The Power of Words. Domination and Cultural Diversity in Ancient Egypt – a new special exhibition in the Papyrus Museum of the Austrian National Library from 2 June 2025 – 3 May 2026 uses numerous papyri and other artefacts to show the different languages that were spoken in the land on the Nile from around 1500 BC to 1000 AD.
Following Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt, Greek became the language of the ruling class while the local population continued to speak Egyptian. A thousand years later, Greek was replaced by Arabic, but Coptic remained the common language of the country for centuries.
