Through the Eras

Literaturecursive writing system that does not correspond sign-forsignwith either hieratic or hieroglyphic writings ofwords. It is by far the most difficult writing system formodern scholars to master. Finally, the Coptic alphabetemerged with Christianity in Egypt during the first centuryC.E. The Coptic alphabet uses the 24-letter Greekalphabet plus seven signs from Demotic to representsounds that do not exist in Greek but are needed to writeEgyptian.LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. Compared to otherancient languages such as Greek, Latin, or Hebrew whichwere never lost, Egyptian is a newcomer to the scholarlyscene. Though scholars have made great strides in understandingEgyptian since Champollion’s initial accomplishment,translations of Egyptian literature havenot yet established the Egyptian achievement in modernconsciousness alongside their ancient neighbors inGreece, Rome, and Judea. Yet Egyptian literature includedgreat works whose continuing study will eventuallyestablish it among the world’s great literaryaccomplishments.SOURCESAlan Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1957).Richard Parkinson, Cracking Codes: The Rosetta Stone andDecipherment (Berkeley: University of California Press,1999).SEE ALSO Philosophy: Secret KnowledgeEGYPTIAN WRITING MATERIALSAND PUBLISHINGMEDIUM AND MESSAGE. The Egyptians normallyused a particular kind of writing surface for particularpurposes. Papyrus, the most famous of Egyptian inventions,was not the most commonly used writing surface.Papyrus was relatively expensive but very durable soscribes used it for important texts that had to last a longtime. Works of poetry, letters, and Books of the Deadpreserved for eternity in tombs were normally writtenon papyrus using cursive hieroglyphs or hieratic andlater Demotic or Coptic. Scribes made ostraca (singular:ostracon) from large pieces of broken pots or fromlimestone chips. Ostraca were much cheaper and moreplentiful than papyrus. Scribes used them to practicewriting, nearly always in hieratic, but also for letters,contracts, and receipts. Students practiced writing literarytexts on ostraca. Archaeologists have recovered thousandsof ostraca on limestone from the artists’ village at“Marriage Scarab” of Amunhotep III and Queen Tiye. BROOK-LYN MUSEUM OF ART, 37.475E, CHARLES EDWIN WILBOUR FUND. RE-PRODUCED BY PERMISSION.Deir el-Medina, one of the few places where large numbersof literate, but relatively poorer people lived. Scribesalso prepared wooden boards with a plaster surface topractice writing in hieratic. Some scholars believe theseboards served as a display text, a kind of writing samplethat could be used when a scribe wanted to findwork. They preserve literary texts. Scribes also usedleather as a writing surface, but very few examples havesurvived into modern times. Yet inscriptions on stonethat are normally abbreviated sometimes include the informationthat the full text was written on leather andstored in the library. Tomb walls provided a writing surfacefor prayers, captions to sculptural reliefs, and, bythe Sixth Dynasty, for extended biographies written eitherby or for the deceased. Many scholars view thesebiographies as the first literature in Egypt written withaesthetic values in mind. Temple walls provided a surfacefor kings to publish long inscriptions that proclaimedroyal success in military matters or to describerituals. Stelae (singular: stela)—upright, inscribed slabsof stone—provided a surface for writing prayers, historicalaccounts, and royal decrees. The Egyptiansplaced them in tombs, memorial chapels, and in tem-118 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)