Hieroglyphs were the earliest form of Egyptian script, dating back to circa 3100 B.C. They were used mainly in religious and ceremonial settings and were inscribed on tombs, temples, statuary and funerary objects. Hieroglyphs consist of ideograms-signs that stand for ideas or things-and phonograms-signs that represent sounds in the language. They also include "determinatives," signs that clarify the meaning of a word in a particular context.

Although hieroglyphs can be written horizontally or vertically, from left to right or right to left, complex sets of rules ensure their proper reading. Scribes were extensively trained and highly respected for their skill, especially because making elaborate hieroglyphs took a great deal of time. To keep records efficiently, scribes developed hieratic, a cursive adaptation that abbreviated the strokes necessary to form a hieroglyph. A third script, called demotic, shortened the signs even further. It appeared late in Egyptian history, approximately in 650 B.C.

Literate individuals composed an elite and powerful segment of Egyptian society. Though most people had little formal training in reading and writing, they still could recognize many hieroglyphs inscribed in family tombs, in temples where they worshipped and in the form of amulets they wore to ensure health and well-being.