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Introdu cti on 8 CII APTER I
THE ORIGINS OF EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE Beginnings 10 M ost Anciem Egyp t The Dawn of Writing Egypticln Na mes and Titles
Naming the King T hat which rhe Sun Encircles The Great House
J IAPTER II
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE The Tongue of the Pharaohs 36 The Egyptian Alphabet Th e Hieroglyphic Writing System H and -Written Hierog lyp hs and the ir Derivarives Ancient EgyjJtian Grammar Th Coptic Period
Dates and Numhers The Words of a Pharaoh •
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C1IA PTER III
THREE MILLENNIA OF WRITING Lists, Stories and Inscriptions 58 In sc riptions for the Gods
The Texts of Burial A lItnhi ographies Histori ca l Inscriptions C h ronicles Administrative Documems Expedition Records Wisdom and Ph ilosoph y Human Rel at ionships
S tories Texts of Magic ami Medi cine The End of th e Anci ent Language Hieroglyphs for the Mode rn A ge ,
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C H APT ER IV
THE MYSTERY OF THE HIEROGLYPHS Hieroglyphs Eclipsed 94 Pointing the Way Kirche r's Flight of Fancy Th e First G limmer ' of Enlightenment
CH A PTER V
DECIPHERMENT OF THE HIEROGLYPHS The Key is Found 104 Yo ung and C ha mpollion
The Rose tta Stone The S trongman and the Q ueen Exir Yo un g The Breakthrough C h ampollio n's Legacy The Pretenders Th e End of the Mystery The End of the Beginning The Berlin c hoo l Mode rn Times
DYNASTIES AND CHRONOLOGIES 128 The Hi eroglyphi c ames of the Kings of Egypt C h ro nology and the Kings of Ancient Egypt Where to see hieroglyphs 136 Glossary 13 8 Bibliography and websites 139 Index 141 A cknow ledgements 144
8
THE IlI EROG LYPH S O F A NC IE N T EG YPT
N n IE HIEROGLYPHS, the ancient Egyptians produced what are perhaps
the most attractive of all scripts. These im ~gcs of human beings, animals, birds, insects and a vast range of inanimate objects could be carved and painted in exquisite detail, ornamenting a building or obj ect as well as serving as a medium for imp ~ rtin g a particular pi ece of informati on . Th ey ~ l so h ad the quality of being capable of being written in any chosen direction, even further enhancing th eir dec( rative U[ili ty. To the outs ide world , they have also imparted a sense of mystery, that these images must conceal great secrets, unknowable to th e un initiated. During th e long centuri es that followed the death of their last ancient reader, probably early in the fifth century AD, specul arions mlilri pli cd, with 'soluti ons' that had tbe sole common denominator of being more or less wrong. The rea lity was that th e hj eroglyphs were simply a writing system, just as capable of exp ressing a laundry list or love poem as an im penetrably deep religious text. A longside the superbly drawn signs on the wall of a temple or a tomb were hand -written ve rsions that bore onl y a passing resemhlance to their picture-prototype. From these developed furth er fOtn15 whose fi nal sh ape was wholly divorced from the ori gina l glyph . Hi eroglyphs and th eir derivatives were in use forrhree and a half mi llenn i
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the same, albeit wri ting an apprecinbl y different version of th e Egyptian language. From their contents, it has proved possible to reconstruct the h istory, society ,md economy of Egypt in remarkable detail. N everth eless, the : urviving written documents represent an infinitesima lly small t ithe of those which once existed. Thus, every new discovery ·may be of fLll1d amental importance in fleshing out the picture, a small fragment perh aps revealing wholly-unknown events and persons. S uch 'new' material is n ot just the result of archaeologicnl excavations in Egypt. Much materi al. found long ago, remains unstudied in museum basements and archives, and exped it ions into such dusty recesses ntc just as importan t as those to the rui ns of th e N ile valley. Other 'exp lorations' concern the very meaning of the carved o r written words. A lthough the basics of the Egyptian language h ad been re-estab li shed by the latter part of the nin teenth century, the subtleties on which the true meaning of a language depends are still the subject of active research . T h is book is intended to explore some of the wi de w nge of top ics that surround Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is not abo ut h ow to read d1em - there are many fine (and no t so fine ) books ava il able designed to teach this skill. It is intended to reveal wh at hieroglyphs meant to the ancient inha bitants of d1e N il e va lley, to the early ~c h o l a rs wh o struggled to understand th em in th e years after they went Ollt of da ily lise, and to those who have over the past two centuri es managed to read th em once more and hring back to life d1e civi lization to wh ich th ey belonge.d.
INTRODUCTION
9
10
THE HIER OG LYPH
OF ANC IE N T EGYPT
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__ e lnnln s T HAS BECOME THE ULT IMATE EGYPTI AN cliche to describe Egypt as the
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Above: The Nile at Nag Hammadi, where lush fields give way to barren high desert . The Nile has always been Egypl'S great highway, linking the Mediterranean with the heart of Africa.
