Egypten 7.2 :: Language and writing
- Object description
After Alexander the Great, Egypt was governed by a dynasty of kings, most of whom bore the name of Ptolemaios. A new Greek elite was added to the layers of the Egyptian society. Greek became the language of power and administration. However, the people still spoke Egyptian, now written in the form of demotic script, a cursive writing where the individual hieroglyphs no longer could be clearly distinguished. Bilingualism became common among the upper classes and the literacy rate increased. More and more people assumed both Greek and Egyptian names.
Only a small declining group of people still mastered the hieroglyphs, which by now were merely used in religious texts. The last dated hieroglyphic inscription was written on a temple wall in 394 AD.
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