texts on stone and brick walls. Th ese texts represent the old-
est-known Meroitic hieroglyphs, which were adapted from
Egyptian hieroglyphics and changed to meet Nubian needs.
Although the two forms of hieroglyphs appear similar, they
do not represent the same meanings. Based on their connec-
tion to Egyptian hieroglyphics, the written Meroitic marks
can be deciphered; however, the Meroitic language has not
been translated, so it is impossible to understand what has
been written.
Th e kingdom of Axum created its own indigenous alpha-
bet and imported other alphabets through trade and migra-
tion. Axum’s indigenous Ge’ez language and alphabet were
based on the language and script of migrants from southern
Arabia; the Sabaen alphabet dates from about sixth century
b.c.e. Th e Hebraic alphabet also may have been migratory.
According to one origin myth, Menelik I, son of the Queen of
Sheba and Solomon of Israel, brought the alphabet from Israel
in the 10th century b.c.e. Another myth proposes that the He-
braic alphabet was brought in the ninth century b.c.e. by the
Hebrew tribe of Dan living in the Ethiopian highlands. In the
12th century Jewish clerics dated to antiquity the Torah used
by the descendants of the tribe of Dan. Th e Egyptian Coptic
missionaries brought the their alphabet to Axum during the
fourth century c.e., and the Greek language and alphabet and
Latin language and Roman alphabet came through the Port
of Adulis through the Red Sea trade.
Present-day Ethiopia’s Ethiopic script reportedly origi-
nated in Axum in the second century c.e. and is based on
the ancient writing system of Ge’ez. Th is writing system was
used in religious and secular inscriptions on stone and metal
objects. During the fourth century c.e. King Ezana adopted
Christianity as the religion of the state, and biblical texts were
translated from the Coptic language and script to the Ge’ez
language and Ethiopic script.
In the North African region of Maghreb inscriptions
in an indigenous Berber writing called Tafi neq date from
as early as 500 b.c.e. Th is writing system was used to com-
municate messages, for funerary inscriptions, and to mark
property lines. Tafi neq may have been infl uenced by the Pu-
nic writing system based on the Phoenician alphabet used in
the colony of Carthage. In addition, the Greek language and
alphabet and Latin language and Roman alphabet were im-
ported fi rst through trade and later through Roman conquest
in the Punic Wars (264–146 b.c.e.). From 155 to 160 c.e. the
Latin language and Roman alphabet were used by the Roman
Catholic Church to spread Christianity in North Africa.
Ancient African writing is the second oldest in the world.
Written hieroglyphics changed as the need arose to stream-
line complex writing system. Egypt’s gift to the world was its
writing system, which was adapted by other civilizations to
meet their unique needs, and papyrus, on which texts cover-
ing various subjects and in various languages and scripts are
preserved for posterity. Other writing systems were imported
through cultural diff usion as various groups traded with, mi-
grated to, or conquered civilizations on the continent.EGYPT
BY LEO DEPUYDT
Egyptians wrote their language in the pictorial hieroglyphic
script. Hieroglyphic is a Greek word meaning “pertaining to
holy carving.” Th e unit of the writing system is the hiero-
glyph. Hieroglyphs are stylized but realistic pictures of be-
ings and objects. Th e earliest hieroglyphic writing dates to
about 3000 b.c.e. Early attempts are imperfect and diffi cult to
decipher. Full-fl edged hieroglyphic writing emerged around
2500 b.c.e. Th e hieroglyphic tradition steeply declined in the
second century c.e., and the latest surviving texts date to the
fourth and fi ft h centuries c.e. Th e last scribe presumably died
sometime in the sixth or seventh century c.e. In 1822 the
French Egyptologist Jean François Champollion deciphered
hieroglyphic writing.
Because writing represents language, any description of a
writing system must be preceded by a description of the lan-
guage system. Language is composed entirely of signs. Signs
have two sides, the signifi ed and the signifi er. An example
of the signifi ed is a person’s image of a dog. Th e signifi er at-
tached to this signifi ed is the sound pattern consisting of the
three sounds written d + o + g. In other words, the signifi er is
the code in the brain that prompts the speech organs to pro-
duce the sounds. Signifi ed and signifi er are independent. Th e
proof is a comparison of languages. French speakers also know
the signifi ed of a dog but use diff erent sounds as the signifi er,
namely chien. In English and French the image of a dog is about
the same, but the sound pattern changes. Language is neither
signifi eds nor signifi ers but rather the links between the two.
English speakers tacitly agree to link the image of a dog always
to the sound pattern written dog. Th e biochemical confi gura-
tions of signifi ers, signifi eds, and the links between them in the
brain are unknown, but their existence seems certain.
Hieroglyphs can refer to either signifi eds or signifi ers.
Th e hieroglyphic script is one of the few scripts that does both.
A hieroglyph denoting a signifi ed is an ideogram—that is, an
“idea character.” A stroke included in a hieroglyph indicates
that the hieroglyphs meet two conditions: Th ey are ideograms,
and they denote a whole word by themselves. A hieroglyph
denoting a signifi er (one or more sounds linked to a signifi ed)
is a phonogram—that is, a “sound character.” Phonograms
represent one, two, or three consonants. Th ey are therefore
uniliteral, biliteral, or triliteral. Vowels are not written. Pho-
nograms also function as phonetic complements.
Pictures come to denote sounds through the rebus prin-
ciple. Rebus is Latin for “representing sounds by depicting
objects.” In English the sound made by the letter I might be
represented by a picture of an eye. It is in this way that pho-
nograms are derived from pictures. In rebus derivation a hi-
eroglyph that denotes a signifi ed as an ideogram—and that
secondarily denotes the signifi er attached to that signifi ed—is
cut loose from the signifi ed and left to express only the signi-
fi er as a phonogram. Like any language, Egyptian consists of
a limited set of distinctive sounds, about 25. Each sound can1184 writing: Egypt0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1184 1184 10/10/07 2:31:22 PM