| The Meroitic heliography is also used mainly for royal or religious purposes.
The Meroitic script is composed of twenty three characters compromising
four vowel signs, fifteen consonants and four syllabus signs. The earliest
evidence found for the Meroitic writing dates back to the second century
BC. The phonologies of the Meroitic and of the Old Nubian were different.
While the Meroitic language was used in Nubia, Old Nubian also continued
to be used, especially on temples, until the first century CE. where the
last evidence of Old Nubian writing was found at Abu Negila hills, Kurdofan
( P.L. Shinnie, Medieval Nubia, pamphlet of the Sudan Antiquities
Service, 1954). Thus, this presents a stronger proof that the Nubian population
continued to speak their mother tongue. |
Stela inscribed in the Meroitic script.
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