Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

760 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
by the help of the former.
Or again we find a human head
in relief with a tuft above and something looking like a handle
or support underneath, while in
other inscriptions this head,
perhaps only the fore-part of it, is merely outlined in relief;
in still others we find instead only a zigzag line produced.
It is
of course evident that the simplified and reduced symbols
are of later date than the full hieroglyphs, since the
former must have been developed from the latter. For
this development the influence of
a cursive writing, existing
alongside the hieroglyphic writing used in connection with
stone and monuments, was in
the main responsible, for this
cursive writing naturallv tended to become more and more
simple, thus gradually departing further from the hieroglyphic
original. It is in particular one circumstance which
brought this result about.
purposes
Suppose one wished for business
to transfer this picture writing to an even surface,
it would practically have been impossible to carve all the
characters in relief, or engrave or depict them completely.
It would have consumed by far too much time to do this.
Accordingly, as also happened in the course of the development
of cuneiform writing, the pictures were, for business
purposes, drawn or scratched in outline only.
But as a necessary
consequence, this verv cursive writing produced many an
additional line, wanting in the original pictures.
To such an
extent this manner of writing in outline- was imitated in
inscriptions that we meet not only with inscriptions with
incised characters in outline, but also characters partially
outlined in relief. Thus we see the influence of cursive
writing operating in two directions at once ; the original
hieroglyphs occurring, firstly, in simplified form, and secondly,
amplified bv additional strokes.
If now it is evident that the cursive writing is a development
of the original full picture writing, it is no less clear
that the more traces we find of the influence of the cursive
writing, the later in general the writing must be.
Here, then,