Resources
Reading Abnormal Hieratic requires practice. We have prepared videos and written instructions to help you learn to read and understand Abnormal Hieratic.
- A Very Easy Crash Course in Abnormal Hieratic
- An Abnormal Hieratic Readingbook fascicle 1
- An Abnormal Hieratic Readingbook fascicle 2
- An Abnormal Hieratic Readingbook fascicle 3
- An Abnormal Hieratic Palaeography part 1
- An Abnormal Hieratic Palaeography part 2
- Abnormal hieratic flashcards compiled by R. Jasnow (rearranged by J.J. Archidona Ramírez)
Getting started
The requirements are simple. Work hard, trust in your eyes, and make sure that you have a good command of English, French and German. If you do this, pretty soon things will become easier.
The best recent overview of our field––including a handy bibliography––is G. Vittmann, ‘Der Stand der Erforschung des Kursivhieratischen (und neue Texte)’ (from p. 383 onwards). Note, however, that even this recent publication has already become obsolete. Many new sources have surfaced in recent years.
Students who are interested in finding out more about how Abnormal Hieratic vanished from the south of Egypt in the 6th century BCE, to be replaced by Demotic, should consult K. Donker van Heel, ‘The lost battle of Peteamonip son of Petehorresne’, in: Egitto e Vicino Oriente 17 (1994), 115-124, and C.J. Martin, ‘The Saite ‘demoticisation’ of southern Egypt’, in: K. Lomas – R.D. Whitehouse – J.B. Wilkins (eds), Literacy and the state in the ancient Mediterranean (2007), 25-38.