The last hieroglyphic inscription
A priest of Isis carved hieroglyphs almost no one could read
On 24 August 394 the priest Nesmeterakhem carved an inscription and an image of the god Mandulis in the temple of Isis at Philae. It is the last known dated text in Egyptian hieroglyphs, a script that had to be deciphered from scratch some 1,400 years later.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 4th century
Did you know
Egyptian hieroglyphs outlived Cleopatra by more than 400 years. The last known hieroglyphic inscription was carved at Philae on 24 August 394, when the Roman Empire was already Christian. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 395 Division of the Roman Empire — 1 year later
- 410 Sack of Rome by the Visigoths — 16 years later
Middle East
- c. 405 Mesrop Mashtots creates the Armenian alphabet — 11 years later
Alive at the time
- Augustine of Hippo (aged 40)
- Hypatia (aged 34)
- Vasubandhu (aged 78)