Research shows that the first hieroglyphs appeared approximately 5,200 years ago. Around the same time, another writing system was invented in Mesopotamia: cuneiform.

History of hieroglyphs

German excavations in Abydos, Egypt, B.C. He uncovered hieroglyphic inscriptions dating back to 3200 BC.
says James Allen, professor of Egyptology at Brown University.

Interestingly, the hieroglyphic system seems to have been almost fully formed from the very beginning, so it is likely that its beginnings were written much earlier on rapidly decaying materials. Or the scientist says “it was invented by an unknown genius.”

Exactly why and for what hieroglyphs were invented remains a matter of debate.

• At the time of their appearance, Egypt was united into a single state, so one of the versions of their appearance management need. “It is logical that a state of such size and complexity as Egypt needs a flexible accounting system that can store information about the nature, quantity, origin and destination of goods, the persons responsible for them and the date of the transaction.”– writes Mark Van De Meeroop, professor of history at Columbia University, in his book “History of Ancient Egypt”.
• Another theory is that hieroglyphs were invented. help glorify the gods and the kingSince some ancient carvings depicting kings contain hieroglyphs. “Glorification of the king may have been one of the driving forces in the invention of hieroglyphs”– points out Van De Meeroop.

what was the first

Egyptians created hieroglyphs around the same time that cuneiform was invented in Mesopotamia. Which system was invented first is a matter of debate among scientists.

James Allen found that the oldest cuneiform inscriptions date back to B.C. It claims that Egyptian hieroglyphs were first invented, dating back to 2900 BC. However, many scientists do not agree with this view.

Cuneiform sample / Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen

For example, Orly Goldwasser, professor of Egyptology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, writes that cuneiform script was most likely developed first. “According to the available evidence, it is likely that writing appeared in Mesopotamia.”– Goldwasser is confident.

Cuneiform and hieroglyphs have both common features and important differences, but these two systems appear to have evolved independently without influencing each other. Allen noted that cuneiform signs “represent entire words or syllables” while hieroglyphs “represent words or individual consonants” and not vowels.

Although the two systems were very different, the invention of cuneiform in Mesopotamia may have inspired the Egyptians to invent their own writing system, Goldwasser writes.

The end of hieroglyphs

The last known Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription dates back to AD 394, according to the University of Memphis in Tennessee. Other writing systems, such as Coptic, had long been in use in Egypt at the time.

The knowledge of how to read and write hieroglyphs was lost and began to be read again only in the 19th century, when hieroglyphs were deciphered.