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Hieroglyphs Lessons Jacques Kinnaer

If you have missed a lesson, or want to refresh your memory, here is a list of the lessons which have featured on Egyptvoyager, together with a taste of what is to come.

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Orientation of signsBasic signs 1 - Types of different signs Basic signs 2 - Signs representing one consonant Basic signs 3 - Signs representing two consonants Basic signs conclusion - Signs representing three consonantsUnderstanding the royal titularyNumbers and datesSome gods and their titulary A typical offering formula Funerary statues

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Lesson I : Orientation of the signs

The comparison of different hieroglyphic texts shows that the signs were not always written in the same direction. Hieroglyphic texts could indeed be written both in rows and columns, from right to left or from left to right. Even within the same block of text, it was possible for one part to be written in columns and the other in rows.

With this kind of flexibility, however, it is necessary to first establish the orientation of the signs and where to start reading. As a general rule, signs representing people or animals all look towards the beginning of the text. Thus, if the signs in a text all "look" to the left, one should start reading from the left to the right, and vice versa. Also as a rule the signs are written from top to bottom.

The following example uses a piece of fictive text to show the different orientations of hieroglyphic signs.

The texts with C and D are written in columns, with a vertical line dividing the different columns. The signs in text C look to the left so again the text is to be read from left to right (and from top to bottom), whereas the signs in text D looks to the right.

This kind of flexibility allowed a symmetrical construction of texts on the walls of temples and tombs. The example below demonstrates how symmetry was obtained while writing on the lintel of a door.

The text in the second row starts in the middle of the lintel with

the and runs to the sides. Thus the text to the left is read from the middle to the left and the text to the right is read from the middle to the right.

An additional benefit of the way signs could be oriented is that it is also possible to add text to an image of a person, a god, an animal or even an object and give it the same orientation. This way, the text, acting as a legend to a representation is linked more closely to the image. In scenes with two figures facing each other, the respective texts of the figures face each other as well. It thus becomes easier to distinguish between the legends and speeches of different actors in a scene and to find the starting point of each actor’s accompanying texts.

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Exercise I

Find the starting point of each of the following texts:

1)


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http://www.egyptvoyager.com/%00%E5%A1%B9%EF%92%81%E1%B4%BB%E4%A1%BF%E2%B2%AF%E5%B6%82%E8%97%84%E6%8C%A7%00%00%EA%AE%A5

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Solutions to Exercise I

3)

2)

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1) From right to left. The images look to the right, so that is where we start reading.

2) From left to right.

3) This is a ritual scene, with two actors facing each other. The text of each actor is written in the same direction as the actor is drawn. Thus the text of the person to the left (looking to the right) is read from right to left. The text of the person to the right (looking to the left) is read from left to right. The following image shows which text belongs to which actor.

<< Back hieroglyph : lesson 2

Lesson II : Basic signs (1)

1) Different types of signs

Although it used pictures as a means to transport ideas and thought, hieroglyphic can not be considered as merely pictographic. In a purely pictographic writing, each sign means what it represents. For instance, a sign representing a cow would convey the meaning "cow", the image of a man would mean "man", and so on. A big disadvantage of this type of writing is that it can only be used to refer to material things. Writing words with a more abstract meaning is near impossible.The number of different words that can be written with a purely pictographic writing is thus very limited.

To solve this problem, hieroglyphic basically distinguishes between two types of signs:

ideograms are signs that mean what they represent. One ideogram can represent more than one word, or it can represent a more general sense and not a specific meaning.

phonograms are signs that have a phonetic value. They represent one, two or three consonants.

Most words were therefore usually written by combining phonograms and ideograms. The phonograms would make up the consonants of the word whereas the ideograms conveyed the word's meaning. This combination not only provided hieroglyphic writing a great flexibility, it also allowed a better distinction between words that consisted of the same consonants.Because the Egyptians only wrote consonants and not their vowels, several words would be written in the same way, even though they may have had different meanings. For instance, the verbs "to seek" and "to act stupidly" both consisted of the consonants w + kh + '. The difference between the two different verbs can be conveyed only by adding some ideograms to the written consonants. Thus the verb "to seek" could be determined by an ideogram representing running legs, whereas the verb "to act stupidly" was determined by a sign representing something bad.To write the word "fool, a man who acts stupidly", it sufficed to add the ideogram representing a man to the verb "to act stupidly".Ideograms added in such a way to phonetically written words are called determinatives because they determinate the meaning of the



written word.

Not all words were written in this manner, however. Very common or short words were sometimes written by using ideograms or phonograms only. Words that were normally written with phonetic signs only are pronouns, some prepositions, such as "in" or "on" and so on.Some signs were used both as ideograms and as phonograms. The word for house, for instance, consisted of the consonants p+r. The sign that was used to write the word "house" could also be used as a phonetic sign to represent the sound pr.When such a sign is used to represent what it means rather than a sound, it is often followed by a small vertical line, the so-called stroke-determinative. For instance, when the sign that represents a house is used to convey the word "house", it will be followed by a stroke. A stroke-determinative thus indicates that the preceding sign is an ideogram and that it means what it represents.A stroke-determinative can also be used as a space filler. In that case, it does not necessarily indicate that the previous sign means what it represents.

2) Some ideograms

The following is a non-exhaustive list of signs that were used as ideograms. Several of these ideograms have a more general meaning. As noted above, some of these signs may also have had a phonetic value. These are covered in the following lessons.

Sign General meaning

man, person

woman

people, mankind, Egyptians

child, (to be) young

old man, (to be) old, to lean

man of authority

noble person, dead person

god, king

king

Sign General meaning

bird

small, bad, weak, negative

fish

snake, worm

tree

plant, flower

wood, tree

corn

grain

god, king

goddess, queen

be high, rejoice, support, exalt

praise, pray

force, effort

eat, drink, speak, think, feel

lift, carry

be weary, weak

enemy, foreigner, rebel

enemy, death

to lie down, death, bury

mummy, form, likeness

head

hair, mourn

eye, to see

nose, smell, joy, contempt

ear, to listen

tooth

force, action, effort

offer, present

sky, above

sun, light, time

night, darkness

star, night, time

fire, heat, cook

air, wind, sail

stone

copper, bronze

sand, minerals, pellets

water, liquid

lake, channel

irrigated land

road, to travel, position

desert, mountain, foreign land

foreign (country or person)

town, village (in Egypt)

house, building

door, to open, to close

box, coffin

boat, ship, navigation

arm, bend, cease

embrace

phallus, beget, urinate, moisture

leg, foot

walk, run

move backwards

flesh, part of the body

tumour, odour, disease

cattle, cow, bull

savage, storm

skin, mammal

clothe, linen

bind, document

knife, cut

hoe, cultivate, hack up

break, divide, cross

cup

loaf, cake, offering

festival, ritual

book, writing, abstract things

one, stroke-determinative

plural, several, multitude





Exercise II

To read hieroglyphic texts, it is necessary to be able to distinguish words. Often, but not always, words would end with one or more ideograms. Below you will find a random grouping of words. Try to distinguish the different words and find a general meaning for them.


Solutions to Exercise II

Below you will find each of the individual words that made up the random grouping of Exercise II. The concrete meaning of each word is given. Did you get all the words? And was the general meaning you found close to the concrete meaning?




Word Concrete meaning Notes

1) bird The last sign is a determinative.

2) SokarName of a god. The last sign is a determinative.

3) boat The last sign is a determinative.

4) manThe stroke before the determinative representing a man, is used as a space filler.

5) to rise The last sign is a determinative.

6) heaven, sky The last sign is a determinative.

7) to adore The last sign is a determinative.

8) child The last sign is a determinative.

9) to approach The last sign is a determinative.

10) hungry man

This word is written with two determinatives. The first indicates an activity of the mouth or head (to be hungry), the second that the word refers to a man.

11) PtahName of a god. The last sign is a determinative.

12) to knowThe last sign is a determinative indicating something abstract.

13) joyful

This word is written with two determinatives. The first indicates joy, the second an activity of the mouth or head.

