demotic script
Pharaonic everyday writing
Demotic script is the cursive writing system used in ancient Egypt from about 650 BCE until the fifth century CE, replacing the earlier hieratic script for everyday purposes.
The name comes from Greek for "popular"—this was the writing of ordinary documents, contracts, and letters, not priestly or royal inscriptions.
Demotic appears on the Rosetta Stone alongside hieroglyphics and Greek.
Scholars struggled to decipher demotic script until Champollion's breakthrough.
- papyrusAncient plant-derived writing material
- papyrus scrollsRolled ancient reed documents
- Rosetta StoneDecree in three scripts
- EgyptNortheastern African nation
- hieraticRelating to priests
writing system · cursive · ancient Egypt · ancient · scribes · Ptolemaic · Coptic · ink · reed pen · decipherment · Greek · everyday · common · popular · writing · temple · priests · vernacular
- Egyptologypyramids, pyramid, pharaohs, pharaoh, hieroglyphs
- writing historyalphabet, cuneiform, hieroglyphics, hieroglyphs, writing systems
- ancient scriptsglyphs, cuneiform, hieroglyphs, hieroglyphics, Phoenician
- ancient writinghieroglyphs, cuneiform, papyrus, scroll, clay tablets
- hieroglyphicshieroglyphics, hieroglyphs, hieroglyph, glyph, glyphs
- Egyptian languagehieroglyphics, hieroglyphs, hieratic, Coptic, cartouche
demotic, script, demo, demos, democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize, demagogue