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Symbols on pottery	Predynastic tablets from Abydos

Stage 2: The beginning of writing: limited standardisation

The surviving sources indicate that the hieroglyphic writing system followed from the beginning the rules/system which were used throughout Egyptian history. Early developments include the emergence of norms in writing direction, forms of individual signs, orthography of single words, and the gradual tendency towards writing longer inscriptions.
Already in the first dynasties the writing system began to become standardised. Actions are often expressed not by writing a word (verb), but by depicting the action.

Inscriptions on predynastic jars	Numbers	early short phonetic Inscriptions	Stelae from Abydos	Ivory, bone and wooden tablets of the first Dynasty

It seems that at the beginning only very few people could write: at these limits, standardisation was not needed. At the point where the writing was used for more people, a fixed system was needed, and soon developed. Even in the Third Dynasty most inscriptions still consist of lists of titles or offerings. The signs and the writing of many words are already those found in the Old Kingdom.

Seal impressions of the second half of the first Dynasty and later	Private stelae of the Second Dynasty are more complex	Tomb inscriptions of the Third Dynasty are mainly titles

In the Old Kingdom there is already a wider range of use for hieroglyphs, including verbalising sentences.

spoken language	religious texts