SCRIPTA
IFront MatterIIIThe LettersVMechanicsVILineageVIIIn the World
I

Front Matter

Meroitic

Script of the Kingdom of Meroe (300 BC–400 AD) in the upper Nile (modern Sudan).

𐦠 𐦡 𐦢 𐦣 𐦤 𐦥 𐦦 𐦧
Era
Ancient
Region
Africa
System
Alphabet
Direction
Right to Left (RTL)
Signs
23
Status
Extinct
Script of the Kingdom of Meroe (300 BC–400 AD) in the upper Nile (modern Sudan). Derived from Egyptian but developed its own alphabetic system. Egyptologists can read the signs but the underlying language itself is not fully decoded — making it one of the uniquely "readable but not understood" undeciphered languages. The Meroe Pyramids (~200 structures) are inscribed with texts in this script.
III

The Letters

Signs · Unicode · Types
Sample GlyphsClick to copy
Unicode
Range 1U+10980–U+1099F
Range 2U+109A0–U+109FF
Total signs23
In Unicode122
Unicode Blocks
Meroitic Hieroglyphic
10980 – 1099F
32 chars→
Meroitic Cursive
109A0 – 109FF
90 chars→
Glyph evolution
Form change over time
Loading evolution data…
V

Reading Mechanics

Direction · Method
↔
Direction
Right to Left (RTL)
우→좌 (RTL)
α
System
Alphabet
⌨
Input method
Direct Unicode input
Keyboard layout
Standard IME · input chart
Keyboard layout data not yet available.
VI

The Lineage

Family · Descendants
Phylogeny
Descendants of hieroglyphs
Phylogeny
Related scripts
Ancestors · Descendants · Family

Ancestors

Egyptian Hieroglyphs
VII

In the World

Usage · Reach

Languages

Meroitic (partially deciphered)

Countries

Sudan