In 1897, Adolf Erman attempted to decipher the Meroitic written language. His attempt was unsuccessful because he failed to recognize that it was an African language unrelated to Egyptian, even though the texts were written in hieroglyphs. This book presents the current state of knowledge regarding this language following its successful decipherment by Francis Llewellyn Griffith in 1909.

In 1897, Adolf Erman attempted to decipher the Meroitic written language. His attempt was unsuccessful because he failed to recognize that it was an African language unrelated to Egyptian, even though the texts were written in hieroglyphs. This book presents the current state of knowledge regarding this language following its successful decipherment by Francis Llewellyn Griffith in 1909.