Opposite: Ancient and Modem.The mud brick settlements along the banks of the Nile have hardly changed 5111ce remOle antiqUity. •
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'g ift of the Nile', a phrase co ined by the Greek writer H ecetaeus (and a lmost universa ll y mis-attributed to his more famous grandson, the traveller Herodotus, wh o visited Egypt aro und 45 0 Be) . By this, H ecetaeus meant that witho ut the ri ver, the co untry and its c iv ilizatio n wo uld not - could n ot - h ave ex isted in an ything like the fo rm that is so well kno wn. Outside the margi ns of the ri ve r and the h andful of oases, the country is dese rt. Indeed , it is as the ri ch strip of land a lo ng the Nile that Egypt h as of o ld been defined. This fertile ribbon divides into two distinct elements. In the south, the c ultivab le area of the river valley varies in width from nothing to a number of kilometres, beyond which it gives way to low desert that rises up rapidly to the a rid plateaux of the Eastern (Arabi:m) and Western (Libyan) Deserts. In co ntrast, the Delta, beginning just north of modern Cai ro , fan s o ut in a great triangle towa rd s the Mediterranean, with kilometre upo n kilometre of Hat, fertile la nd, c ri ss-crossed by can a ls. It is comp letely different from the vall ey in bo th appea ran ce and eth os. Traditio nally, the anci ent Egyptian state ex tended from the shores of the Mediterranean to A swan; h oweve r, at many points in its history, it reached far south into Nubia, e nco mpas ing the southern part of the present Arab Republic of Egypt (A.R.E.) and the n o rthern part of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan. This sectio n of th e Nile, n nw lost belo w Lake Nasse r, created by the bu ilding of the High Dam at Aswan, was far mo re barren than tha t
THE FOUNDATION OF EGYPT PREDYNASTIC PERlOD Badarian Period 5000-4000 BC
First eiJidence fo rpotlery in Egypt BLACK TOPPED RED POT FROM ABYDC~ T OMBI7JO
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Naqada I Period 4000-3500 BC
Naqada II Period 3500-3150 Be
Development ofculture
First major tOZl'ns
RED-Li N ED POT
SLATE l'ALE III
Naqada III Period 3150-3000 Be
First hieroglyphs
I
THE OR I G I NS O F EGYPTI AN LA
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ARCHAIC PERIOD Dynasty I 3050-2815 Be
Dynasty II 28 15-2660 Be
Unificalion of Egypt. I'oya/lombs al Abydos
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OLD KlNGDOM Dynasty III 2660-2600 Be
firsl pyramids
Dynasty IV 2600-2470 Be
Greal pyramids al Giza PYRAMID. AT G IZA
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THE HIEROGLYPHS OF ANC I ENT EGYPT
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further north, and mainly of interes t as a source of raw materials and a trad e route to the far south. Communi cation south of Aswan was hindered by a series of catarac ts, o r rapids, the first just above Aswan and the sixth and last just below modern Kharto um. Today, agriculture in Egypt is dependant upon perennial irrigation , made possible by the series of dam s that have heen huilt across the river since the beginning of the twentieth century. Before thi s, th e growin g of crops depended on the annual, natural, inund ation of the Nile. In summer, ra ins in the Ethiop ian highland s swell the river's trihutaries, the Atbara and Blue Nile; today, thi merely restocks Lake Nasser, but in the past it led to the fl ood ing of the Nile va lley and delta, an inundation given divine personification as the Nile river god H apy. The water, which covered a ll the agricultural land , receded in Octobe r/N ove mber, leav ing a ri ch laye r of a llu vium behind on the fields. Crops were planted in thi s fertil e soi I, and were ready for the h arvest the following March/April, with littl e or no watering req uired in the interim. Agriculture was the principa l occupati on of the Egypt ian population, the majority of who m lived in small villages, dotted up and down the river. The nature of the annual inundatio n ys tem meant that, apa rt from the period afte r the rising of the water - when dykes would h ave to be maintained to prevent the water from leav ing th e fields too early or fl ood ing villages - and the seasonal sow ing and harves ting of crops, work was rather eas ier than under
THE OR)(»i'\S Or ECYPT I AN L/\ NGUAGE
modern perennial c ultivati on methods. Men could more easily be diverted from agricli ltural rasks rll labour on public works, and they frequenr ly were. The popl darilln in pharaon ic times, no more than four or five mi ll ion, mea nr that HgricIIIture did not need (0 be particu larly imcnsivc to yield adequate sustcnance (\)\' rhe people, pillS 'I ' \\Tpills which could be so ld to raise the wxes needeu tn , IIPl'orr rhe mnn y activities of the Sta te, The p o pulat io n o f Egyp t , ranging from on ly two mil lion in rhe New Kingdom, to pcrh"),, five milli lln in Roman rimes (and 62.5 million mday) has a lways been mixed, co mpri sing va ri eu rac ial types, ranging (Will rhe ligh t ., kin toneo of the north to the dark hrown seen in rhe far south. In addirion to the ind igenous popu lariul1, the coumry was subj ect to considerab le immigration, hoth peaceful and warlike, parcicubrl y inr" rhe nmrh -casr delw as witnessed hy rhe namlrives in rhe Rible srori.es el( Ahraham and Joseph. By later times , Egypt was a fairly cosmopo litan socie ty, with foreign gods worsh ipped in 11 nllmber or ce nt reo, and Illen o( (oreign ex rnlcti on ho ld ing se nior government posts and military ranks.
13
Above: Th e former capital. Memphis, just sumh I!f 'lHtl nenl
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cU I'er"" b~ I"lim &o'!)!'es and modern t'il/ages.
