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Here in the temple of Isis at Fel is the last hieroglyphic inscription ever written. It reads, "Before Mandulus, son of Horus, by the hand of Nesmetar, son of Nesmet, the second priest of Isis for all time and eternity. Words spoken by Mandulus, Lord of the Abaton, great God." The demonic panel beneath gives the date, the birthday of Osiris, his dedication feast, year 110. by our reckoning August 24th AD 394. Egyptian hieroglyphs probably evolved in the 33rd century BC, 2 and a half millennia before the foundation of Rome. They survived until the final decades of the Western Roman Empire. Of the writing systems in use today, only Chinese characters approach the longevity of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Our
own alphabet falls a thousand years short. Hieroglyphs were used primarily in religious anderary contexts. They were meant to be monumental, eternal. Each sign was a miniature work of art. By the time Egypt became a Roman province, the archaic form of the Egyptian language encoded in hieroglyphs was nearly 2,000 years old. The script, however, was still evolving. Since the reign of the last native pharaohs three centuries before, the number of signs had grown from about 750 to several thousand. Signs were associated with more phonetic values than ever before and used in increasingly elaborate ways. The culmination of these trends can be seen
at Esna Temple where one Roman era hymn is written entirely in crocodile signs and another with rams. Cornelius Galis, the first Roman governor of Egypt, commemorated his suppression of a revolt with an inscription written in Latin, Greek and hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphic texts would be inscribed on obelisks commissioned by Dimmission and Hadrien. During the reign of Trajan, there were no fewer than five professional hieroglyph cutters working in the town of Oxyinkus. It was the temples, however, that contained the majority of Roman Egypt's hieroglyphic texts. These included hymns for the gods, descriptions of festival rituals, retellings of myths, and a wide range of other traditional forms.
They could be quite lengthy. The modern publication of Roman era hieroglyphs in the temple of Hatheror at Dendra runs to nearly 2,000 pages. Those of Esna temple fill well over a thousand. Like the Talmic kings before them, the Roman emperors were patrons of the temples, supporting major construction projects at Esna, Feli, and many other sanctuaries. They appeared in temple reliefs as pharaohs performing the ancient rituals that ensured the preservation of Egypt. Popular devotion at the temples remained strong through the early imperial era. For example, the temples of Memphis sold vast numbers of animals to worshippers as offerings. The catacombs at Sakara across the river are believed to contain more than 4 million
mummified ibises and half a million falcons. Despite soaring falcon sales, the temples of Roman Egypt were a shadow of the economic powerhouses they had once been. During the reign of Ramsy's III, the great temple of Ammun at Cararnack had owned nearly 700,000 acres of fertile land, 421,000 cattle, and 65 towns, among much else. Although no temple of the Telic period could boast such resources, the kings had at least granted temples, financial, and administrative autonomy. The Romans by contrast systematically brought the temples under government control confiscating most of their estates and forcing them to rely on stipens. The social privileges of priests were also curtailed. All imperial support for the temples ended
after the conversion of Constantine. Maxaminus Daza who reigned from 310 to 313 was the last emperor to have his name inscribed on a temple wall. We'll talk about the consequences of the temple's decline for hieroglyphs after a brief word about this video's sponsor. For a long time, I worked at a desk that wasn't very comfortable and couldn't be adjusted. I've been looking for something more versatile, and now I found it in the Flexaspot E7 Plus standing desk. The height of the desk can be adjusted from 26 to 51 in, so I can sit or stand as I work. I also like the built-in keypad, which is a USB
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was converted into a legionary fort during the reign of Dialesian. Around the same time, a village complete with a church grew up inside the mortuary temple of Ramsy's III. The decay of the temples dealt a fatal blow to hieroglyphs. Even in the feronic period, less than 1% of the population had been able to read and write them. This tiny minority had always been concentrated in the temples where the script was taught. After Greek replaced Egyptian as the administrative language, only priests had any incentive to learn the ancient signs. And now the priests were disappearing. Experts in hieroglyphs were already becoming difficult to find during the early imperial era. The hieroglyphs on a second century obelisk, now in the
Florence Archaeological Museum, for example, are little more than a random assortment of signs. The so-called Benin tablet, probably made for a temple of Isis in Rome, was decorated with symbols only distantly related to hieroglyphs, not that any Roman could tell. Many Romans were intrigued by hieroglyphs. An ostrachan found at Medinet Madi seems to describe Hadrien questioning Egyptian priests about the meanings of signs. to judge from his work on Isis and Osiris. Plutarch was familiar with the meanings of at least a few hieroglyphs. Chyroman of Alexandria, one of Nero's tutors, wrote a lost treatise on the topic. Someone with an elementary understanding of hieroglyphs, made a Greek translation of the inscriptions on
an obelisk in the Circus Maximus. Yet no Greek or Roman author known to us claimed the ability to read hieroglyphs. It was generally assumed that hieroglyphic signs were emblems of sacred wisdom and had to be understood allegorically. There were Greekeaking priests in Egypt who could have corrected the error and Egyptian teaching manuals that could have been translated, but these opportunities were missed. The only Egyptian work on hieroglyphs that was translated into a classical language was written too late. Hieroglyphica attributed to a priest named Horapollo probably dates to the mid-fury. Although the author knew the meanings of some signs, he interpreted many others incorrectly and seems to have had no idea how signs could be combined into
sentences. By the time Horapollo wrote, there was probably no one in Egypt who knew much more about hieroglyphs. The only temples still officially in operation were at felt left open to appease the pagan tribes of the southern desert. Soon these two would close. Sometime in late antiquity the image of the god next to the last hieroglyphic inscription at felt was defaced. But the hieroglyphs themselves mysterious or simply powerless were left alone. Don't leave me alone. This October on my tour of Greece, we won't see hieroglyphs, but we will visit Athens, Sparta, and some of the most spectacular ruins in existence. Check out the link in the description to learn more. Speaking of more, how about
additional content from your favorite historical creator? Look no further than the Tollenstone Patreon, also linked below. Feel free finally to check out my other channels, Tolen Zone Footnotes and Scenic Roots to the Past. Thanks for watching.