14)people, mankind, Egyptians

Strictly speaking, the man and the woman are two separate determinatives, with the three strokes indication a plural.

15) sun The last sign is a determinative.

16) royal child The last sign is a determinative.

17) AnubisName of a god. The last sign is a determinative.

18) birdsThe second last sign is a determinative. The three strokes indicate a plural.

19) day The last sign is a determinative.

20) mouth

The first sign is used as an ideogram and represents a mouth, the stroke is a determinative stroke that informs us that the first sign means what it represents.

21) bull The last sign is a determinative.

22) widowThe second last sign indicates mourning, the last sign a woman.

23) animal hide The last sign is a determinative.

24) to rowThe last sign is a determinative. Note how the first sign also conveys the meaning of the word in this case.

25) house The stroke is a determinative stroke.

26) land The stroke is a space filler.

27) sun The stroke is a determinative stroke.

What else can you learn from this exercise?

Take a look at the words with the numbers 16 and 17. One sign, the determinative, can make the difference between two words that are written in an almost identical manner. The phonetic part of the two words is identical and you can only derive their precise meaning from the determinative. This example shows a practical purpose of determinatives.

Compare the words 15 and 27. Both have the same meaning. In fact, word 27 is just a variant writing of word 15. Egyptian hieroglyphs were a flexible way to write words, depending on the context, the available space, the preferences of the writer...

Compare words 2, 11 and 17, or 5, 15 and 19. The same determinative can be used for words with a different meaning.

Back to Lesson 2

Lesson III : Basic signs (2)

1) Different types of phonograms

In the previous lesson, we have already seen that hieroglyphic basically consisted of two types of signs: those that convey ideas and those that represent sounds. Words were normally written by combining these two types of signs. Signs that represent sounds thus make up an important part of the hieroglyphic writing. These signs are also called phonograms.

There are basically 3 types of phonograms:

signs representing one consonant, or uniliteral signs, signs representing two consonants, or biliteral signs, signs representing three consonants, or triliteral signs.

Some exceptional signs also represent four or even five signs. Lesson III will cover the uniliteral signs. The biliterals and triliterals will be the subject of the following lessons.

It can not be stressed enough that, regardless of any conventional reading, the Ancient Egyptians did not write the vowels of their words. They only wrote the consonantal skeleton of the words that made up their language. On occasion some unilterals and biliterals may have been used to indicate the presence of a vowel in foreign words. This was certainly the case when the Egyptians had to use their signs to write Greek and Roman names during the Greek-


Roman Period, and perhaps also when they wrote the names of foreign places during the New Kingdom or earlier.

2) Transcription and conventional reading

Egyptologists use a special kind of notation, known as transcription, to write Ancient Egyptian words in a more readable way. In transcription, each consonant in an Ancient Egyptian word is written using one sign based on our own writing. For instance, the sound kh is rendered as x in transcription. Transcription is useful in grammars, sign-lists, dictionaries but also in scientific articles and studies. It will be used throughout this course and will be part of the exercises of this and the following lessons.Hieroglyphic writing was used to reflect a language that was spoken for more than 3000 years. The spoken language is bound to have evolved and changed over such a long timeframe. The student may wish to consider how his or her own language has changed over the pas generations. Regional differences also are very likely to have caused different pronunciations of the same words within a given timeframe. This, along with the absence of vowels in hieroglyphic writing, makes it near-impossible to try to reconstruct how the Ancient Egyptians pronounced their words.

In order to make conversation easier and to make abstraction of the evolution and regional differences noted here, Egyptologists thus have had to come up with a conventional reading of transcribed texts. This conventional reading, whereby some weak consonants are read as if they were vowels and whereby a mute "e" is inserted after a consonant, is a modern-day fiction and does not reflect at all how the Ancient Egyptians themselves may have pronounced their language.

3) Uniliteral signs

Uniliteral signs are signs that represent one single consonant. The table below lists all uniliteral signs of classical Egyptian, used from the Middle Kingdom on. The first column gives the hieroglyphic sign, the second its transcription, the third its conventional reading and the last column any notes and remarks about the sign or the consonant it represents. The order by which the consonants have been sorted is the same as the one used to sort words in dictionaries.

Sign Transcription Convention Notes

A long a

This sign represents a glottal stop and is unknown in most western languages. The closest relative would be the Hebrew "Aleph".

i i (as in ee)

This sign usually approaches the j but at the beginning of words, it sometimes

represents the sound A . The sign is, however, not interchangeable with the previous sign.

j y (as in yes)Normally used under specific conditions in the last syllable of words.

a short aThis sign represents a guttural sound unknown in western languages. It corresponds to the Arabic "ayn".

w w or u

b b

p p

f f

m m

n n

r r

h h

H h Emphatic "h".

x kh

X khOnly rarely interchangeable with the previous sign.

z or s z or s

c or s s

In early Egyptian this sign represented a sound that was different from the previous one, but at the latest during the Middle Kingdom, they became interchangeable.

S sh

q q

k k

g g

t t

T tshFrom the Middle Kingdom on, replaced more and more by the previous sign.

d d

D djFrom the Middle Kingdom on, replaced more and more by the previous sign.

4) Additional uniliteral signs

Some consonants could be represented by alternative signs, be it that they were less common than the signs above and are not always interchangeable with them.

The alternative signs are for w, for m, for n and for

t. The sign was also used in a few old words.

Click here for Exercise 3






Exercise III

The random words below combine uniliteral signs and ideograms. Try finding the transcription of every word and also the conventional reading for them.


Solutions to Exercise III

You may have recognised some words from the previous exercise.

Word TranscriptionConventional reading

Meaning

1) Apd aaped bird

2) zkr zeker Sokar

3) dp.t depet boat




4) z es man

5) wbnweben or uben

to rise

6) p.t petheaven, sky

7) iAw iaaw to adore

8) Xrd khered child

9) Xam khamto approach

10) Hqr heqerhungry man

11) ptH peteh Ptah

12) rx rekh to know

13) rS resh joyful

14) ra ra sun

15) inpw inepuroyal child

16) inpw inepu Anubis

17) hrw heru day


Lesson IV : Basic signs (3)

1) Biliteral signs

Biliteral signs are signs that represent a combination of two consonants. The following list provides an overview of the most common signs.

Aw

Ab

iw

im

in

ir

is

aA

aq

aD

wA

wa

wp

wn

pH

mA

mi

mi

mw

mn

mr

mr

mH

ms

mt

m(w)t

nw

nw

HA

Hw

Hm

Hn

Hr

Hs

HD

xA

xa

xw

xt

XA

Xn

Xn

st

st

SA

Sw

Sn

Ss

Sd

qd

kA

kp

gm

gs

tA

ti



wn

wr

wD

bA

bH

pA

pr

nb

nm

nn

nH

ns

nD

rw

Xr

sA

sA

sA

sw

sn

sk

tm

TA

DA

Dw

Dr

Dd

Some biliteral signs can also be used as ideograms. For instance,

the sign can be used purely for its phonetic value in words such

as Hrj.t, "dread" and as an ideogram in the word

, Hr, meaning "face". Note the use of the determinative stroke in the latter example to indicate that the sign (Hr) is to be interpreted

as an ideogram. Also note that the reading of still is Hr and that

the sign thus could also be viewed as being a phonogram.

In fact, the phonetic value of the sign can be explained as being derived from the word "face" that consists of the consonants H+r.

2) Phonetic complement

Biliteral signs are often combined with one or exceptionally two uniliteral signs that have the same phonetic value as one of the consonants of the biliteral sign. Uniliterals used in this way complement the reading of the biliteral signs and are called "phonetic complements". They are not read separately but are part of the phonetic value of the biliteral sign.

For instance, the biliteral sign is very often accompanied by

the uniliteral , but the combination of these two signs is transcribed as mn and not as mnn. The added n only serves to

complement the phonetic value of the biliteral sign .

In some cases, phonetic complements can help to distinguish

between different values of the same sign. The sign , for

instance, can be read as Ab or mr. The combination , however, must be read as Ab because the added b is a phonetic

complement. Similarly, the combination is read mr because the added m and r are phonetic complements.