Left: Exwl'(lwm.s {\[ Tdl !v1 \.\.qdmll in 1995, ,,,Ilich tva.'\; once nne of the rrmClpai cirie:j of the (lrea . and rhe '\cLH of (I retty khw1um m (he
eighth-c""w ,, fle . Almost Ilmi1ing n ln he. .'I1?1.'11 ahUt'l' ground, Cl J)(lrl from a ~ U ' deprcssions and illH' mUllnd, The ancient ritie~ nf rh~~ Nile Dd", h",,< sllffered severely from ehe IURh WCller ",ble of the area. and ehe pracllcc of iJilensit,t' agriculture that ha$ remu1't.'d 1I1I1w;)[ all swface. trace.'\; , DeWYI'd nllld brick makes [Ill excellent fcniker, and much of the falme of anCIent se ttlemen ts has been raken and recycled h,' fanner>
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THE H I Ef(O(jLYI'HS OF ANCIENT EnY!' -1
Right: The 13bck l'yrwnu/ or
Amcnemhat III (DylULst)' XII), with rile Bcnr Pyramid ()f S,mere,." (V~'wsIY IV) in the JlStance. Both arc at Dahs/w r, alii, in the low de;en direcrh a(ljacertl to the lush fields Ihal flank the Nile, tt,herc man)1 of the grearest nW llttrl Hnll,S are (Otnul. Some <)00 ;Cfln .~..:I)armc the [tl1n .mHcture,. Th e earlier, Senefl'TlI's. is buill of swne, the latcr of mud b·rick .
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water's edge a[ ['he lilian: of Gehel el-Si/si/u, inc/Hding II cumplete rock-elf( lemple ('cen far ri!(hr in the l)!clLlre) "Hill hy the D'lwst, XV IIl king Huremh,,!> . Sow I, of ~/hehcs , sancL'\wne hccnme.~ the dUlllmllnr geulugical featHre, takhlR Ot'er from the limestone of northern EgyJJt. Man) temJ)/es were buill frum SQndslOlle , nm,ell of if from Gehel d-Si!.,ila.
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People h3ve lived in the 3r<':3 n o w c31kJ 'EgYfll ' , in cl! I'a b eo lithi c (Old Stone Age) rim es. The n, wh at i, n o w desert was CtlVe red in fo rests fed by nUllle ro us water courses. M a n y examples of stone too ls su rVIve, particularl y frinn th e M iJJIe P8ln co lirhi c (c. 100,000 - 50,000 fl(~) 'Illel Imer, ind icaring a tlo urishing socie ty who lived by hunting, fishing and gath e ring. The clawning of the Neolithic (New S lon e Ag<:), wi rh irs adoprion of ag ri c ulture, seems to h,lVe fo ll owed o n from climatic ch a n ges amund 7000 Rf: , " pm ducing what a re referred to as the Fayollill A. ,md Fa youm B c ultures in Lo wer Egypr. Separare material c ulrures fl ourished in Upper (southern) Eg yp l, named afle r the SilCS where lhcy wen: firsl identifi ed - RaJari, El-Amra, Gerza and N"q"d,1. Th e first known grou ping was tbe Bad arian, which appeared just befo re 5000 Be. Th is deve loped into the Amra ti3n , c. 4000-1500 RC (now kn own as Naqad'l I) , rhe Genea n, c. 3500-1150 RC (wbi ch is now known as Naqacla II) and Naqada III (c. 3150-3000 Be ), each disringuishable by Ih ei r forms of pottery and other items. r.:n ll ec ti vcly, th ey m e usually kn own as the Pred yn asti c Peri od, a lth o ugh many n oll' common ly rder to Na'-l ,"b III >IS th e Protodyn asti c. By a ro und 3300 Be:, the sn mhc rn Egyp l iall po lities (bod ies of peop le orga n ized under a SYSLe ll1
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menr} began to coa lesce in to a mo re su bstantial gro uping, centred o n the tow n of Hierako npo li s. It is he re th at we fi nd the fi rot knpwn traces of la rgesca le ritu a l archi[ccrllrc - in efFec t " lempl e - fo und ed perhaps as earl y as 3500 Be, and used (or two ce ntllries o r ill ore.
A Frer the ir d eaths, some of th ose who worshipped th c re we re
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buried in a cemetery 200 metres (66 feet)to th e east, in which was found the ea rli e t known decorated tomb in Egypt, now kn own as To mb 100. It was adorned with a series of pa inted boat, buildings, and men hunting and fighting. The existence of the uniqu e decoratio n is clearly indi ca ti ve of ownership at the highest e lite leve l, and it is probable that Tomb 100 be longed to one of the ea rly 'kings' of southern Egypt. Deta ils rema in obscure, but it eems that the following ce ntury or so aw further ex pansion of th e southern state northwards. A s part of this, the royal ce metery moved north to the U mm el-Qaab area of Abydos, later to beco me on e of th e most sacred of all Egypti an c ities of the dead. U mm el-Qaab lies at the mouth of a va lley leading up into the western dese rt. Its early cho ice as a buria l place may have resulted from the va lley mouth be ing regarded as a gateway to the west, the home of the dead. •
TH E
DAWN OF WRITI NG
The decora ti on of To mb 100 h as close affiniti es with the images pa inted on pottery of the period, in particular in its focus on boa t imagery. It is with further marks on pots that progress towards writing can be seen . Th e vessels from the latter part of the Predynastic Period do not h ave th e stand ardized pa inted deco ratio n ch aracteristic ofN aqad a II, but ink marks o n the plain wares from the N aqada III roya l tombs at Umm e l-Qaa b see m to be amo ngs t th e ea rliest manifestations of the hieroglyphic script. These ink mark s form graphic depictions of va rio us types of creature; scho lars have interpreted these images as express ing the name of the to mb owner.
