During the Meroitic period, the people of Kush began to develop a style of art and architecture that was very different from that of Egypt. Carvings show the Nubian lion god, Apedemak, as the equal of the god Amun. The Nubians stopped writing their inscriptions in the Egyptian language and began to use their own new writing system, Meroitic.
Today, archaeologists know the Meroitic alphabet and what sounds the letters stood for, but they do not know what the words mean. Researchers are still working to understand the Meroitic language. They hope to find an inscription that is written in both Meroitic and a language we know. This would allow them to figure out the meanings of some Meroitic words. Or, perhaps the study of modern African languages will help them to better understand this ancient, lost language. In any case, deciphering Meroitic will allow us to learn much more about the people of Meroë.
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Funerary stele of the prince Tedeqen, from Meroë, inscribed in the Meroitic cursive script. About 200-100 BCE. |
| Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. |
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| Detail of the Meroitic text from Tedeqen's stela. The inscription was written from right to left, and the sign of the three dots indicates a division between words. |