An additional benefit, at least for the modern-day reader, is that phonetic complements betray at least part of the reading of the signs they accompany.It must, however, be noted that none of the biliteral signs actually

needs to have phonetic complements. Thus the signs and , for instance, can be written with or without any phonetic complements. This can cause some ambiguity in reading and in text

interpretation, particularly for a sign such as that has more than one reading. One of the conjugated forms of the verb iri, "to do, to make" is irr,

which can be written both as and as . In the latter case, the first r is a phonetic complement and the second r is part of the verb's conjugation. Another conjugated form of the same verb,

however, is ir, which can be written as and as . The

group can therefore be read as ir and as irr. Only a careful examination and a clear understanding of the context may help determining the intended reading.


Exercise IV

Try distinguishing and transcribing the words in the random list below. Signs that you do not know, are new ideograms.




Solutions to Exercise IV

Did you find the following words? The translations are provided between brackets after the transcription. Parts of transcriptions between brackets are parts of the words that are not written in the hieroglyphic text.

Hs(i) (to turn back) - ir.t (eye) - mni (to moor) - SAa (to begin) - msw.t (birth) - msH (crocodile) - Hr (far)

sswn (to destroy) - ssAw (provisions) - swnw (tower) - Aw (long) - rmn (shoulder) - swAS (pay honour)

swrd (to weary) - wDA.t (udjat-eye) - mr (pyramid) - is (tomb) - bkA (be pregnant) - btA (crime) - HD (white)

imn (Amun) - smsw (eldest) - itj (monarch) - mAi (lion) - Hr (upon)

As an additional exercise, try composing a short vocabulary containing all the words from this and the previous exercises. Try to get the words in the order used for the uniliteral signs.

Lesson V : Basic signs (conclusion)

1) Triliteral signs

Triliteral signs are signs that present the phonetic value of 3 consonants. Even more than was the case with biliteral signs, the distinction between phonogram



and ideogram is rather vague for the triliterals. The following list provides an overview of the most common signs.

anx

aHa

wAs

wAD

bnr

mAa

nfr

nTr

nDm

HqA

Htp

xpr

xrw

sxm

sDm

As was the case with biliteral signs, triliteral signs can be accompanied by one or two uniliteral signs as phonetic complements. The phonetic complement either repeats the last or

the last two consonants of the triliteral sign: reads aHa, "to arise", and not aHaa , with the last a being used as phonetic

complement ; reads anx, "to live, life" and not anxnx. In some more exceptional cases, all three consonants can be repeated. The triliteral signs can, like the biliterals, be used without any phonetic complement.Biliteral signs are normally not used as phonetic complements for

triliteral signs. Note however the group mAa that combines

the biliteral sign mA with the triliteral mAa.

2) Special cases and peculiar writings

a) Abbreviations

It has already been mentioned that phonetic complements are optional and that some words may be written with phonetic or ideographic signs only. Some of the most common words, stereotyped phrases and formulae are often also abbreviated. These are some of the most frequently used abbreviations:

is an abbreviation for anx wDA snb, "may he live, prosper and be healthy". It is used after words referring to anything royal, including the king and his name. This phrase was so stereotype that it was reduced to three vertical lines

in hieratic writings and later to just a number of vertical lines.

or , fuller writing is read mAa-xrw and literally means "true of voice", although it is also translated as "justified". It is an epithet that was added to the names of the deceased. It refers to the fact that the deceased has passed the judgement and is allowed to enjoy the afterlife.

was used as an abbreviation for , nsw, "King (of Upper Egypt)". The full writing of this word itself is a special cases and will be explained in the next paragraph.

is read nsw-bi.ty and is usually translated as "the King of Upper and Lower Egypt". It was part of the royal titulary that will be elaborated in the next lesson.

is used as abbreviation for kA nxt , "victorious bull", often used to refer to the king.

In addition to these abbreviations, it must also be reminded that

words can be written using ideograms only. E.g. the sign can be

used for ra, "sun" and for ra, "Re", the solar god.

b) Transpositions of signs and words

The normal order of signs as explained in Lesson I, can be changed, either for graphic or for honorific reasons. Transposition of signs for graphic reasons was led mostly by a concern to use the available space as much as possible.Small signs may be placed under the breast of a sign representing a bird, even when the latter sign needs to be read first. The group

can thus be read tw and wt, depending on the context.Long narrow signs are usually written before a sign representing a bird, where the normal sign-order would expect them to follow.

Thus we find for wD.

More drastic are the transpositions with honorific intent, which could not only change the order of single signs, but also of words and entire phrases. Words referring to the king or to the gods are often written before other words to which they are closely

connected. For instance, the sign-group , meaning "scribe of the king" must be read sS-nsw and not nsw-sS. The plant, used as an abbreviation for the word "king" is placed before the sign sS, "scribe" because the king was more important than his scribes. For the same reason the sign meaning "god" is written before the

sign meaning "servant" in Hm-nTr, "servant of god", "priest".The names of gods may be moved to the front of phrases, even if,

grammatically, they belong at the end. Thus needs to be read mry imn, "beloved of Amun". Any honorific titles added to the name of a god, are moved to the front as well:

mry imn, nb ns.wt tA.wj, "beloved of Amun, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands".


Exercise V

The following exercise puts to practice what you've learned in this and the previous lessons. Try distinguishing and transcribing the words and word groups in the random list below. Signs that you do not know, are new ideograms




Solutions to Exercise V

Did you find the following words? The translations are provided between brackets after the transcription. Parts of transcriptions between brackets are parts of the words that are not written in the hieroglyphic text.

sxm (power) - Hmt-nTr (god's wife) - aHa(w) (lifetime) - nfr.t (beautiful one / Nefret; Nefret is a common name for women) - snTr (cense) - snTr (cense; this is

indeed the same word as the previous one) - sA-nsw (son of the king / prince)

mAa.t (the goddess Maat) - swAD (make to flourish) - Htp.t (peace) - xpr.w (shape) - xprr (the god Kheprer) - mw.t-nsw (king's mother)

mry ptH (beloved of Ptah) - mi ra (like Re) - xprS (khepresh crown) - mry mnTw nb wAs.t (beloved of Montu, the lord of Waset; Waset is the name of the city we

currently refer to as Thebes)

Lesson VI : Understanding The Royal Titulary

1) The King

The Ancient Egyptians used several words to denote their king. In some cases, the exact meaning of a word referring to the king or its relationship to other, similar words is not known.

The most common word to refer to the king was , nsw, often

abbreviated to . Note the graphical, or perhaps honorific

transposition of the signs, whereby , sw, was moved to be the first sign of the group. The word nsw is derived from nj-sw.t, "the one who belongs to the sedge plant", with the sedge plant as the heraldic symbol for Upper Egypt. This word is therefore normally translated as "King of Upper Egypt", although its context often favours the shorter translation "King".

A word often used together with nsw was , bi.tj, "the one who belongs to the bee", where the nee is normally taken as a reference to Lower Egypt. bi.tj is thus translated as "King of Lower Egypt". Contrary to nsw, however, bi.tj is only rarely used in contexts where the shorter translation "King" should be favoured.

The combination of these two words results in nsw-bi.tj, "King of Upper- and Lower-Egypt", or more literally "he who belongs to Upper-Egypt (the sedge plant) and Lower-Egypt (the bee)". This combination is part of the royal titulary and will be discussed below. It can, in some contexts, be translated simply as "King".

We commonly refer to the kings of Ancient Egypt as "Pharaohs". This was the word used by the Greeks and the Hebrews to denote the

rulers of the Nile-country. It is derived from the Egyptian pr aA, "the Great House", a word originally meaning "palace" or "court". From the end of the 12th Dynasty onwards the health wish "may it live, prosper and be in health" was often added when referring to "the Great House", but still it seems to mean only the palace or the court.

The earliest certain instance where "the Great House" actually refers to the king is in a letter to Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), which is addressed to "Pharaoh, may he live, prosper and be in health, the Master". From the 19th Dynasty onward pr aA is used occasionally to refer to the King instead of the palace. We read "Pharaoh did such and such".The final development was when a proper name was added to the title, as in "Pharaoh Hophra". The earliest known Egyptian example of this use is under one of the Shoshenks of the 22nd Dynasty.

