Editing Hieratic

{{Short description|Cursive writing system used in ancient Egyptian}}
{{Infobox writing system
| name        = '''Hieratic'''
| type        = [[Logographic]]
| typedesc    = with consonants
| time        = c. 3200 BC – 3rd century AD
| caption     = Transcribed papyrus, c. 1500 BC
| languages   = [[Egyptian language]]
| fam1        = [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]]
| children    = [[Demotic (Egyptian)|Demotic]]<br />
possibly inspired [[Byblos syllabary]]
| unicode     = [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U13000.pdf U+13000–U+1342F] {{nobr|(unified with [[Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Unicode block)|Egyptian hieroglyphs]])}}
| iso15924    = Egyh
| sample      = A page from the Ebers Papyrus, written circa 1500 B.C. Wellcome M0008455.jpg
| direction   = mixed
}}

'''Hieratic''' ({{IPAc-en|h|aɪ|ə|ˈ|r|æ|t|ɪ|k}}; {{langx|grc|ἱερατικά|hieratiká|priestly}}) is the name given to a [[cursive]] writing system used for [[Egyptian language|Ancient Egyptian]] and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BCE until the rise of [[Demotic script|Demotic]] in the mid-first millennium BCE. It was primarily written in ink with a reed brush on [[papyrus]].{{sfn|McGregor|2015|p=306}}

==Etymology==
In the second century, the term ''hieratic'' was used for the first time by the Greek scholar [[Clement of Alexandria]] to describe this Ancient Egyptian writing system.<ref>{{harvtxt|Goedicke|1988|p=vii}}; {{harvtxt|Wente|2001|p=2006}}. The reference is made in Clement's ''[http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/clement-stromata-book5.html Stromata]'' 5:4.</ref> The term derives from the Greek for 'priestly writing' ({{langx|grc-x-koine|γράμματα ἱερατικά}}) because at that time, for more than eight and a half centuries, hieratic had been used traditionally only for religious texts and literature.

''Hieratic'' can also be an [[adjective]] meaning 'of or associated with sacred persons or offices; [[wikt:sacerdotal|sacerdotal]]'.<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hieratic Definition of hieratic], Free Online Dictionary. Retrieved 2011-10-23.</ref>

==Development==
Hieratic developed as a cursive form of [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphic script]] in the [[Naqada III]] period of Ancient Egypt, roughly 3200–3000 BCE.<ref>Friedhelm Hoffmann (2012), '' Hieratic And Demotic Literature'', OUP.</ref> Although [[manuscript hieroglyphs|handwritten printed hieroglyphs]] continued to be used in some formal situations, such as manuscripts of the [[Egyptian Book of the Dead]], noncursive hieroglyphic script became largely restricted to monumental inscriptions.

Around 650 BCE, the more cursive [[Demotic (Egyptian)|Demotic script]] developed from hieratic.{{sfn|McGregor|2015|p=306}} Demotic arose in northern Egypt and replaced hieratic and the southern shorthand known as abnormal hieratic for most mundane writing, such as personal letters and mercantile documents. Hieratic continued to be used by the [[priest]]ly class for religious texts and literature into the third century AD.

==Uses and materials==
[[File:Heratic script limestone.jpg|right|thumb|One of four official letters to [[Vizier (Ancient Egypt)|vizier]] Khay copied onto fragments of limestone, an [[ostracon]]]]
Through most of its long history, hieratic was used for writing administrative documents, accounts, legal texts, and letters, as well as mathematical, medical, literary, and religious texts. During the Greco-Roman period, when Demotic, and later, [[Greek alphabet|Greek]], had become the chief administrative script, hieratic was limited primarily to religious texts. In general, hieratic was much more important than hieroglyphs throughout Egypt's history, being the script used in daily life. It was also the writing system first taught to students, knowledge of hieroglyphs being limited to a small minority who were given additional training.{{sfn|Baines|1983|p=583}} It is often possible to detect errors in hieroglyphic texts that came about due to a misunderstanding of an original hieratic text.

Most often, hieratic script was written in [[ink]] with a [[Phragmites|reed]] [[brush]] on [[papyrus]], [[wood]], [[stone]], or [[pottery]] [[ostracon|ostraca]]. During the Roman period, reed [[pen]]s (''calami'') were also used. Thousands of limestone ostraca have been found at the site of [[Deir al-Madinah]], revealing an intimate picture of the lives of common Egyptian workers. Besides papyrus, stone, ceramic shards, and wood, there are hieratic texts on leather rolls, although few have survived. There are also hieratic texts written on cloth, especially on linen used in [[Mummy|mummification]]. There are some hieratic texts inscribed on stone, a variety known as lapidary hieratic. These are particularly common on [[stela]]e from the [[Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt|twenty-second dynasty]].

During the late [[Sixth dynasty of Egypt|sixth dynasty]], hieratic was sometimes incised into mud tablets with a [[stylus]], similar to [[Cuneiform script|cuneiform]]. About five hundred of these tablets have been discovered in the governor's palace at Ayn Asil (Balat),{{sfn|Soukiassian|Wuttmann|Pantalacci|2002}} and a single example was discovered from the site of Ayn al-Gazzarin, both in the [[Dakhla Oasis]].{{sfn|Posener-Kriéger|1992}}{{sfn|Pantalacci|1998}}<ref>[http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/calendar/articles/20120514 Scribes and craftsmen: the noble art of writing on clay.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529113814/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/calendar/articles/20120514/ |date=2016-05-29 }} Feb 29, 2012; UCL Institute of Archaeology</ref> At the time the tablets were made, Dakhla was located far from centers of [[papyrus]] production.{{sfn|Parkinson|Quirke|1995|p=20}} These tablets record inventories, name lists, accounts, and approximately fifty letters. Of the letters, many are internal letters that were circulated within the palace and the local settlement, but others were sent from other villages in the oasis to the governor.

