The Importance of Ancient Writing

Why do we concern ourselves with these ancient languages and forms of writing? The answer lies in the fact that the best understanding of ancient civilization comes from written sources. Writing represents invaluable records that have importance not only for their specific time and place. Writing "arose out of the need to store information and transmit information outside of human memory — and over time and over space" (Wilford, J.N.).