All words related to royalty, including the names of the Pharaohs,

could be followed by the auspicious wish-formula "may he (or she or it) live, prosper and be in health". This could be carried to the extreme, where almost every word referring to a king might be followed by this wish.

2) The Royal Titulary

a) The Horus-name

The oldest known part of the royal titulary is the Horus-

name , sometimes also called the banner-name or the Ka-name. It represents the king as the earthly embodiment of the god Horus, the divine prototype and patron of the Egyptian kings. This name is ordinarily written within a rectangular frame, at the bottom of which is seen a design of recessed panelling, such as we find in the facades of early tombs and in the false doors of many private tombs. The Ancient Egyptian name for this facade was serekh. This name is often used in modern texts as well when speaking of the (palace) facade. On the top of the serekh is perched the falcon of Horus, hence the appellation "Horus-name". In more elaborate New Kingdom examples Horus is wearing the double crown and is accompanied by the sun and a uraeus. In the Early-Dynastic Period, the perched falcon of Horus was in fact part of the name of the king. Aha, for instance, was actually called Horus-Aha, "Horus who fights".

This name was not the birth name of the king, but it was given to him when he ascended the throne. During the first three dynasties it was the king’s official name. His name of birth would not appear in official documents. This has complicated the identification of many early kings mentioned in the king lists, where only the name of birth is mentioned. Although it would continue to be used throughout the entire Ancient Egyptian history, it lost its importance to the Prenomen en nomen from the end of the Old Kingdom on.

b) The Nebti-name

The Nebti-name shows the king in a special relation to two goddesses: the vulture-goddess Nekhbet of the Upper Egyptian cities of Elkab and Hierakonpolis and the cobra-goddess Uto of the

Lower Egyptian city Buto. Both goddesses are the deified personification of Upper- and Lower-Egypt respectively, and as such, the Nebti-name denotes the king as "the one of Nekhbet (Upper-Egypt) and Uto (Lower-Egypt)", i.e. as the "one belonging to Upper- and Lower-Egypt". It is often translated as "Nebti" or "The Two Ladies".1st Dynasty king Den is the first to have assumed this Nebti-name. The use of this title by Den may perhaps indicate some governmental reforms that may have occurred during this king's reign.

c) The "golden Horus name"

The meaning of the third part of the royal titulary, the "golden Horus

name" , is more disputed. It represents the falcon god Horus perched on a symbol that usually represents "gold". Based on the Greek equivalent of this title on the Rosetta Stone, which translates into English as "superior to (his) foes", it has been proposed that the hieroglyphs symbolised Horus as victorious over Seth, "the Ombite" (another possible reading of the hieroglyph on which the falcon is standing). This was, no doubt, the interpretation of Greek times, when the opposition between Horus and Seth was much more pronounced than in earlier times. For these earlier periods, however, the evidence may point in another direction. If the "golden Horus name" symbolised Horus’ victory over his enemy Seth, one might expect that the names following this group should be aggressive in nature, but most of the time, those names are far from being bellicose.In a context dealing with the titulary of Thutmosis III that king says "he (Amun) modelled me as a falcon of gold". Thutmosis III’s co-regent Hatshepsut calls herself "the female Horus of fine gold". The concept of the golden falcon can be definitely traced back to the 11th Dynasty. An inscription of the 12th Dynasty describes the golden Horus name as the "name of gold". The notion of "gold" is strongly linked to the notion of "eternity". The burial chamber in the royal tombs of the New Kingdom was often called the "golden room", not (only) because it was stacked up with gold, but because it was there for eternity. The "golden Horus name" may convey the same notion of eternity, expressing the wish that the king may be an eternal Horus.

d) The Prenomen

The Prenomen is the name that follows the title "King of Upper- and Lower-Egypt". The oldest known example of this title is again dated to the reign of 1st Dynasty king Den, when it was often combined with the Nebti-name, without a distinct name added to it. It would take until the end of the 3rd Dynasty before this title really came into use. It would, eventually, replace the Horus-name as most important official royal name.The Prenomen itself almost always contained the name of the god Re. Typical examples are "pleasing to the heart of Re" (Amenemhat I) and "lord of the cosmic order is Re" (Amenhotep III). One of the first cases of Re as an element in a king’s name is with Khephren of the 4th Dynasty (Khaf-Re).

The title "King of Upper- and Lower-Egypt" can sometimes be

followed by the phrase "the Lord of the Two Lands", which sometimes even replaces it entirely. A queen can be called "the Mistress of the Two Lands".

e) The nomen

The nomen is introduced by the epithet "son of Re". It was added to the royal titulary in the beginning of the 4th Dynasty. It was from that time on that the royal titulary became established in the form discussed here. The name following this title was, as a rule, the king’s name of birth. It is almost the equivalent of our family name, for the 11th Dynasty affect the names Antef and Mentuhotep, the 12th Dynasty the names Amenemhat and Sesostris, the 13th Dynasty shows several kings of the name Sebekhotep and the 18th Dynasty consists almost entirely of ruler named Amenhotep or Thutmosis.

Sometimes, the phrase "the good god" is placed before the nomen of the king, in addition to or in place of the "son of Re". Another title sometimes placed between "son of Re" and the actual

nomen was "lord of the apparitions", sometimes also translated as "lord of the crowns". This title again confirms the narrow link between the king and the sun: the king’s apparition on the throne is compared to the rising of the sun on the Eastern horizon.

From the later half of the Old Kingdom on, the principal name is the Prenomen, and this is often found alone or accompanied only by the nomen. The Horus-name would serve only rarely for identification purposes. Both Prenomen and nomen are almost invariably written within "cartouches" or "royal rings". The cartouche depicts a loop formed by a rope, the ends tied together so as to offer to the spectator the

appearance of a straight line: . Strictly speaking this loop should be round as it conveys the notions of "eternity" and "encompassing the entire creation". It is elongated and oval because of the length of the hieroglyphic names enclosed in it. In transcription, it is a good practice to indicate a cartouche by parenthesis: (ppy), Pepi.Occasionally, one may find the name of a god or goddess in a cartouche. This was especially the case for Osiris-Onnophris and Isis in the temple inscriptions of the Greek-Roman Period.

Cartouches were often followed by either a wish-formula such

as "living eternally" or "bestowed with eternal life", or by a phrase which relates the king to a particular deity, for

instance "beloved by Amun-Re". Note the honorific transposition whereby the name of Amun-Re was moved to the start of the phrase.

3) Some royal names

We will now proceed with a list of prenomen and nomen of some of the most popular kings. It is possible that you do not know all the signs, but it should be possible to derive the value of some unknown signs through the transcription that is provided. It should be noted that for most, if not all names provided here, there are several variants.

Cheops (Khufu)

xwfw Khufu (Greek version: Cheops).This name is an abbreviation for Xnmw-xw=f, "Khnum is his protector".

Chefren (Khafre)

xa=f raKhafre (Greek version: Chefren).This name means "Re appears".

Mykerinos (Menkaure)

mn-kA.w-ra Menkaure (Greek version: Mykerinos)This name means "The Kas of Re remain". Note that repeating a sign three times indicates a plural, which, in transcription is rendered as .w.

Neferirkare

nsw-bi.tj (nfr-ir-kA-ra) sA ra (kAkAi)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Neferirkare), the son of Re (Kakai).Neferirkare means "It is good what the Ka of Re has done". Kakai is probably the king's personal name. Neferirkare is the oldest known king to have had a prenomen and a nomen.

Unas

wnis

Unas.

Pepi I

nsw-bi.tj (mry-ra) sA ra (ppj)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Merire), the son of Re (Pepi)Merire means "Beloved of Re".

Pepi II

nsw-bi.tj (nfr-kA-ra) sA ra (ppj)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Neferkare), the son of Re (Pepi)Neferkare means "The Ka of Re is beautiful".

