Hieratic was already a fast hand. In the 7th century BC, scribes in the north of Egypt developed an even faster one. Herodotus called it the "popular" script, dēmotika, and we still call it Demotic. The Egyptians called it "document writing".
Key idea
Demotic grew out of northern hieratic in the 7th century BC and spread across Egypt under the 26th Dynasty. It is very cursive: many signs are joined into groups that stand for whole words or endings. It is written right to left, in ink. It was used until the 5th century AD.
Why it works
Each step of cursive writing loses more of the picture. In Demotic, a group that once was several hieroglyphs may be written as one quick stroke pattern, learned as a whole. That makes Demotic fast to write, and hard to read for anyone who knows only hieroglyphs. Its signs still descend from hieroglyphs through hieratic, so specialists can trace most groups back to their origins.
| Stage | Dates | Typical uses |
|---|---|---|
| Early Demotic | c. 650–400 BC | administration, contracts and letters |
| Middle (Ptolemaic) Demotic | c. 400–30 BC | also literature, religious texts, and decrees like the Rosetta Stone |
| Late (Roman) Demotic | 30 BC–AD 452 | fewer uses: literary and religious texts, mummy labels, graffiti |
Worked example: Which text is Demotic?
On the Rosetta Stone, which text is the Demotic, and what language is it in?
- The stone has hieroglyphs at the top, Demotic in the middle and Greek at the bottom.
- Demotic is an Egyptian script, so the middle text is in Egyptian, the language of the people, in its everyday hand.
Answer: The middle text; it is Egyptian.
Worked example: Why Demotic was read before hieroglyphs
Scholars read names in the Demotic of the Rosetta Stone in 1802, twenty years before the hieroglyphs were read. Why was it easier at first?
- Its text is better preserved: 32 lines, against 14 broken lines of hieroglyphs.
- Names in it could be matched letter by letter with the Greek, and some Demotic groups looked like an alphabet.
- But scholars then wrongly thought Demotic was purely alphabetic; it also has word signs, like hieroglyphs.
Answer: Better preserved and easier to match with the Greek names.
Common mistake
Confusing Demotic with Greek on the Rosetta Stone. Demotic is the middle text, an Egyptian script. The Greek is at the bottom.