Scripts of the Meroitic and Post-Meroitic World

The Meroitic administration utilized a unique script deciphered in 1909, but the language it corresponds to remains imperfectly understood. The Egyptian hieroglyphic script was used in the Meroitic kingdom until the 1st century CE, sometimes mixed with the Meroitic hieroglyphic script from the 3rd century CE. The latter was influenced both by the Egyptian logosyllabic and the Greek alphabetic scripts, and eventually replaced Egyptian hieroglyphs. A cursive version of Meroitic with twenty three letters, that read right to left (like Egyptian), became most common. After conversion to Christianity in the 6th century, Byzantine Greek and Coptic scripts became prevalent in Nubia, along with Old Nubian. Scan the red QR code below to see the characters of the script and the sounds they probably made.