Mentuhotep II

nsw-bi.tj (nb-xrw-ra) sA ra (mnTw-Htp)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Nebkherure), the son of Re (Mentuhotep)Nebkherure means "Re is the master of the voice". Mentuhotep means "(the war-god) Mentu is at peace".

Amenemhat I

nsw-bi.tj (sHtp-ib-ra) sA ra (imn-m-HA.t)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Sehetepibre), the son of Re (Amenemhat)Sehetepibre means "The one who appeases the heart of Re". Amenemhat means "Amun is the foremost".

Sesostris I

nsw-bi.tj (xpr-kA-ra) sA ra (s-n-wsr.t)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Kheperkare), the son of Re (Senuseret).Kheperkare means "The Ka of Re has come into being". Senuseret (Greek version: Sesostris) means "The man of Useret". Useret is a reference to a goddess meaning "the strong one". It is often assumed that Useret refers to Hathor.

Sesostris III

nsw-bi.tj (xa-kA.w-ra) sA ra (s-n-wsr.t)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Khakawre), the son of Re (Senuseret).Khakawre means "The Kas of Re have appeared".

Amenemhat III

nsw-bi.tj (n-mAa.t-ra) sA ra (imn-m-HA.t)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Nimaatre), the son of Re (Amenemhat).Nimaatre means "The one who belongs to Maat is Re".

Seqenenre

nsw-bi.tj (sqnn-ra) sA ra (tA-aA qn)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Seqenenre), the son of Re (Taa the Valiant).Seqenenre means "The one whom Re has made valiant".

Ahmose

nsw-bi.tj (nb-pH.t-ra) sA ra (iaH-ms)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Neb-peht-Re), the son of Re (Iahmes).Neb-peht-Re means "Re is the master of Force". Iahmes means "the moon has born (him)".

Amenhotep I

nsw-bi.tj (Dsr-kA-ra) sA ra (imn-Htp)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Djeserkare), the son of Re (Amenhotep).Djeserkare means "the Ka of Re is holy". Amenhotep means "Amun is at peace".

Thutmosis I

nsw-bi.tj (aA-xpr-kA-ra) sA ra (DHwtj-ms)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Aakheperkare), the son of Re (Thutmosis).Aakheperkare means "The shape of Re is great". Thutmosis means "Thot has born (him)".

Thutmosis III

nsw-bi.tj (mn-xpr-ra) sA ra (DHwtj-ms HqA-wAs.t)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Menkheperre), the son of Re (Thutmosis, ruler of Waset).Menkheperre means "The shape of Re remains". Waset was the Ancient Egyptian name for Thebes.

Hatshepsut

nsw-bi.tj (mAa.t-kA-ra) sA ra (Xnm.t-imn HA.t-Sps.wt)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Maatkare), the son of Re (Joined with Amun, Hatshepsut).Maatkare means "Maat is the Ka of Re". Hatshepsut means "Foremost of the noble ladies".

Amenhotep III

nsw-bi.tj (nb-mAa.t-ra) sA ra (imn-Htp)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Nebmaatre), the son of Re (Amenhotep).Nebmaatre means "Re is the master of Maat".

Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten

nsw bi.tj (nfr-xpr.w-ra wa-n-ra) sA ra (imn-Htp nTr-HqA-wAs.t) sA ra (Ax-n-itn)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Neferkheperure Waenre), the son of Re (Amenhotep, de god who rules in Waset). This nomen was later replaced by the following: the son of Re (Akhenaten).Neferkheperure means "the shapes of Re are beautiful". Waenre means "The One of Re". Akhenaten means "Ray of the Sun".

Tutankhamun

nsw-bi.tj (nb-xpr.w-ra) sA ra (twt-anx-imn)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Nebkheperure), the son of Re (Tutankhamun).Nebkheperure means "Re is the master of shapes". Note that three strokes can also be used to indicate a plural. Tutankhamun means "the living statue of Amun".

Seti I

nsw-bi.tj (mn-mAa.t-ra) sA ra (mrj-n-ptH stXj)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Menmaatre), the son of Re (beloved of Ptah, Seti).Menmaatre means "The Maat of Re remains". Seti means "The one of Seth).

Ramesses II

nsw-bi.tj (wsr-mAa.t-ra stp-n-ra) sA ra (mrj-imn ra-ms-sw)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Usermaatre Setepenre), the son of Re (beloved of Amun, Ramesses).Usermaatre means "The Maat of Re is Strong". Setepenre means "The chosen one of Re". Ramesses means "Re has born him". Note how in the second cartouches the signs representing Amun and Re are placed together, making this variant of Ramesses' name a wordplay on the name of Amun-Re.

Ramesses III

nsw-bi.tj (wsr-mAa.t-ra mrj-imn) sA ra (ra-ms-sw HqA-iwnw)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Usermaatre, beloved of Amun), the son of Re (Ramesses, the ruler of Iunu).Iunu was the Ancient Egyptian name of Heliopolis.

Ramesses IV

nsw-bi.tj (wsr-mAa.t-ra stp-n-imn) sA ra (mrj-imn ra-ms-s HqA-mAa.t)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Usermaatre Setepenamun), the son of Re (beloved of Amun, Ramesses, ruler (in) Maat).Setepenamun means "the chosen one of Amun".

Ramesses IX

nsw-bi.tj (nfr-kA-ra stp-n-ra) sA ra (ra-ms-s xa-wAs.t mrr-imn)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Neferkare Setepenre), the son of Re (Ramesses, who appears (in) Waset, beloved of Amun).

Psametikos I

nsw-bi.tj (wAH-ib-ra) sA ra (psmTk)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Wahibre), the son of Re (Psamtek).Wahibre means "the heart of Re endures".

Neko II

nsw-bi.tj (whm-ib-ra) sA ra (nkAw)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Wehemibre), the son of Re (Nekau).Wehemibre means "the heart of Re is repeated".

Amasis

nsw-bi.tj (Xnm-ib-ra) sA ra (iaH-ms sA-nt)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Khenemibre), the son of Re (Iahmes, son of Neith).Khenemibre means "Joined (with) the heart of Re".

Nectanebo I

nsw-bi.tj (xpr-kA-ra) sA ra (nxt-nb=f)The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Kheperkare), the son of Re (Nekhetnebef).Nekhetnebef (Greek version: Nectanebo) means "His master is victorious".


Exercise VI

1) Try to recognize the different parts of the royal titulary in the examples below. It is possible that you can not translate all the examples, but you should at least recognise some of the names.

a) f)

b) g)

c) h)

d) i)

e) j)

2) Try to identify the king in the following images.




a)

b)

c)

Solutions to Exercise VI

1)

Pepi II:a) Golden name: Hr nbw sxm Golden Horus, the powerful oneb) Horus-name: Hr nTr xa.w Horus, the god of appartionsc) Prenomen: nsw-bi.tj (nfr-kA-ra) The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Neferkare)d) Nebti-name: nb.tj nTr xa.w The Two Ladies, the god of appartionse) Nomen: sA ra (ppj) The son of Re (Pepi)

Mentuhotep III:f) Prenomen: nsw-bi.tj (sanx-kA-ra) The King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Seankhkare) g) Nomen: sA ra (mnTw-Htp) The son of Re (Mentuhotep)h) Horus-name: Hr sanx tA.wj=f Horus, who lets his Two Lands livei) Nebti-name: nb.tj sanx tA.wj=f The Two Ladies, the one who lets his Two Lands livej) Golden name: Hr nbw Htp Golden Horus, the one who is satisfied

2)

a) (wsr-mAa.t-ra stp-n-ra) (Usermaatre Setepenre), the prenomen of Ramesses II on an architrave in the Great Hypostyle Hall of the temple of Amun at Karnak.

b) (DHwtj-ms xa-xa.w) (Thutmosis, shining of appartions), the nomen of Thutmosis IV on a block in the Open Air Museum at Karnak.

c) (xpr-kA-ra) (Kheperkare), the prenomen of Sesostris I on the White Chapel, not reconstructed in the Open Air Museum at Karnak.

Lesson VII : Numbers and dates

1) Whole numbers and fractions.

The Ancient Egyptian numeric system consisted of a sign for units, and special signs for the various powers of ten.

