Hieratic
| Hieratic | |
|---|---|
Transcribed papyrus, c. 1500 BCE | |
| Script type | with consonants |
Period | c. 3200 BCE – 3rd century CE |
| Direction | Mixed |
| Languages | Egyptian language |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian hieroglyphs
|
Child systems | Demotic possibly inspired Byblos syllabary |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Egyh (060), Egyptian hieratic |
| Unicode | |
| U+13000–U+1342F (unified with Egyptian hieroglyphs) | |
Hieratic (/haɪəˈrætɪk/; Ancient Greek: ἱερατικά, romanized: hieratiká, lit. 'priestly') is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BCE until the rise of Demotic in the mid-first millennium BCE. It was primarily written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus.
Hieratic should not be confused with cursive hieroglyphs. The two were indistinct during the Old Kingdom but separated into different writing systems during the First Intermediate Period.