- Developed: independently in Egypt around the 31st century BCE
- Purpose: Mainly used for religious texts, monumental inscriptions, and royal decrees.
- Characteristics:
- Logographic: Symbols represent words, ideas, or objects.
- Syllabic: Some signs represent syllables, especially foreign words.
- Determinatives: Additional symbols clarify the meaning of a word.
- Direction: Written from right to left or from left to right, depending on the context.
- Hieratic: A cursive form of hieroglyphs used for quicker writing on papyruses.
- Demotic: Another cursive form that emerged in the 7th century BCE and was widely used in everyday writing.
Sumerian writing (Cuneiform)
- Developed: Arising in Mesopotamia around 3500 BCE, likely influenced by other earlier systems.
- Purpose: Used extensively for administrative, legal, commercial, literary, and scientific records.
- Characteristics:
- Cuneiform: Wedge-shaped symbols created by pressing a stylus onto clay tablets.
- Logographic: Symbols initially represented words or ideas.
- Syllabic: Over time, some symbols acquired phonetic values representing syllables.
- Polyphonic: Certain signs could represent multiple syllables or words, depending on context.
- Determinatives: Similar to Egyptian writing, determinatives were used to indicate categories of words.
- Direction: Written from left to right, top to bottom.