Units Tens Hundreds

Thousands Tenthousands Hundredthousands

Millions

Whole numbers were written by using as many of these signs as needed to make up the total number, starting with the highest. Thus the number 5 was written by repeating the unit-sign 5 times:

; 50 by repeating the sign for "tens" 5 times: ; and 55 by repeating the sign for "tens" 5 times, followed by 5 times the unit-

sign: . The latter could be interpreted as (5 times 10) + (5 times 1) = 55.

Care must be taken not to confuse the number 1 with the determinative stroke mentioned in Lesson IV.

The sign for million, which also means "many" and "infinity", early fell into disuse. Higher numbers and values were sometimes written

in a different way: means 4 times 100,000 = 400,000.

The numeric system did not include a decimal point. Decimal numbers were written as fractions. With the exception of 1/2, 2/3

and 3/4, fractions were always written using the sign , combined with a whole number, to convey the meaning 1/x. E.g.

means 1/5. This example can be transcribed both as r-5 and as 1/5.

Fractions with numerators bigger than 1 were written as a sum of fractions with numerators equal to 1. Thus 2/5 was written as

. Complex fractions were always broken down to the

simplest sum of 1/x type fractions. 3/8 was written as , 1/4 + 1/8 and not by repeating the group for 1/8 three times.

The already mentioned exceptions to this rule are 1/2, which is

written as , 2/3 and 3/4 .

2) The use of numbers to indicate amounts.

Amounts were written after the word of which they render the amount. The word to which the number is added, is normally written in singular. Some examples follow:

ds 2, "two jugs"

HfAw 75, "75 snakes"

s 2, "two men"...

3) Dates

The Ancient Egyptians used three different kinds of calendars: an agricultural, a lunar and an astronomical. The latter two were mainly used for liturgical purposes and were mostly limited to temples. Thus the lunar calendar was used to make specific rituals for lunar gods, such as Khonsu, coincide with specific lunar phases.

The agricultural calendar, on the other hand, was used to date all kinds of events, documents, … It divided the year into 3 seasons of 4 months:

Ax.t, the season of inundation

pr.t, the season of sowing

Smw, the season of harvesting (summer).

Although months had names they were only rarely used in dates. Most often, months numbered from the start of each season on;

e.g. ibd 3 (n) Ax.t, "the third month of Akhet" or "the third month of inundation". The word for month is transcribed ibd or Abd and was written using a sign that represents a part of

the moon.

Each month was divided into 30 days. Days were counted from the

beginning of each month on. E.g. ibd 3 (n) Smw ssw 25, "the 3rd month of Shemu, the 25th day". The word for "day" in dates can be either ssw or hrw. When it is only written using the sign that represents the solar disk, one can chose between either two of them.

The Egyptian year thus counted 12 months of 30 days, or 360 days in total, to which 5 so-called "epagomenal" days were added to make the year correspond more or less to the solar cycle.

In theory, the first day of the first month of Ax.t was supposed to coincide with the start of the annual inundation of the Nile. There were no leap years, so the agricultural calendar lacked one day every four years. For this reason, the 1st day of the 1st month of Ax.t could fall on any day of our calendar.

From the Middle Kingdom on, years were numbered starting the accession to the throne of a new king. A regnal year was written as

, HA.t-sp, followed by the number of that year; e.g. , HA.t-sp 15. The regnal year can be followed by a more precise date, following the agricultural calendar, and the name of a king. The name of the king could simply be his prenomen or his nomen, but it could also be his full titulary.

E.g. HA.t-sp 2, ibd 3 (n) Ax.t, ssw 1 xr Hm n (n-mAa.t-ra), Year 2, the 3rd month (of) Akhet, the first day under the Majesty of (Ni-Maat-Re).

Exercise VII

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Solutions to Exercise VII

1) 966

2) 152,128

3) 18

4) 26

5) 26. Note that the disposition of the signs is different but that the number is the same is in the previous exercise.

6) 5 + 1/2 + 1/7 + 1/14 = 5 + 5/7

7) 2 + 1/2 + 1/14 + 1/28 = 2 + 6/7

8) 2 + 2/3 + 1/6 + 1/12 + 1/36 + 1/54 = 2 + 26/27

9) r-9 n 9 m 1 : 1/9 of 9 (is) as 1.

10) HA.t-sp 24 ibd 2 (n) pr.t hrw 30 xr nsw-bi.tj (mn-xpr-ra), year 24, month 2 (of) Peret, day 30 under the King of Upper and Lower Egypt (Menkheperre).


Lesson VIII : Names and titles of Gods

In this lesson you will learn to recognise the names of some of Ancient Egypt's most popular gods and the epithets (titles) that very often accompanied these names. The reader should be aware that the names and epithets presented here can be and were written in many different ways. This lesson covers the most frequent spellings.

1. Some more general epithets

Some epithets had a more general nature and applied to a wide range of gods or goddesses. As the Ancient Egyptians loved stereotypes, such epithets occur throughout religious texts. Some of the most recurring epithets are:

, nb p.t, "lord of the heavens" (gods); , nb.t p.t, "mistress of the heavens" (goddesses)

, nb mAa.t, "lord of the cosmic order". This epithet is often used for creator-gods or gods related to justice.

, nTr aA, "the great god"

, Hnw.t nTr.w, "mistress of the gods"

, xpr Ds=f, "who created himself". This is usually applied to a creator-god.

2. Some gods and their epithets

, imn, is the most common way to write the name of Amun.

Variant writings may add different determinatives to this name:

, , or the more generic determinative for a god . Amun's name can also me written using the first two determinatives alone.Associated with the solar god Re, Amun became a solar god

himself, named , imn-ra, Amun-Re.The most common titles for Amun (-Re) are:

, imn-ra nsw nTr.w, "Amun-Re, king of the gods". This combination was so frequent, that it became the name of a manifestation of Amun-Re: Amunrasonther.

, nb ip.t-s.wt, "lord of Ipet-Sut". Ipet-Sut is one of the names of Amun's temple at Karnak. It means "the (most) secret of places".

, nb wAs.t, "lord of Waset (=Thebes)"

, nb ns.wt tA.j, "lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands". The "Thrones of the Two Lands" is a reference to Amun's principal temple at Karnak.

, inpw, Anubis. Variant writings may use different

determinatives: , , … His most common epithets are:

, imj-wt, "the one who is in Ut". "Ut" refers to the embalming tent.

, tpj-Dw=f, "the one who is on his mountain"

, transcribed is.t or As.t, is the wife of Osiris and the mother

of Horus, Isis.

, wsir, is the most common way to write the name of Osiris. A playful writing found mostly in Thebes during the Greek-Roman era combines part of the name of Thebes with part of the name of

Osirs: . One of his most common titles is:

, nb AbDw, "the lord of Abedju (=Abydos)

, ptH, Ptah, was the primary god of Memphis.

, mAa.t, Maat, the goddess representing the cosmic order.

, mw.t, is Amun's wife, "Mut". Her name literally means "mother". One of her most common titles is:

nb.t iSrw, "the mistress of Isheru", where Isheru is the name of Mut's sanctuary south of Amun's great temple at Karnak.

, ra, Re. Variant writings may either abbreviate this name

to or even , or add some determinatives: .

Alternative determinatives are or . The latter determinative may also be used to refer to this god. The name of Re is combined with the names of different other gods who gain a solar aspect by

this association.

, Hw.t-Hr, Hathor, the goddess of love, music and procreation. Among her epithets, we find:

, nb.t iwn.t, "mistress of Iunet (=Dendara)"

, Hr, is the god of kingship, Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis. Such was his popularity, that different manifestations were worshiped as individual gods. Here are the names of some of the more popular manifestations:

, Hr-Ax.tj, "Harakhte", or "Horus of the horizon", a reference to Horus as the rising sun. This name is often

combined with the name of the solar god Re as , ra-Hr-Ax.tj, Re-Harakhte, "Re-Horus of the horizon". Note

that Ax.tj can also be written as .

, Hr-wr, Haroëris, or "Horus the Old", referring to the grown up Horus who has avenged his father.