Above: T he Ramesseum, the mortuary temple constm cted for himself n:-' Rameses II (O'l- nam'- XIX) . It stands on the de en edf{e at Thebes, alongside rhe fu nerary monumencs of orher kings of the /Jeriod. Be'lond i ( ruin ' rises (he Theban /)eak , known as EI-Qurn , behind u,hich lies the Valley of the King , rhl? burial place of the king' whose temples la)' in the t)iain . O n the hills in he(U'W l were cut the tomb-chapels of the officials of the state, one of the primary sOllrces of information on the daily' lites of the ancient EgY/Jriam .
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17
Left: The border ()f Eg}'p[ pro/)er lay at Aswan, where granite outcrops IJmdHced a series of rapids, knowll as [he First Cataract, which interrupted ncwigatilJn southward. Here, on the island of ElelJhamine, was erected (I cicy, [he gOt'ernors of which led the trading expeditions that H'ere moumed into the Afriwn himerland.
The mos t impo rtant of these large royal tombs is known as U-j. It also co ntained a large number of inscribed lahels bearing further earl y forms of hieroglyphs, and numerical nota tions. Th ese labels seem to give the m1 mes of various admin istrat ive ent ities, pres um ably the points of origin of the produce to which they were once attach ed. The precise dating of these ea rliest hierog lyphs is unclear, but they certa inl y li e somewhere within the 150 years that directly preceded the unifi ca ti on of Egypt, aro und 3050 Re. No on e celli be ce rtain what factors st imulated the development of this ea rl y script. A frequent assu mption is the influence of the script developing in Mesopotamia at the time. While thcre is evidence for contact between this area and Egypt in Predynastic times, there a re no precise dates. And while there arc similariti cs, the M"csopotamian and Egyptian writing systems differ ve ry consid erah ly. In thcir ea rl y uses, Egyptian hieroglyphs appear as labels, both on objects, and in their in corporat ion into larger artistic compositions. In Mesopotamia, sc ript was used for administration purposes, and was inscribed on clay tablets. G ive n these differences, the most lik ely link is that the id ca of writing may h ave passed to Egypt, encouraging the local development of a wholly independent writing system.
Below: Roman Period struCture from Kalabsna clo e w the High Dam, or Sadd elAli, at Aswan . Ear[" in the twentieth cemury, a series of dams was built aeros . the Nile to con trol it flott,. Tn 1960, the &rre(l[est of them was begun so~/th of Aswan. 1ts construction resulted in tile flooding of a 5OO-km (320-mile) strecch of the Nile upstream, crearing Lake Nas.~er. Mw1\'archaeolos;;cal sites were inundated , leading to (I major intellwrional eampaign to survey and exeat'ate them. A numher of temples, incl~/ding this one, were dismantled and lJlO~led to safe IOUltiollS. •
Left: The rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel, the most famous of all monument ' rescued when the High Dam at Aswan WClS built. Colossal statues adorn the facade; in the foreground hieroglYIJhs that slJell out some of the I
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20
THE HIER OGLYP H S O F A
Above: Early Egyptian desert grat 'e. The earliest Egyprian burial places were oval graves scooped Out of the gravel of the desert edge. 1n some cases, the bodies buried in them became naturall), dried. They were the protOtypes for the artificiall)' desiccated mummies that came later.
Previous page: The Valley of the Kings at Western Thebes, the site of mos t of the tOmbs of the kings of the New Kingdom. This view shows the tOmbs of Amenmesse and Rameses 111 on the left, Rameses V I and Twankhamun in the centre, and Merenprah on the right.
Right: Tomb JOO, at Hierakon/)olis in southern Egypt, the first known decorated tOmb. One wall is Momed with paimings of boats and hunte1'.l, the former reminiscem of contemporary ponery-painring; it dates to the aqada 11 period.
