Demotic Palaeography

Abstract

This chapter covers all aspects of Demotic palaeography. It deals with its research history and names its most important tools. Palaeographic methodology and issues of sign definition are discussed from a Demotic point of view. The problems of classifying Demotic scribal hands and assigning them to chronologically and topographically defined palaeographic stages are addressed. The chapter furthermore discusses the influence of text types, palaeographic “registers,” and scribal schools on sign shapes as well as the interactions between Demotic and other Egyptian scripts. It addresses the categorization of the Demotic signs and also orthography.