<P> In the Proto - Dynastic Period of Egypt, hieratic first appeared and developed alongside the more formal hieroglyphic script . It is an error to view hieratic as a derivative of hieroglyphic writing . Indeed, the earliest texts from Egypt are produced with ink and brush, with no indication their signs are descendants of hieroglyphs . True monumental hieroglyphs carved in stone did not appear until the 1st Dynasty, well after hieratic had been established as a scribal practice . The two writing systems, therefore, are related, parallel developments, rather than a single linear one . </P> <P> Hieratic was used throughout the pharaonic period and into the Graeco - Roman Period . Around 660 BC, the Demotic script (and later Greek) replaced hieratic in most secular writing, but hieratic continued to be used by the priestly class for several more centuries, at least into the 3rd century AD . </P> <P> Through most of its long history, hieratic was used for writing administrative documents, accounts, legal texts, and letters, as well as mathematical, medical, literary, and religious texts . During the Græco - Roman period, when Demotic (and later Greek) had become the chief administrative script, hieratic was limited primarily to religious texts . In general, hieratic was much more important than hieroglyphs throughout Egypt's history, being the script used in daily life . It was also the writing system first taught to students, knowledge of hieroglyphs being limited to a small minority who were given additional training . In fact, it is often possible to detect errors in hieroglyphic texts that came about due to a misunderstanding of an original hieratic text . </P> <P> Most often, hieratic script was written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus, wood, stone or pottery ostraca . Thousands of limestone ostraca have been found at the site of Deir al - Madinah, revealing an intimate picture of the lives of common Egyptian workmen . Besides papyrus, stone, ceramic shards, and wood, there are hieratic texts on leather rolls, though few have survived . There are also hieratic texts written on cloth, especially on linen used in mummification . There are some hieratic texts inscribed on stone, a variety known as lapidary hieratic; these are particularly common on stelae from the 22nd Dynasty . </P>

What kinds of writings were written in hieratic