, Hr-pA-Xrd, Harpocrates, or "Horus the Child", the young Horus

, Hr-sA-is.t, Harsiësis, or "Horus, the son of Isis"

, xnsw, is a lunar-deity considered to be the son of Amun at Thebes, Khonsu. The actual translation of his name is not

known. Khonsu is sometimes associated with Re as , xnsw-ra, Khonsu-Re, making him the god of the two most important celestial bodies. He is also often associated with another

important lunar god, Thot , xnsw-DHwtj, Khonsu-Thot.

, sxm.t, Sekhmet, "the powerful one".

, or more frequent , DHwtj, Thot, the god of wisdom, justice and writing.

Exercise VIII

Transcribe and translate the following names and epithets. Note that the given examples are ficticious.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

Solutions to Exercise VIII

1) wsir nTr aA nb AbDw, Osiris, the great god, lord of Abydos

2) inpw tpj Dw=f imj wt, Anubis, who is upon his mountain, who is in the embalming tent

3) Hr nb p.t, Horus, lord of the sky

4) Hw.t-Hr nb(.t) p.t nb.t iwn.t, Hathor, mistress of the sky, mistress of

Dendara

5) imn-ra nTr aA nb ip.t-s.wt, Amun-Re, the great god, lord of Karnak

6) ptH nb mAa.t, Ptah, lord of Maat

7) imn-ra-nsw-nTr.w nTr aA nb p.t nb wAs.t, Amunrasonther, the great god, lord of the heaven, lord of Thebes.

Lesson IX : A typical offering formula

The Ancient Egyptian society was a very traditional one. This explains the love of the Ancient Egyptians for repetition and stereotypes. Quite often, many texts that have been discovered thus far are variations on texts that have been discovered before. This makes it easier to fill in the gaps, or to read words that have been written with different or previously unknown signs.

Nowhere is this love for stereotypes more obvious and present than in religious texts. This is not surprising, as religion in general tends to be conservative and traditional. This lesson will use the knowledge acquired in the previous lessons to explain the standard structure of a funerary offering formula known as Hetep-di-nesu. As it was a funerary formula, it can be found in tombs, on lintels of doorways, on false doors, on stelae, ... Most museums with an Egyptian collection at least have a couple of objects with this formula.

The formula consists of different parts:

1. The introduction is invariably , to be read Htp di nsw, "an offering which the king gives". Note how the

abbreviation for king, , (n)sw(.t), is moved to the front

of the group for honorific reasons. This word is not necessarily abbreviated.The triangular sign representing the word (r)DI, "to give", is sometimes written at the end of the group, which is grammatically correct, or just after the abbreviation for king. In the latter case, the scribe has preferred to move the sign to the front for esthetic reasons.This phrase is of great antiquity and has been found from the Old Kingdom on. It suggests that, at least at its origin, this type of funerary offering was a special favour from the king for the deceased, in that it is the king and not the deceased who presents the offering.

2. Next, the names and sometimes titles of one of more gods are given. Typically, funerary gods such as Osiris or Anubis can be invoked, although gods that do not have a direct relationship with the funerary cult may also be prominent. The latter indicates a special relationship between that god and the deceased.The meaning of the presence of this list of gods can vary. Either the king presents the offerings to these gods, in which

case the preposition , n, "to" may or may not be written; or the gods also participate in presenting the offering. As a rule of thumb, texts from the Middle Kingdom on usually have the king as sole actor making the offering to the gods, whereas during the Old Kingdom, the gods actively participated in the offering.

3. This can be followed by a conjugated form of the verb "to

give". If only the king gives the offering, then the form , DI=f, "that he may give" is used. If the gods also play an

active part in the offering, then DI=sn, "that they may give", is used.When this part of the formula is lacking, it is safe to assume that only the king presents the offering if the text dates from the Middle Kingdom or later.

4. The actual list of offerings is then given. This list is very variable and would probably depend on the wealth of the deceased, his or her personal preferences and perhaps even on the gods that are mentioned. Typical offerings that are mentioned are:

, pr.t-xrw, "invocation-offerings" (literally: "the coming out of the voice")

, t, "bread"

, H(n)q.t, "beer"

, kA.w, "(meat of) bulls"

, Apd.w, "(meat of) birds"

, x.t nb.t nfr.t, "every good thing", sometimes with the

additional adjective , wab.t, "pure". This part of the

offering can be followed by the phrase , anx.t nTr im, "in which the god lives".A mention of the amount of these offerings is sometimes also

provided; e.g. , Apd.w 1000, "a thousand birds".

5. The last part of the formula usually starts with , n kA n, "to the Ka of" or "on behalf of the Ka of", followed by the titulary and name of the deceased. In some cases, n kA n, "to the kA of" is not mentioned and the formula proceeds with the identification of the deceased..

Often, this will start with , imAxj, "venerable", an honorary title used for deceased people. This can sometimes

be followed by , xr, "by" or "with", and the name of a god such as Anubis.The name of the deceased itself can be followed by the

indication , mAa xrw, "true of voice" or "justified", yet another way of expressing that the person is deceased. In some cases, this may be followed by the mention of the name of the mother or father of the deceased.

Despite the traditional nature of the Ancient Egyptian society, it is clear that this formula allowed for many variations: the list of gods that were included, the choice of their titulary, the list of actual offerings and the titles of the deceased can all be used to create individual instances of the Hetep-di-nesu formula.

Exercise IX

The object of this exercise is to try to recognize the different parts of the Hetep-di-nesu formula on the picture below. The picture represents a stela from a man named Senuseret (can you find his name?) on display at the Louvre. It was scanned from Christianne Ziegler e.a., Le Louvre. Les antiquités égyptiennes, Editions Scalla, 1997, p. 37.


Solutions to Exercise IX

The standard parts of the formula are underlined in red on the black-and-white version of the picture.





Lesson X : Funerary statues

Another frequently occurring formula can be found mainly on a type of funerary statues known as Ushebties.Ushebties are usually mummiform statues made out of stone, wood or faience, of varying size and quality. The crudest ones are barely recognizable as Ushebties and the typical formula is sometimes lacking or unreadable. Others are of such high quality that they can be counted as being among the finest examples of Ancient Egyptian art.

Ushebties owe their name to their function: the word

wSb.tj comes from the verb wSb, "to answer" and literally means "the one who answers", for if called upon to do some task for their (deceased) owner, they would answer and fulfill their chore. In their hands, Ushebties often hold agricultural or other tools, the tools that they need to complete their tasks.In Ancient Egyptian texts, Ushebties are sometimes also called

SAwAb.tj or SAb.tj, both forms being derived from the original wSb.tj. In modern-day literature, Ushebties are sometimes also referred to in modern-day texts as Shabties or Shawabties.

The text on Ushebties can vary from nonexistent to quite verbose. Ushebties without any text can only be identified because of their shape, the presence of tools (if any) and the archaeological context in which they are found.Text can be written in a single column on the front and/or back of the statue, or in multiple rows across the front and back, depending on the length of the formula and the size of the Ushebtie in question.

The following elements are usually present in the short formula found on Ushebties:

* sHD, "Illuminate".

* wsir, "Osiris". The deceased is normally associated with the god Osiris.* Name of the deceasedThe name of the deceased can sometimes be preceded by his

titulary, and followed by , mAa-xrw, "true of voice", an indication that the deceased has passed the judgment of the dead.

In addition, the name of the deceased can also be followed by

ms or more complete ms n, "born of" and the name of the deceased's mother. The name of the father is but rarely mentioned.

The longer formula has more elements and there is a lot more variation possible:

· i wSb.tj, "O, Ushebtie".

· ir ipw wsir NN, "if Osiris NN calls", where NN represents the name of the deceased. As was the case with the shorter formula, the name of the deceased is usually preceded by the name of the funerary god Osiris. A titulary can sometimes also be present and is written between the name Osiris and the name of the deceased.

· r ir.t kA.t nb(.t) irj m Xr.t-nTr, "to do any task that is done in the underworld". This general description can be followed by some more specific tasks that the Ushebtie can be required to do. It should be noted that the presence of agricultural objects in the hands of the Ushebtie does not per definition imply that the tasks would be limited to the argricultural.

