"The Literature of ancient Egypt is the product of a period of about four thousand years, and it was written in three kinds of w
riting, which are called hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic. In the first of these, the characters were pictures of objects; in the second, the forms of the characters were made as simple as possible so that they might be written quickly; and in the third, many of them lost their picture form altogether and became mere symbols. Egyptian writing was believed to have been invented by the god Tehuti, or Thoth, and as this god was thought to be a form of the mind and intellect, and have the wisdom of the God who created the heavens and the earth, the picture characters, or hieroglyphs as they are called, were held to be holy, or divine, or sacred.
The materials used by the Egyptians for writing upon were very numerous, but the commonest were stone, wood, skin, and papyrus. The earliest writings were probably traced upon them using some type of fluid, coloured black or red, which served as ink.
When the Egyptians became acquainted with the use of the metals they began to cut their writings in stone. As time went on and men wanted to write long texts or inscriptions, they made great use of wood as a writing material. Sheepskin, or goatskin, was used as a writing material, but its use was never general; ancient Egyptian documents written on skin or, as we should say, on parchment, are very few. At a very early period the Egyptians learned how to make a sort of paper, which is now universally known by the name of "papyrus". When they made this discovery cannot be said, but the hieroglyphic inscriptions of early dynasties contain the pictures of a roll of papyrus, hence the antiquity of the use of papyrus must be great.
1. What is the difference between hieroglyph and hieratic writing?
A - Hieroglyph writing is easier to write than hieratic.
B - Hieratic writing uses very simple symbols.
C - Hieratic writing is easier to write than hieroglyph writing.
D - There are no differences between the two.
