Mdw Ntchr known today as hieroglyphs was the writing system of ancient Kemet (Egypt). The translation of the two words means: sacred script or divine word. According to Historian Dr. Theophile Obenga, "Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing is the oldest writing system in the world dating to the age of African antiquity as far back as 3400 BC when the Pre-Dynastic Nubians of ancient Egypt developed the Medu Neter writing system in the Nile Valley during the era of Kemetic Civilization."
Diodorus Siculus made the claim that the Hieroglyphs were actually an Ethiopian script, which was held sacred by the Egyptians and was learned and transmitted only within the priestly families of Egypt. Among the Ethiopians the script was so common that most Ethiopians knew how to read and write in hieroglyphs. Here is the excerpt:
“They say also that the Egyptians are colonists sent out by the Ethiopians, Osiris having been the leader of the colony… And the larger part of the customs of the Egyptians are, they hold, Ethiopian, the colonists still preserving their ancient manners…Furthermore, the orders of the priests, they maintain, have much the same position among both peoples; for all are clean who are engaged in the service of the gods, keeping themselves shaven, like the Egyptian priests, and having the same dress and form of staff, which is shaped like a plough and is carried by their kings, who wear high felt hats which end in a knob at the top and are circled by the serpents which they call asps; and this symbol appears to carry the thought that it will be the lot of those who shall dare to attack the king to encounter death-carrying stings. Many other things are also told by them concerning their own antiquity and the colony which they sent out that became the Egyptians, but about this there is no special need of our writing anything…We must now speak about the Ethiopian writing which is called hieroglyphic among the Egyptians…”
Egyptian scholar Gamal Mokhtar argued that the inventory of hieroglyphic symbols derived from "fauna and flora used in the signs [which] are essentially African" and in "regards to writing, we have seen that a purely Nilotic, hence African origin not only is not excluded, but probably reflects the reality".
Ancient Civilizations of Africa Vol 2 (Unesco General History of Africa (abridged)) (Abridged ed.). London [England]: J. Currey. 1990. pp. 11–12.
Some scholars in the past suggested the Medu Neter was developed in the Levant by Semitic people. Although these theories have long been put to rest in academic communities some still repeat these long outdated notions. EW Budge, like Egyptian scholar Gamal Mokhtar agreed in a Nilotic origin, denoting or belonging to a subgroup of Nilo-Saharan languages spoken in Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, and Kenya.
"It is impossible for me to believe that Egyptian is a Semitic language fundamentally. There are a very large number of words that are not Semitic and were never invented by a Semitic people. These words were invented by one of the oldest African people of the Nile valley of whose written language we have any remains. Their home lay far to the south, and all that we know of Predynastic Egypt suggests that it was in the neighborhood of the Great Lakes."
- EW Budge, Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Dover, 1920
It is pretty safe to say that the Gyph for "face" in the Medu Neter language confirms the Nilotic origins put forth by Budge, Mokhtar and others.
Title: English: Trial piece with hieroglyphs
DescriptioN; Trial piece, hieroglyphs, face
Date: 1353–1336 B.C.
Period: New Kingdom, Amarna Period
Dynasty: 18th Dynasty
Reign: reign of Akhenaten
Medium: Limestone
Dimensions: h. 13 cm (5 1/8 in.); w. 10.8 cm (4 1/4 in.)
Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art
wikidata: Q160236
Current location: Egyptian Art
Accession number: 21.9.15
Place of discovery: From Egypt, Middle Egypt, Amarna
"I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly. I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds." ~35th & 36th Principals of Ma'at
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