C IENT EGYPT
The key event of early Egyptian hi story came around 3050 BC, when the whole country was finall y united. Whil e th e r e see m s n ow a mpl e ev idence for a southe rn kingdo m, th e existence of the no rthern kingdo m impli e d by m.uch late r tr ad iti o n remains que tionable. The most important mo nument fo r the Unification is the Narmer Palette (see page 21), discovered at Hierako npolis in 1898, and now in the Ca iro Muse um . Stone palettes were used for the grinding of cosmet ics; decorated versions were particularly popular in late Predynastic times . In material and wo rkmanship, the Narmer Palette follows th e pattern of a eries of late Predy nas tic slate palettes. H oweve r, it h as a much more formal decorative structure, providing a prototype for man y subseq uent pharaonic monuments; it a lso inco rpo rates early hi eroglyphs. The reve rse of the palette shows the H orus Narmer smiting an enemy, above whom o ne of the earli est known hieroglyphi c gro ups provides a caption. The kind of combination of images and hieroglyphics found on the Narmer Palette is close to pure picture-writing, but is a lso moving towards express ing narrat ive through abstract images. S uch a co mbination of a pictorial scene, with signs and gro ups of signs making up words, is a basic feat ure of the whole body of documents from the ea rliest years of Egyptian dynastic histo ry. The words included are no t formed into sentences, yet act with the assoc iated depictions to convey info rmation about an event. At this point the writing system was possibly a consciously artific ial o ne, not intended to reproduce
/'
THE O RI G IN S O F EGYPTI A
LAN GUAG E
21
the con temporary spoken lan guage directly. H owever, (IS it effectively included nOLins and ve rbs, and was made up of signs that would become fam ili ar in later times, th e potenti al was there for th e l:=tter full flowe ring of the Egyptian script and wri tten language. The ea rliest surviving tex ts written in an unequi voca l series of senten ces date from Dynasty III (2660 Bc-2S 97 Be) , the first roya l ho use of th e O ld Kingdom, wh cn templ e re liefs included prope r divine speech es, and priva te titularies within nob le to mbs, showing th e ma in fea tures of the mature sc ript. The evo luti on of the written language during the immediately preceding period is n ot easy to trace , particularl y since the key period , th e second h alf of Dy nasty II , was disfigured by c ivil war, which means th at the number of ava ilable sources is seve rely limited. Tantalizingly, th e earliest connected se ntence in Egyptian appears on a sea ling of the rcign of Seth Peribsen , d irectly before the o uthrea k of the co nflict. EGYPTLAN NAMES AN D TITLES
The study of Egypt ian names is a major subject in itself, and the ir transcripti on into/from other languages and scripts was th e key ele ment in th e first modern dec ipherment ofhi erogiyphic texts. N ames are also the id ea l vehicle fo r n ew e nthusiasts to beg in to recog ni ze hi erog lyp hs, thro ugh roya l cartouches, and also pri va te names, whose endin gs ('it o r ~ for a male, and J for a fem:=t le) prov ide an excellent means of impress ing on e's companions!
Above : Early slate /Jaleue. Images on rite palctce from the last years of prehiscor)' seem to have de/JicceJ the trium/Jhs of chief wins, and included motih that lie in the ancestry of hieroglyphs.
THE NAR.MER PALETTE DECODED The central tableau on the reverse of the pa lette shows King Narmer, wearing the conical White C rown , ho lding an enemy by rhe hair, and preparing to kill him with a mace, held aloft in his other hand. D irectly behind the captive is the image of a harpoon, above what is kno wn to be the hieroglyph for a body of water. This combination clearly gives th e name of the captive, or more like ly the group of enemi es which he represents. H o wever, a lo ngs ide this 's impl e' dep ictio n i"!; th e complex figure above the capti ve . Th e lower part is the hi eroglyp h fo r marsh -co untry, to whi ch has been added a human head; the impli ca ti on i thus 'peop le of the marshcountry'. The hawk that has thi s head teth ered by the nose i a synonym fo r the king, so that the whole group reads 'the king has captured the marsh-country', apparently commemmorating the unification of Egypt. Po ised at t he top of both sides of the pa lette are the repeated heads of a bov ine goddess. These flank a rectan gular frame, with a panelled lower section , conta ining the images of a chise l and a catfish . Together th ey co mprise one of the earliest kn own 'serekhs', a rectangular frame within which is the name of King N anuer.
,
REVER~f: O ~
T HE NAR\IER PALETTE
22
THE HIER OGLY PH S O F ANC I ENT EGYPT
NAMING THE KING TH E NOMEN, OR BIRTH NAME, provide, the bas is for rhe names which modern writers use for the kings of Egypt, distinguish ing ru lers o( the same pe rsonal name by the lise of ord inals (so, 'A menemhat II ', 'Thut mose IV', etc). Huweve r, rhe re are two basic con venri o ns used lO transcri be the n a meS so used. (Jne ii:! simply to
voca li ze the basic transcription of the Egyptian sounds into the Larin alphabet, as described in the next chapter (see /xlges 38-9). The o rhe r is to use the (orm in which a given roya l name ha, been transrnirted in Greek via writers of C lassical times, prnvided that it is recog nizably based on th e orig in al Egyptian . Thi s
methud ha, the adva ntage of providing a regular spelling, as the v",ve ll ing of direct transcri ptions is by no means uni versally agn:cJ . O n the o the r hand, l11 (lny
modern Egyptulugi, ts (particularly io the USA) recoil un princi pal (rom such arri fi cial forms as the C.~ rc c k transc riptio ns, which in an y caSt' may be so giHhled (IS to bear nu resemh lance tn th e Egyptian, or where no
