The first known application of cryptography is believed to be the use of special hieroglyphs about 4,000 years ago in Ancient Egypt. Elements of cryptography were found already in the inscriptions of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, completely cryptographic texts have been known since the period of the XVIII dynasty. Hieroglyphic writing, derived from pictography, was replete with ideograms and, as a result of the lack of vocalization, made it possible to create phonograms according to the principle of puzzles.
Cryptography of the Egyptians was not used to make reading difficult, but more likely, with the desire of scribes to surpass each other in wit and ingenuity, and also, with the help of unusual and mysterious, to draw attention to their texts. One of the illustrative examples is the texts of glorification of the nobleman Khnumhotep II (XIX century BC) found in a well-preserved tomb No. BH 3 in the area of Beni Hasan.
The ancient Egyptians used at least three encryption systems.
In ancient Indian texts, among the 64 arts, methods of changing the text are named, some of them can be attributed to cryptographic ones. The author of the tablet with the recipe for the manufacture of glaze for pottery from Mesopotamia used rare designations, omitted letters, and replaced names with numbers to hide what was written. In the future, there are various references to the use of cryptography, most of which relate to use in military affairs.
With the advent of phonetic writing, writing was immediately simplified. In the ancient Semitic alphabet in the II millennium BC, there were only about 30 characters. They denoted consonants, as well as some vowel sounds and syllables. The simplification of writing brought about the development of cryptography and encryption.
Examples of the use of cryptography can be found in the sacred Jewish books, including the book of the prophet Jeremiah (6th century BC), where a simple encryption method called atbash was used. Instead of the first letter of the alphabet, they wrote the last, instead of the second - the penultimate, and so on.
One of the oldest known cryptographic devices is the skitala, also known as the "cipher of ancient Sparta". Skitala (or scitala from the Greek σκυτάλη, wand) is a device used to perform permutation encryption. The skitala consisted of a cylinder and a narrow strip of parchment wrapped around it in a spiral, on which a message was written. This device was invented by the Spartans and is known to have been used in the war of Sparta against Athens at the end of the 5th century BC. e.