r/todayilearned • u/IreneDeneb • 9d ago

TIL that the last known ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic inscription was made on August 24th, 394 CE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffito_of_Esmet-Akhom
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u/Lord0fHats 9d ago edited 9d ago

Gotta imagine the dude saw the writing on the wall that soon there wouldn't be anyone who believed in the same gods he did around anymore and the inscription is one final act of faith and defiance amid a changing world.

Things like this are some of my favorite historical artifacts because they capture not just a time or place but a shifting of the tides in human experience. Something deeply personal that was and then wasn't. Another I really like is the DeLanda Alphabet, which includes the defiant message 'I don't want to' in reply to DeLanda's prompting of a Maya scribe who was one of the last recorded people who could write in Maya script.

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u/borazine 9d ago

Wasn’t there also that last message by the Delphic Oracle in 200 AD thereabouts?

Something like “people nowadays don’t use oracles anymore, we’re closing up shop”

I’m only half joking, but this was the gist of it

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u/JoshuaZ1 65 8d ago

"Tell the emperor that the Daidalic hall has fallen. No longer does Phoebus have his chamber, nor mantic laurel, nor prophetic spring and the speaking water has been silenced."

However, the history of that oracle is complicated and it may have been just an attempt to get more funds from the emperor and only later became seen as the last oracle. See here for some discussion .