Meroitic script

E135735

The Meroitic script is an ancient writing system used in the Kingdom of Kush to record the now largely undeciphered Meroitic language of Nubia.

All labels observed (9)

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (50)

Predicate Object
instanceOf African script
ancient script
writing system
associatedWith Kushite civilization
linked to: Kingdom of Kush

Meroë
culturalContext ancient Nubian civilization
deciphermentContributor Francis Llewellyn Griffith
deciphermentDifficultyReason lack of bilingual inscriptions
limited corpus
deciphermentStatus phonetic values partly known
derivedFrom Egyptian hieroglyphs
firstAttested 3rd century BCE
hasFeature inherent vowel in consonant signs
separate vowel sign for /a/
word divider mark
hasResearchField Meroitic studies
hasUnicodeBlock Meroitic Cursive
linked to: Meroitic script

Meroitic Hieroglyphs
linked to: Meroitic script
hasVariant Meroitic cursive
linked to: Meroitic script

Meroitic hieroglyphic
linked to: Meroitic script
ISO15924Code Mero
linked to: Meroë
languageStatusOfTarget Meroitic language largely undeciphered
lastAttested 5th century CE
numberOfSignsApproximate about 23 consonant signs
relatedTo Demotic script
Egyptian hieratic
linked to: Hieratic script
replacedBy Coptic script (in neighboring Egypt)
linked to: Coptic script
scriptFamily Egyptian-derived scripts
scriptType alphasyllabary
timePeriodUsed circa 3rd century BCE to 5th century CE
UnicodeRange U+10980–U+1099F (Meroitic Hieroglyphs)
U+109A0–U+109FF (Meroitic Cursive)
usedBy Kushite elites
usedFor administrative documents
funerary inscriptions
religious texts
royal inscriptions
usedIn Kingdom of Kush
usedInModernCountry Egypt
Sudan
usedInRegion Nubia
usedOn ostraca
papyri
stone monuments
wooden tablets
writingDirection right-to-left
top-to-bottom (for some inscriptions)
writingSystemFor Meroitic language
writingSystemScope primarily monumental and administrative
writingSystemStatus partially deciphered

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (19)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Nubia hasWritingSystem Meroitic script
Kingdom of Meroë knownFor Meroitic script
Kingdom of Meroë language Meroitic language
linked to: Meroitic script
Kingdom of Meroë writingSystem Meroitic script
Old Nubian script influencedBy Meroitic script
Supplementary Multilingual Plane contains Meroitic Hieroglyphs block
linked to: Meroitic script
Supplementary Multilingual Plane contains Meroitic Cursive block
linked to: Meroitic script
Meroitic script hasVariant Meroitic hieroglyphic
linked to: Meroitic script
Meroitic script hasVariant Meroitic cursive
linked to: Meroitic script
Meroitic script hasUnicodeBlock Meroitic Hieroglyphs
linked to: Meroitic script
Meroitic script hasUnicodeBlock Meroitic Cursive
linked to: Meroitic script
Adikhalamani languageUsed Meroitic
subject linked to: Adikhalamani (Tabriqo)
linked to: Meroitic script
Meroitic art usedScript Meroitic script
Naqa hasWritingSystem Meroitic script
Queen Amanishakheto usedScript Meroitic script
Kingdom of Kush languageUsed Meroitic language
linked to: Meroitic script
Kingdom of Kush writingSystem Meroitic script
Meroë usedWritingSystem Meroitic script
Kushite queens language Meroitic language
linked to: Meroitic script