Ancient (pre-1 AD)
37 scripts
Latin Alphabet
The most widely used writing system on Earth. Derived from the Etruscan alphabet which cam...
Chinese Characters
Over 50,000 characters exist but literacy requires knowing only 3,000 to 4,000. The oldest...
Devanagari
Used for Hindi, Sanskrit, Nepali, Marathi, and over 120 other languages. The distinctive h...
Greek Alphabet
The ancestor of both Latin and Cyrillic scripts. 24 letters from alpha to omega. The first...
Hebrew Alphabet
Written right to left. 22 consonant letters with no distinct vowel letters in everyday use...
Tamil Script
One of the oldest surviving classical writing systems. Used for Tamil with 78 million spea...
Ethiopic Script
Used for Amharic, Tigrinya, Geez, and other Ethiopian languages. Over 500 base characters ...
Sinhala Script
One of the Brahmic scripts with a distinctive rounded appearance. Has 18 vowels and 42 con...
Tifinagh
Used by the Tuareg people across the Sahara. Descended from the ancient Libyco-Berber scri...
Phoenician Alphabet
The ancestor of almost all alphabetic writing systems in use today. Had 22 consonant lette...
Aramaic Script
The administrative script of the Persian Empire. Ancestor of both Hebrew and Arabic script...
Sanskrit Devanagari detail
See Devanagari main entry. Sanskrit texts are predominantly written in Devanagari....
Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Over 7,000 known symbols, about 1,000 commonly used. Combines logographic and alphabetic e...
Cuneiform
The oldest known writing system, invented by the Sumerians. Written by pressing a wedge-sh...
Linear B
The oldest known form of Greek writing. Deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris, an architec...
Maya Script
The most sophisticated writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. Over 1,000 known glyp...
Linear A
The writing of the Minoan civilization on Crete, used from about 1800 to 1450 BC. Its stru...
Indus Script
Used by the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization, one of the earliest urban societies. Ar...
Proto-Elamite
Among the oldest written records in the world, from ancient Elam in southwestern Iran. Nam...
Cretan Hieroglyphs
A pictographic script of Middle Minoan Crete, contemporary with the earliest Linear A. Kno...
Cypro-Minoan
A syllabic script of Bronze Age Cyprus, derived from Linear A and ancestral to the later C...
Phaistos Disc
A fired clay disc from Minoan Crete stamped with 241 tokens of 45 distinct pictorial signs...
Zapotec Script
One of the oldest writing systems of Mesoamerica, created by the Zapotec civilization. Ove...
Iberian Script
A semi-syllabic script of ancient Iberia, adapted from Phoenician and Greek models. Two ma...
Vinca Symbols
Markings on Neolithic pottery from the Vinca culture of southeastern Europe. Some claim th...
Ugaritic
A cuneiform alphabet from the city of Ugarit on the Syrian coast. Only 30 signs, each pres...
Old Persian Cuneiform
A simplified cuneiform created for the royal inscriptions of Darius I. About 40 signs, far...
Luwian Hieroglyphs
The indigenous writing of the Hittite empire and later kingdoms of Anatolia. Over 500 pict...
Hieratic
The cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphs, written with ink on papyrus. Developed at nearly...
Demotic
The everyday script of late Egypt, from a Greek word meaning popular. Evolved from hierati...
Proto-Sinaitic
The earliest known alphabetic writing, scratched by Semitic workers in Egyptian turquoise ...
Sabaean
The monumental script of the kingdom of Saba, biblical Sheba, in ancient Yemen. A member o...
Nabataean
The script of the Nabataeans, traders who carved the city of Petra from rose red rock. Dev...
Meroitic
The writing of the kingdom of Kush at Meroe in Nubia. Two forms: hieroglyphic for monument...
Kharoshthi
An ancient script of Gandhara in modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. Derived from Aramaic und...
Brahmi
The ancestor of nearly every script of South and Southeast Asia, from Devanagari to Thai a...
Etruscan Alphabet
The alphabet of ancient Etruria, adapted from Greek letters brought by traders. In turn it...