Since hieratic has no standard font and every scribe's hand differs, Egyptologists do not usually print it. Instead they transcribe it: they write out each hieratic sign as the hieroglyph it stands for. Then they read the hieroglyphs as they would any inscription.
Key idea
Why it works
- Transcribe: hieratic sign → hieroglyph (with its Gardiner code). Doubtful signs are marked.
- Transliterate: hieroglyphs → the consonants, as in nfr.
- Translate: the Egyptian words → English.
Worked example: From transcription to meaning
- The house plan (O1) with a stroke is a word sign: it means what it shows.
- Transliterate: pr.
- Translate: "house".
Answer: pr, "house".
Worked example: Where the doubt lies
- The editor was not sure which hieroglyph the cursive sign stands for: hieratic forms of some signs look alike.
- The reading of that word depends on the choice, so it is less certain than the rest.
- Check the photograph and a palaeography table before relying on it.
Answer: The identification of that hieratic sign is uncertain.
Hieratic hands changed over time and from place to place. A Middle Kingdom literary papyrus and a Ramesside account can look very different, so palaeography tables arrange each sign's forms by date and by manuscript. Experienced readers learn to date a papyrus roughly from its handwriting alone, much as a historian can tell an 18th-century letter from a modern one.
Common mistake