2010 Ptolemaic Hieroglyphs
2010 Ptolemaic Hieroglyphs
2010 Ptolemaic Hieroglyphs
edu
visible language
inventions of writing
in the ancient middle east and beyond
edited by
Christopher woods
with the assistance of
oi.uchicago.edu
Publication of this book was made possible by the generous support from
The Womens Board of the University of Chicago
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Other reasons, including direct representation, derivation from hieratic, or the combination of several of
the above-mentioned principles, could also be at the
origin of a signs value, but such a study is beyond the
scope of the present discussion.1
One of the consequences of the application of
these principles was a break with the traditional
orthographic conventions, making the words much
173
Visible language
In a quest for virtuosity in their theological exegesis, the ancient priests realized that the system
could be pushed one step further. Indeed, in addition to being used for their phonetic values, the
signs themselves, by their very shape, could also
recall ideas and theological concepts. A well-known
example is the name of the Memphite creator god
Pt is also attested
Ptah, whose traditional writing
consisting of the
under the cryptographic form
pt sky standing for p, the god l
sign
t earth for
t.
Heh for , and the sign
Note that for symbolic reasons these three logograms
appear as pt, but the correct phonetic order, namely,
pt, was easy to restore for someone in the know. The
ingenious selection and disposition of the signs in
depicting the god Heh with upraised
the group
arms, separating the earth from the sky, evoked the
creation of the world performed by the god Ptah
according to the Memphite theology. Thus, with a
single group of signs, one could both read the name
of Ptah (Pt) expressed in cryptographic form and
be reminded of a major act of creation. This complicated process tended to be used in conjunction with
a system by which the meaning of divine and geographical names, in particular, could be explained
through sacred etymologies based on puns. By virtue
of this principle of verbal analogy, the name of the
Imn, whose pronunciation was simigod Amun
lar to that of the word mn to be hidden, could also
be written using the sign of the man hiding behind a
wall % . On the basis of this etymology, the god could
be referred to as the hidden one. Another cryptogram of Amun, already known from earlier periods,
, for which variwas the graphic combination
ous interpretations have been proposed. One of the
most convincing is the following (see Van Rinsveld
, used for the word w island,
1993): the sign
,
can also stand for the letter . As for the sign
it is nothing but the standard writing of the letter n.
, note that
n is in
.
In the group
Given that the preposition in corresponds to m in
Egyptian, the phrase n in was said n m , which was
also the name of Amun written backwards (nm for
mn). Therefore, the name of the chief god of Thebes
and
was hidden twice, first in the cryptogram
again in the retrograde writing nm, which perfectly
fits the above-mentioned etymology of his name. As
artificial and inaccurate as it may seem to modern
more difficult to recognize. For example, let us conrwt joy, which could be
sider the word
written Q! , with the gods Re ( Q ) and Shu ( )
standing respectively for the sounds r and w, and the
goddess Tefnut ( !) for the final t. Also noteworthy
, which could stand for
is the sign of the head
sf, simply because the head
the number seven
has seven openings, namely, two eyes, two ears, two
nostrils, and a mouth. It also worked the other way
around, and for the same reason the number seven
tp head. Of course,
could stand for the word
could be read
depending on the context, the sign
be read as sf seven,
as tp head and the group
since traditional writings were used concurrently
with new ones. As mentioned above, there was also a
significant increase in the number of phonetic values
that could be attributed to a single sign. As a matter
of interest, the traditional readings of the vulture hieroglyph d were mt, mwt, and sometimes nr, but in
Ptolemaic hieroglyphs the same sign could be read as
the phonograms m, n, nr, n, , t, y, qd, t, ty, tyw, ,
d, or as the words wnm right, mwt mother, mk to
protect, nwt city, nr to fear, nrt vulture, nrt
goddess, rm man, and rnpt year. The use of new
signs and innovative combinations of signs were also
frequent. For example, the vulture hieroglyph could
be combined with the horns of an ox-. As a result,
was read wpt-rnpt New Years Day
the new sign
(lit., the opening of the year), with the horns standing here for the word wpt opening, and the vulture
for rnpt year. Note that the traditional writings of
or .. Another good example is
wpt-rnpt were
Wnn-nfrw Onnophris, a
the divine name
designation for Osiris that could display several
new forms, including, among others: 1) (a desert
hare [wn] holding the sign of the heart and wind(a flower [wn] within a coiled lotus
pipe [nfr]); 2)
(two lotus flowers [respectively wn and
[nfr]); 3)
nfr] within a cartouche, with the variants and ).
nswSimilarly, writings of the traditional title
174
notes
For further discussion, see, for example, Kurth 2007; compare
also Fairman 1943 and 1945.
On the process of creating new signs from older signs by assimilation or amalgam and on the influence of hieratic on the
hieroglyphic script, see Meeks 2004, pp. x xviii.
2
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