Meroitic Hieroglyphs

Overview Properties List Table

Meroitic Hieroglyphs is a Unicode block which can be characterized as a formal hieroglyphic. It presents various characters for writing Meroitic Egyptian. Here are the most important facts about this alphabet:

The Meroitic script is basically an alphabet of 23 symbols used from the II century BC till the V century AC in Nubia and Northern Sudan.
It has two varieties: hieroglyphic (known from inscriptions on monuments, comes from The Egyptian hieroglyphic writing) and Cursive (from demotic writing).
The hieroglyphic symbols were written in columns, from top to bottom, from right to left. The more common cursive form was written from right to left, from top to bottom.
The alphabet was decoded at the beginning of the XX century by Francis Llewellyn Griffith; however, most symbols and meanings still remain unclear
4 vowels + 14 consonants + 5 syllables
Apparently, the Meroitic script was also utilized for writing the Old Nubian language (the ancestor of Meroitic written mostly in Coptic or modified Greek)

Properties

Range	10980–1099F
Characters	32

List of Characters

Table of Characters

10920–1093F Lydian 109A0–109FF Meroitic Cursive

0: Basic Multilingual Plane

1: Supplementary Multilingual Plane

2: Supplementary Ideographic Plane

3: Tertiary Ideographic Plane

4-13: Not Used

14: Supplementary Special-purpose Plane

15: Supplementary Private Use Area Plane – A

16: Supplementary Private Use Area Plane – B