Greek eq uival ent is known. Thu" depend ing (In the au rhor heing read, the same king may he referred ro hy a number of apparen rl y different names. A fl'W examples
ACAIJEM Ie TRANSLITmATION
VUCALIZED 'EGYJYrIAN TI\ANSCRI JYrION'
III' (;I{EEK WRITCRS
usr
Djoser; Djeser; Zoser
Tuso rhr",
hw-rw
-
Kh ufu
i mn-rn-h31
Arnenemhat
s-n-wsrt
Senwosret; Senuse rt
i <1)-01s
Ahmose
imn-I)lp
Amenherep; Amu nhotpe; A mun hutcp
dl)wl y-ms
[)jehu tymu,e; Dj hu tmose; Dhu tmose; ThutLnuse
n,i-b3-nb-gdl
Nes ibanebdjed
Smencles
p3-sb3-b <-n-ni wI
Paseba kh anur
PSlIbcnncs
ps01lk
Psallltik
nlJl-nh-f
Nakhmebef
VE RSll);'" USl:.D
Kheops
,A.. rnrn enemes
Scsu~ l r is
AmObis; Amasis
Amenophi,
Turhmosis
Psammctikho,
Nekraneho
THE OR IGINS OF EGYPTIAN LANCUAGE
The Kingship At the top of the Narmer Palette is a rectangular frame, --, known as a serekh. It is an e lement found until th e ve ry end of ancient Egyptian history. Its role was to contain the first of the seri es of formal names by wh ich a king was known. By the middle of Dynasty V, these names tota lled five. The name contained within th e se rekh was known as the H orus name, assumed at th e time of the king' access ion and representing him as the inca rnation of H orus, the patron of the Egyptian monarch y. It was the primary mea ns of designating the king during most of Dynasties I - Ill , but was then grad ua lly displaced from premier position by other names within the titulary. By the New Kingdo m, it was generall y onl y found where the full list of a king's titl es was be in g given . By that time it had become a long se ri es of phrases, close r to a title than a simple name. For exa mpl e while a typical early Ho rus name, H o tep-sekhemwy (that of the founder of Dynasty II) meant 'The Two Powers [the gods H o rus and Seth] are content', that of Osork on II (Dynasty XXII) was Kanakht-merymaat-sekha-s u-Re-er-n es u- tawy, 'Stro ng Bull, beloved of Maat, whom Re h as caused to appear as king of the two lands'. The second n ame in the titular ca non, the Nebty name, represented the king as protege of Edjo and Nekhbet, respective ly the great goddesses of northern and so uthern Egypt. Like the H o rus n ame, it goes back to the earliest day, and was for some time the sole add iti on al name used. At first, it may have been used to prefix the king's 're;.! I' name, that given to him at hirth. Later, however, the birth n ame ga in ed its own distinct prefix, and th e N ebty became a separate name. It was on e of the less-used ones, and during the New Kingdom experienced th e sa me kind of lengthening as the H oru s name .
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Above Carved mace-heeds de/)icted the activities of some of the earlies t kings. Here, King' Scorpion', who ruled
just before the wlification of the country, is shown cutting the first breach in the wall of an irrigmion embani
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Right: The cemetery Umm el-Qaab at Abydos. The last kings of /Jre-unification southern Egypt, and the first monarchs of the entire country, were buried here. The earlies t examples that we have of hieroglY/Jhs were discot)ered in their combs. •
23
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24
TilE III E I( OG I.YPHS O F ANC I ENT El;Y l'l
Below: MolltlTnenwlly si,cd
III
The third name in the cnnon, known as the volden Falcon name, is (h~ most obscure. Prefixed by the hi erog lyphs for 'falcon' and 'gold', it fir t appear, in Dymlsty IV, hili il i, not until the Middle Kingdom thm e~l c h king ,eem, 10 have take n an ind i\'idu al exa mpl e. It, significance has been much debated, and alt hough Ihe falc on is usually identified with Horu" th is is hy nll lIIe"n5 IIni versall y ag ree,\. Likewi se, although Ihe 'gold' sign is probably to be taken at face vodu c, ~111 old sugges tion mad e it a reference to the f'red ynasl ic c il y of Nubt (the word for 'gold' i., 'nuh'), whose god was Seth. In Egyptian mythoillgy, Seth was the enemy of Horu s, and rhlls rh e whllie I ille cou ld be read as 'Horu, [vi cloriousl over Seth', Although thi s may h
•
The Hoyul Rings The remaining cwo names ~lre th e hcsr known, and trom the late O ld Kingd,)m onwmd, were the principa l means of id entifying a killg, ,,,,, il l' recugnizable bv• th eir enclosure ill Ihe elval frame, known as the ca rtouche. This m()dem name is based upon the "fHlpe's resemblance to a military gUll c.artridge (' cartou che' in French). It actually rep rese nts H tied rope, ~Illd is derived from th e c irCldar shen -s ign (e), which seems to have represented the c ircuit of the ."Ill, and is frequ entl y found chlspcd in the talons of divine birds e)f prey. The names are kn()wn hI' Ihe Latin term, nomen and prenomen. The nomen, whi ch stan,ls last in the canon of royal name" wa, Ihe king's birth-name, sllmctimes embellished hy an epirhet ,"ch as heluved • of a god . It is first found (withour the carrouche) in the second half of Dyna,I Y I, preceded by the title ne.m-hity, 'He of the Sedge and the See'. It h,1S mldi. tionally been tranSlaled as 'King l fUpper and Lower EgypL', but it now seems certain that thi s is wrong. th e Sedge and Ree nul heing heraldic emblems of the nonh and south of Egypt, hut signifying " "l1e other element of dllality within rhe concep t of kingship. The first examples of the con temporary use of Ih e ca rtollche arC fOllnd during Dynasty 1II , although it is used retrospectively to ell c l",,, e"rlier kings' pcr,onal names in king lists, or other tex ts that need to refer to ancienr rllicrs. By t.he end of Dynasty V, ils prefix is changed to si-He (son ()f the [slIn god l Re) . From th e New Kingdom onwards, an alterna· ri ve was neb-khau (Lord of Diadem s/Appe'mln c l~s). At some period s, .Ii- Re is wrillen within the carcouche, in front of the actual name, bur this was ne ver IN"'!.
