Les ligatures dans les textes hiératiques du Nouvel Empire (à partir des ostraca) : entre pragmatisme et maniérisme

Abstract

The hieratic writing simplifies and schematises the hieroglyphic signs. However, this simplification doesn’t exclude the complications introduced by personal writing forms. Therefore certain signs are occasionally linked by ligatures. In the documentary texts they often answer an imperative need for efficiency, particularly the search for speed. In the literary texts, they can be used by rote by scribes accustomed to the documentary texts or be the fact of certain affectation. Characteristic of experimented scribes handwritings, the ligatures can thus allow to identify a text as a personal note or a draft rather than a beginner’s exercise; they also sometimes represent a means of identification of certain hands.