==Characteristics==
[[File:Scribe's exercise tablet 1.jpg|right|thumb|An exercise tablet with a hieratic excerpt from ''[[Instructions of Amenemhat|The Instructions of Amenemhat]]'' (dated to the [[Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt|eighteenth dynasty]] reign of [[Amenhotep I]], {{nowrap|{{circa|1514}}–1493 BC}}) reads: "Be on your guard against all who are subordinate to you... Trust no brother, know no friend, make no intimates."]]
Hieratic script, unlike inscriptional and [[manuscript hieroglyphs]], reads from right to left. Initially, hieratic could be written in either columns or horizontal lines, but after the [[Twelfth dynasty of Egypt|twelfth dynasty]] (specifically during the reign of [[Amenemhat III]]), horizontal writing became the standard.

Hieratic is noted for its cursive nature and use of [[Ligature (palaeography)|ligatures]] for a number of characters. Hieratic script also uses a much more standardized [[orthography]] than hieroglyphs; texts written in the latter often had to take into account extra-textual concerns, such as decorative uses and religious concerns that were not present in, say, a tax receipt. There are also some signs that are unique to hieratic, although [[Egyptologist]]s have invented equivalent hieroglyphic forms for hieroglyphic transcriptions and typesetting.{{sfn|Gardiner|1929}} Several hieratic characters have diacritical additions so that similar signs could easily be distinguished.

Hieratic is often present in any given period in two forms, a highly ligatured, cursive script used for administrative documents, and a broad [[uncial]] [[bookhand]] used for literary, scientific, and religious texts. These two forms can often be significantly different from one another. Letters, in particular, used very cursive forms for quick writing, often with large numbers of abbreviations for formulaic phrases, similar to [[shorthand]].

A highly cursive form of hieratic known as "Abnormal Hieratic" was used in the [[Thebes, Egypt|Theban]] area from the second half of the [[Twentieth dynasty of Egypt|twentieth dynasty]] until the beginning of the [[Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt|twenty-sixth dynasty]].{{sfn|Wente|2001|p=210}}{{sfn|Malinine|1974}} It derives from the script of Upper Egyptian administrative documents and was used primarily for legal texts, land leases, letters, and other texts. This type of writing was superseded by Demotic—a Lower Egyptian scribal tradition—during the twenty-sixth dynasty, when Demotic was established as a standard administrative script throughout a re-unified Egypt.

==Influence==
Hieratic has had influence on a number of other writing systems. The most obvious is that on [[Demotic (Egyptian)|Demotic]], its direct descendant. Related to this are the Demotic signs of the [[Meroitic script]] and the borrowed Demotic characters used in the [[Coptic alphabet]] and [[Old Nubian language|Old Nubian]].

Outside of the Nile Valley, many of the signs used in the [[Byblos syllabary]] apparently were borrowed from [[Old Kingdom]] hieratic signs.{{sfn|Hoch|1990}} It is also known that early [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] used [[Egyptian numerals|hieratic numerals]].{{sfn|Aharoni|1966}}{{sfn|Goldwasser|1991}}

==Unicode==
The Unicode standard considers hieratic characters to be font variants of the [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]], and the two scripts have been unified.<ref name="Unicode">The [[Unicode]] Standard, Version 5.2.0, Chapter 14.17, ''Egyptian Hieroglyphs'' [https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.2.0/ch14.pdf]</ref> Hieroglyphs were added to the [[Unicode]] Standard in October 2009 with the release of version 5.2.

==See also==
* [[Cuneiform]]

==References==
{{Reflist|20em}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite journal
 |last=Aharoni |first=Yohanan
 |year=1966
 |title=The Use of Hieratic Numerals in Hebrew Ostraca and the Shekel Weights
 |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
 |volume=184
 |pages=13–19
 |doi=10.2307/1356200
 |issue=184
 |jstor=1356200
 |s2cid=163341078
}}
*{{cite journal
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 |archive-date=2006-10-09
}}
*{{cite book
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*{{cite book
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}}
*{{cite journal
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}}
*{{cite book
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}}
*{{cite journal
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}}
*{{cite journal
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}}
*{{cite journal
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}}
*{{cite book
 |last=Malinine |first=Michel
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}}
*{{cite book
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*{{cite book
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*{{cite journal
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*{{cite book
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*{{cite book
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*{{cite book
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*{{cite book
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*{{cite book
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}}
*{{cite book
 |last=Wimmer |first=Stefan Jakob
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}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/egyptian_hieratic.htm Ancient Egyptian scripts – hieratic]
*[http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/hieratic.html The Hieratic Script]
*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161121003150/http://www.ancientscripts.com/egyptian.html |date=21 November 2016 |title=Egyptian scripts}}

{{Ancient Egypt topics}}
{{list of writing systems}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:4th-millennium BC establishments]]
[[Category:Ancient Egyptian language]]
[[Category:Egyptian languages]]
[[Category:Writing systems]]
[[Category:Obsolete writing systems]]
[[Category:Writing systems of Africa]]
[[Category:Egyptian inventions]]
[[Category:Bronze Age writing systems]]
[[Category:Naqada III]]