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Ti l E O RIG I I'S OF EOY I'T I A'J L ,\NOUAGE
25
Left: Labd from lh~ 10mb vf Den ar Umm cI-C)aab . JI refers IV hiS jllh.Jee . Tomh lrrhd.'i ( 11"(' anocht'r sO l/ret' of earJ~ hiernglY(lh.\.
Prenomen and Prenomina U nlike modern mo na rchs. anc ienl Eg ypti,m kings of the same personal nam~ did not u ~t:! nUl11 er,ti s to ma rk out individuals - '\(/illi"lll IV or Loui s XIV. for exampl e. Instead, dislinclion w"s on Ihe h"sis of the who le suite o f names. in p" rric ul ar th e other ca rro uche name. the /)rcnomcn. It \V'l S preceded hy one of tlV,) tirles signifYll1g dom in ion (lver th e two aspects of t he Egypt ian rcal m, one of wh ich , nesu-h ity, we have already met a lo ngsi de Ihe nOI11(:!n. The preno men is first found during Dyn
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Below: A d,,~ tablel fr,1111 AnCIt'lll Suntt?r (nuw .100llhcm Iraq) dating frum
rhe end ()f rh, lhlrd lll i lleTlI1ium DC. The
[InJII nd
cIH1cifrnm mark., (In It
indicale thar £[['1" <1m nor the only coumry dewlul)in.~ 'l..priring at thm time .
•
26
THE III EI\O(;L\' I' J-I S OF ANCIENT EGYI'T
,
Above; I'o/,er mad" from the raP)'rll\ plam was rile mUS f characteristic Egyptian tl'rilinJ.! ltllli erial. The t'cf) I!ltrliest example of (h is come's [rom the middle uf DYJl(Jsl)' I, discol'ered frI tire wmb of a 1lOblelllan ll t Saqqara. L!nfnrwnately, il is blm1k. Althut/g/l mrio tls otlrer Hwr erlals tl't!re in LIse, £gYI)1
never adulJteJ lire day tablet as (I writing rnl,JiuHl.
trill us predecc""r. One In,t3nce IS Thutm (),e I V, whL" e 'Menkheperure' was iust one letter differenl fr,)m Thutmose 1I1 ''Menkhep ·rre'. There was occasionally a repeat of an earlier Llsage, but nortnaliy accomp
Epithets The distinctiun was made poss ible in part as " resllit of the stuuy of the usage "f cpi thct ~ wil hin royal names. The earliest ca rtouclws held simpl e names - the penulrim"te king of Dyn~sty V had the nomen [ses i, and the prcn omcn Djedkare. This p,mern was largely lIwin LHin cu until Dyn asty XV III, when kings bega n to add epithets to both their nomin a ~lIld rrenomina. In tht' latter case, th ey tended ro he lIseu only on srecific OCGl ions, not hecoming "n inlegral part of the name. For example, in a temple,,( Ihe gocl Ptah , a king might he 'seter -en- Pr"h ', 'cho,cn of Ptah'. The S3me pattern is seen inir i,dl y in nomin a, but they become permanent pans of the ca ri ouche by the middle of Dynasty XV III. A llI cnh otep II. for example was 'netj er-heqa -Cln' ('uivine ruler of Heli opolis'), .Amenhlltep III 'heqa-W"scL ' (' ruler of Thebes) an,1 Amenhntcp IV ' nctjer-heq'l-Waset' ('divine ruler of Thebes'). Almost wi thoU[ exceptilln, "II slI hseLillcnt kings emhedded one or more epithet inrll their n()mina, the mos t frequent being 'mery-A mlln' ('heloved of Amun'), but various ot her "l'lillm wcrc possible. The [,re n o men fir st pe rmanellLiy inc o rpo rated an e pithe t under Amenh otep IV. o me uf the immedi ately suhseq uent king' f" lI owed ,uil until a few yea rs into the reign ,,(Rmneses II. He then added 'setep-en-Re' ('chosen of Re ') to the simple U,ermae rre. Epithets were th en lI ,ed in every ruler's prcnomen until th e latter f(,w years of the Third Intermediate Periocl. when nam es reve rred to the ir Old and Middle Kingd olll "irllplicity. Both nomim. ,1Ild prenomina remai ned thus (fo llowed also by the other name, within the titul ary) until the l"sl yea rs of Egypti an independence. However, th e Maced"nian kings of the Pto lemaic dynasty, "nJ their illl!'erinl Roman successors, adopted cxtremely elaborate cartouches that became effectively "trin gs of epithets. In parti cular, the prenol11t!n lost 'my Irace of an easily-recognizable 'core ' nallle. Alex ,mcier Ihe Great had hegun thi ' by naming himself simply Sctpenre-merya mun ('Chosen of Re. Bclm'ed of Amun', both prev iously used purely as epithets), as did Ptolemy 1. Philip
T H E OR I G INS O F ECYPTIAN L A'4C; U.'\ ( ; I:
ArrhiJaios a nd Ptole my lIused more traditi on al pren omina , bur Ptcll
Father and Son O ne vari ,l1lf u n th e uSlial patterns is found during Dynasty XIII , whe n a number of kings adopted what have been term ed 'fi li mive' n ()l1liml, naliles that inc luded the names clf th eir fathers. Perhaps influenced by di sputes
27
Below: T ire kinR Menkt"m: (Dyna.I[Y IV) ,,,i[h [h" gud""" /-l arh"r and [he gud ,4 lire /,rGl 'lllty uJ TI,,,b,,, Kings W Ch ' considl'rl!d to h~ gods H'irh their own place 111 /.I,t' E }!'''V/JI iW I 1)(111 r.ltt!()I t, hw 1Mcrc Oftt2 fl
shoum
~ n~(1 l/t?r
than urher Jeilies. indiLat/J1g tlleir lessl'r tmpurraJII.:e.