· mk wi, "behold, I am (here)". This part can be

preceded by Dd=k, "you shall say". It can be omitted in abbreviated versions of the longer formula.

The longer formula is also referred to in modern literature as chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead. Both formulas can also be combined into one, which increases the number of possible variations of the formula. For the standard parts of all formulae provided here, variant spellings are, of course, always possible.

Exercise X

1) Identify the type of formula below, and identify its standard parts. Can you also indicate the name of the owner and tell whether or not his mother was named?

2) Identify the type of formula below, and identify its standard parts.

3) Identify the type of formula below. You will normallly not be able to identify all standard parts, as some different words are used. Who did this Ushebtie belong to?

Solutions to Exercise X

1) This exercise represents the shorter formula. The name of the deceased's mother is mentionned at the end.

The transcription and translation of the text go as follows:

sHD wsir irw ms n tA-Xbs

Illuminate Osiris Iru born of Takhebes.

2) This exercise represents the longer type of formula, as you probably already derived by its length. The standard parts of the formula are underlined in red:


i wSb.tj.w ipt ir ip.wj wsir imj-r p(r) n dwA.t-nTr p(A)-di-n.t r ir.t kA.t nb(.t) m Xr.t-nTr iS.tw sDb.wim m s r Xr.wt=f mk wi sw///.tw tn ip.tw tn ir//////w ir im r srwdsx.t ir ir mH wDb.wjr Xnt Sa.j n imn.t(j).t r iAb.t(j).tmk wi tn

O, Ushebties, if Osiris, the overseer of the house of the Divine Adoratrice, Pa-di-Neith, calls youto do any task in the underworld, (if) obstacles are imposedthere like a man who has his duties, behold you will/// you shall make yourselves accountable and do ////// what is done there, by cultivatingthe fields, by irrigating the banksand by transporting sand from the West to the East(you shall say:) "Behold, here I am".

Note that the text calls upon Ushebties in plural. It has been found on an Ushebti that is likely to be considered as the chief of some other Ushebties. It is dated to the later part of the Late Dynastic Period (26th Dynasty or later).

3) This text is a variation on both types of formula. The presence of the cartouches should already have shown you that this is a royal Ushebti. It belonged to Tutankhamun. In red, I have indicated the words that you should

normally have been able to recognise.


Dd in wsir nsw (nb-xpr.w-ra) sHDSAb.tj ipn irj Hsb irj aS.twip.t(w) wsir nsw (twt-anx-imn HqA iwnw Sma)m Xr.t-nTr r ssrd sx.t r smHj wDb.wr Xnt Sa n iAb.t r imn.t

Said by Osiris, the king (Neb-kheperu-re), who illuminates :"These ushebties, if one reckons, if one criesor one calls Osiris, the king (Tutankhamun, the ruler of Southern Heliopolis)in the underworld, to cultivate the fields, to irrigate the banksor to transport sand from East to West".

This concludes the introductory course to the language of the Ancient Egyptians. If you have gone through all the lessons, you should now be able to distinguish between the different types of signs, transcribe most texts, recognise royal names, names of gods and some stereotype formulae.

For those who wish to study hieroglyphs beyond this introduction, there is a list of recommended books at http://www.geocities.com/amenhotep.geo/bib/ in the section "Language".

http://www.geocities.com/amenhotep.geo/bib/

Writing in Ancient EgyptThe Ancient Egyptian civilisation was one of the first, if not indeed the first, to go beyond the mere pictorial representation of events and to develop some kind of writing. The oldest known samples of Ancient Egyptian writing were discovered in Abydos and are dated to 3.100 BC or before. They are the oldest samples of writing known to mankind up to

now.

Coloured hieroglyphs from a royal tomb at the Valley of the Kings.

Throughout their more than 3.000 year long history, the Ancient Egyptians developed and used three kinds of writing: hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic.

HIEROGLYPHIC

The writing most commonly associated with the Ancient Egyptians is called hieroglyphic, a name that comes from the Greek words hieros (sacred) and glypho (inscription). It consists of a large variety of images representing sounds as well as ideas and actions. The images were normally clearly drawn, although the amount of detail would depend on such matters as the size of the signs, the available time to actually write the texts, and personal taste. Thus the quality of writing can vary from exquisitely carved signs to clumsily drawn ink marks.

Being handwriting, hieratic would change and evolve over time. The hieroglyphic basis of hieratic would, however, always remain present. Most hieratic texts are therefore transcribed into hieroglyphic by modern-day researchers.

Hieratic was originally mainly used in administrative texts, but because it was more practical and less time-consuming than hieroglyphics, it found its way into literature, wisdom texts and even religious writings. From the 25th/26th Dynasty on, its use would become more and more restricted to religious texts. It was normally written using a reed brush on sheets of papyrus, but hieratic writing is also seen on tissues, pieces of cloth, and occasionally on other substrates. Like hieroglyphic writing, it could originally be written in rows or columns. In time, however, the writing orientation would become standardised and hieratic would only be written in rows from right to left.

DEMOTIC

Demotic evolved from an even more cursive form of hieratic and became the standard for the administration from the 25th or 26th Dynasty on. Contrary to hieratic, demotic texts are normally not transcribed into hieroglyphics prior to translation because it is often impossible to relate a demotic sign to a hieroglyphic counterpart. Sometimes one hieroglyphic sign would be written as a group of demotic signs; or a group of hieroglyphic signs would merge into one single demotic sign.

The entire scene symbolises the unity of Upper- and Lower-Egypt.

Its versatile nature allowed it to be written in rows or in columns, oriented from right to left or from left to right. All signs are normally positioned as if looking towards the beginning of the text. Just how versatile this orientation was, is shown in the many temple reliefs that show a king facing one or more gods. The texts share the orientation of the representations they accompany and like the king faces the gods, so do their respective texts.

Hieroglyphic writing was used from the end of Prehistory, until 396 AD, when the last hieroglyphic text was written on the walls of the temple of Isis on the island Philae. It was used in many different situations; for monumental inscriptions on walls of temples and tombs, on furniture, statues, papyrus, jewellery, sarcophagi and coffins, amongst others. It could either be carved into a hard surface, or written in ink. In time, its use would become more and more restricted to religious texts on temples or in tombs, or to official royal decrees.

HIERATIC

The earliest known examples of hieratic are only slightly more recent than hieroglyphic. It is a more cursive form of hieroglyphic, the result of quickly drawing signs by hand

Deeply carved hieroglyphs in the temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. The text is part of the ritual scene where the king,

burns some incense for Amun-Ra.

The variety of possible readings for one single demotic sign is far greater than with any hieroglyphic sign. As a further evolution of hieratic, demotic was only written in rows from right to left. Older demotic texts were written with a reed brush, but from the Ptolemaic era on, the reed pen would be favoured. Demotic was mostly used for administrative and private texts, but also for some stories and quite exceptionally in inscriptions. The last known demotic text is an inscription in the temple of Philae, dated to the 5th century AD.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HIEROGLIPHIC, HIERATIC & DEMOTIC

It is important to note that no single type of writing would entirely replace another, but it would merely restrict the other writings to specific domains and be restricted itself to other domains. Thus demotic would become the writing of the administration from the 26th Dynasty on, but it did not entirely replace hieratic as a handwriting, which was still

on a sheet of papyrus with a reed brush. Here the original hieroglyphic signs were reduced to their simplest form. Some common signs could even be reduced to a simple stroke, smaller signs would become mere dots or would be combined into one new sign.

being used in religious texts.

Hieratic, on its part, did not replace hieroglyphic either. From its beginnings it was hieroglyphic, but more cursive, and written by a speedier hand than hieroglyphic. As the two writings evolved, practicality caused hieratic to be used when a text need not be written in the slow but detailed hieroglyphic signs. Therefore hieratic was used in such contexts as administrative texts; texts that were not to be inscribed on monuments or funerary objects and texts that mattered for their contents only.(Jacques Kinnaer)

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