Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

A script derived in the second millennium from egyptian scripts for the Meroïtic language which was spoken in the Nile valley. It was used in northern Sudan until the fourth century ce when it was gradually superseded by Nubian. On the basis of inscriptions published in the nineteenth century by K. R. lepsius , F. Ll. Griffith in 1911 published a successful decipherment of the script ( table 15 ). Most inscriptions can hence be read, but the content of many remains obscure because the language, whose genetic affiliation is unknown, is little understood. Table 15 The Meroïtic alphabet Reading Griffith 1911. ... log in or subscribe to read full text