commoner
signs.

The decorative value of hieroglyphic was fully appreciated in Egypt.
The aim of the artist-scribe was to arrange his variously shaped
characters into square groups, and this could be done in great measure
by taking advantage of the different ways in which many words could be
spelt. Thus _hs_ could be written [HRG: H*Hz:z], _hsy_ [HRG: Hz-i-i],
_hs-f_ [HRG: Hz-z:f], _hs-n-f_ [HRG: Hz-n:f]. But some words in the
classical writing were intractable from this point of view. It is
obvious that the alphabetic signs played a very important part in the
formation of the groups, and many words could only be written in
alphabetic signs. A great advance was therefore made when several
homophones were introduced into the alphabet in the Middle and New
Kingdoms, partly as the result of the wearing away of old phonetic
distinctions, giving the choice between [HRG: z] and [HRG: s], [HRG:
t-T] and [HRG: ti], [HRG: m] and [HRG: M], [HRG: n] and [HRG: N],
[HRG: w] and [HRG: W]. In later times the number of homophones in use
increased greatly throughout the different classes, the tendency being
much helped by the habit of fanciful writing; but few of these
homophones found their way into the cursive script. Occasionally a
scribe of the old times indulged his fancy in "sportive" or
"mysterious" writing, either inventing new signs or employing old ones
in unusual meanings. Short sportive inscriptions are found in tombs of
the XIIth Dynasty; some groups are so written cursively in early
medical papyri, and certain religious inscriptions in the royal tombs
of the XIXth and XXth Dynasties are in secret writing. Fanciful
writing abounds on the temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.

PALAEOGRAPHY

_Hieroglyphic._--The main division is into monumental or epigraphic
hieroglyphs and written hieroglyphs. The former may be rendered by the
sculptor or the painter in stone, on wood, &c., with great delicacy of
detail, or may be simply sunk or painted in outline. When finely
rendered they are of great value to the student investigating the
origins of their values. No other system of writing bears upon its
face so clearly the history of its development as the Egyptian; yet
even in this a vast amount of work is still required to detect and
disentangle the details. Monumental hieroglyphic did not cease till
the 3rd century A.D. (Temple of Esna). The written h