ancient script
Long-dead alphabet
Ancient script refers to any writing system from early civilizations no longer in everyday use: cuneiform, hieroglyphics, Linear B.
The phrase often carries mystery or reverence—scholars spent decades deciphering the ancient script, the tablet bore an ancient script no one could read.
It suggests lost knowledge waiting to be recovered.
- petroglyphsCarvings on natural stone
- cuneiformStylus-impressed ancient script
- hieroglyphsAncient Egyptian picture-writing
- runeAncient Germanic letter
- Phoenician alphabetAncient consonantal writing system
Cherokee syllabary · Proto-Sinaitic · dead language · Egyptian hieroglyphs · Greek alphabet · parchment · pictographs · sacred text · inscriptions · stone tablet · tablet · epigraphy · Latin alphabet · old world · Mayan glyphs · tally marks · carved · tomb
- cryptic puzzlesriddle, cipher, code, cryptogram, enigma
- Egyptologypyramids, pyramid, pharaohs, pharaoh, hieroglyphs
- CJK writinghanzi, kanji, hiragana, katakana, radicals
- Constructed ScriptsKlingon, Blissymbols, conscript
- hard-to-read textscrawl, bad handwriting, faded text, chicken scratch, scribbles
- Chinese writinghanzi, characters, character, radical, radicals