Demotic is the
ancient Egyptian script preceded by
hieratic. After the introduction of demotic, hieratic remained in use for
religious purposes, while demotic was used for
economic and
literary purposes. In contrast to hieratic, demotic was often
carved[?] into
stone and
wood.
Demotic was in use by 660 BC and became the dominant script of ancient Egypt, by 600 BC. In the early 4th century, demotic was replaced by Greek and its last known use was in 425.