It’s the most ancient kind of Egyptian writing.
The classic language in the Ancient and middle Egypt.
At the beginning we find it in the temples and in the tombs, in fact it was used for the texts in the monuments and for the epigraphs.
Clemente of Alexandria, studious in the II century BC, not knowing the name of this language and seeing that these signs were mostly on religious monuments, called them: engraved sacred letters or sacred sculptor: ieratica writing.
The hieroglyphic writing was reserved for the official and solemn inscriptions.
In everyday life the scribes adopted a cursive writing, speedy and so simplified, that it was impossible to recognize the original signs.
During the New Reign it was mostly used for public and private life matters: religious texts, funeral texts, cosmogonie, novels, songs, medical prescriptions, private letters, testaments, diplomatic relations, messages.
In the late epoch the ieratico was used only in the religios ambit and CLEMENTE OF ALEXANDRIA called it : sacerdotal language.
HOW DID THEY WRITE?
1.- They could write
A.- in A SQUARE
B. in ½ VERTICAL SQUARE OR HORIZONTAL SQUARE
C. in ¼ of SQUARE
2.- They could be inserted in
A.- in VERTICAL COLUMNS
B. in HORIZONTAL LINES
3. – The DIRECTION of the writing could go:
A.- FROM THE RIGHT TO THE LEFT ( the figures look toward the right)
B.- FROM THE LEFT TO THE RIGHT ( the figure look toward the left)
C. FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP
D. FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM
E.- it could be MIXED:
DEMOTIC WRITING (VIII BC.- 476 AC.)
In a late epoch the official writing for bureaucracy was the demotic. The demotic was nothing else but the ieratico writing further simplified and so even quicker and handier than the previous one. It was adopted around the VII century BC, under PSAMMETICO (XXVI dynasty). Roman epoch.
For this reason it was called Popular.