When were hierogliphics invented?

Answer 1

The honest answer is uncertain & debatable, but before 5,000 years ago is most probable. Recent 6-7,000 year old evidence found in the Nile Valley shows "tags" with clever symbolic picture images being used there then to identify things (which technically qualifies their being the world's oldest known "writing," although these are essentially accounting records, not the elaborately sophisticated pictographic writing we think of as ancient Egyptian). According to ancient Egyptian tradition, the knowledge of what we call hieroglyphics was among the gifts brought by the god Toth (= Greek Hermes) before Egypt was Egypt; before the pyramids were built. Whatever, while Champollion's genius gave us the essential vocabulary of the ancient Egyptians understanding re the mind-set of the people & so the mythos of the "words" meanings was left wanting, and this has unfortunately resulted in largely prosaically pedantic translations that are often trivializing and even condescending. But if you're curious as to the "deeper" meaning of hieroglyphics vis-a-vis the ancient Egyptians mind, I suggest beginning with these works: "Fire in the Sky" by John Anthony West, and "Symbol & the Symbolic" & "Esoterism & Symbol" by Rene A. Schwaller de Lubicz. There is plenty of info relative to this question available from the usual sources, of course...