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28
THE HIER OG LYPII S O F )\N C I ENT EGYP T
THAT WHICH THE SUN ENCIRCLES TH~. C..IKTllUCl IE I" DERIVED fro m a c irc "lm ried rc're,
Kingdum, and n lillinue in use until th e laner parr of
knuwn '" Liw she n ( ), symholi: ing a ll that is en cir· ded hy t he su n, ~ nd ""lally found grasped in the ta lc,,1S uf hi rd ,god". I 11 I[S 0 \ 'aI tOrIlI, i l sign i fa:,...! rhe ph rlr(10h 'S Ill1lversa J dominiun, and ic;; rhe ITh1St co mmon L'nciu-
the Roman Perind .
11(lllleS f~)un,,-l
sun.,' (or rnY(t!
on thl' monum ents. The
ea rl ies t exa mples ,btl' (ru m the hegi nn ing of rh e Old
For much of Egypt ian history. tl1L'Y werc unly u~eJ
by ki ng!),
but from
thl..'
laler
Ivl idd Ie Kingl..iotll
heg;?ln to
ho.' uscd /()r other memhers of the rny::J I f(1[n iI y, in pfl rr ie"Iar rhe queen. Finally, in the Oraeco· Rl.llllan Pe ri od, thl'Y Wl'rt occa.':l i u ll ~dly lI~cd (o r g(ll \:... ' nam e:-. (IS \\Tell.
•
Left: The ,i,,,lary of SeHwosre, I: ,he ng}u·}wnd coluntn contains his Hnrw; . . name (in a .,erel
-
Below: Sho.lhenq /V is cal/"d S/lUshen'l-.II/'(ISt•
meryamun . . ne tj~rhe(JQ(m .
(
I Above: The prenn1l1en ca1"(ouche of SenWO.He, I ( Khe/Je rlwre) ; ill this }Jeriod . carro"ches lend to be farrly sim/Jle .
Numina had " Iso gained numbers of cpi,hw /'y rhe middle of Dynasty XX/ / .
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Abuve: By ,he late New Krngdnm. /Jrenomincr had . heen expanded by a series of epi,he ,s , twO in this case (S e,lmakhrc: Userkhw, re· .~ete/Jenre . . meryamltn) .
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30
THE I-IIER UU LYI ' HS OF AI'C IEI'T EUY I' T
The Officials of the State l'rivaLe individua ls in Egypt were particulmly keen \)11 Lhe UM:' nf titles. Thooe Below: TIlt' pne.1l of high soc ia l sta tus nore I"ng SI rings o f them . Since literacy was greatly prized, i1akcnhlwm 11. II ho \'lIjo"d and limited to a small minority llf '"ciety, th e I ille o f 'scribe' features high ly. d inng (meeT lh", cHlminmed Literac y was the key to mJlhoriLy, [;1ught by private (Utelrs a nd in ternple sd)(l\l l, in Ih .. HiRh Priesllw()c/ of to, in e,sence, the offspring of the existing lilcra((~ eli lc. This elite included Amtm·Rc, regarJl!d m f.:ing elements o f the ,11'1 i"ln class, but most o f th ose whn could read and wrile in of rh.. Gods dl/l'in~ ti,,, New anc ienL Egypt can ge n e ra lly he c lass ifi ed ", 'oITi c i,.,b'. J..:ll1gdulll . The pnestl10M'.I rmpI)l'tallCe. Web nut limited 10 While nwn y I ill es ~re functional, o thers seelT) to hnve bl!l!n inlended for rhl? relir.ricms ~f ,herc. The locacing a pers\ln in rhe "verall pecking o rde r - 'ranking' titles. The lntrer tt!I7l/J/t? 1.'.'UH~" ()wned 'vast were mosl common in the O ld Kingdom, when" I1\lInber o f formerly funclmct" of the cOIm rr:v . (lnd tional titles .'ee m' t\l have become s im~'l y signifiers of statliS. S tud y o( rilics rhlls Ihus.. ",ho 1'Oll them had all o ws u, Ln reco nstruct much o f the ",ay in which Lhe Egyptian state was (I m.. idc!rahll! temporal /JOllier. organ i ~ed, a nd how Ihi s changed o ver time. In the ea rliest timcs, Ih e seni o r "(fi c i,,l under the king \\'as th e Chancel lo!'. The lrnnslations used for many titles are pure ly c\ 1I1\'cnl ionn l; 'Chancellor' is used for the Egypti'll1 sedja\.(![y• • hit)', which literally tnlllsiates as 'Sl:a l-hcarer of the King' (cf. below) . H owever, 'Clwncl!lIor' beLler exp re~ses th e implica ti o n> t,f the title-holder's place in th e state hit:r
_
may n o t actua lly mean 'K ing 0 1 Uppe r nnd Lo wer Egypt' as W
-. -- -
•
•
-, ,I
nem, 'Seal - He'lre r of the King l'fUpl'er Egypt'. It now see ms clear thai lhis Litle refe rs purely to 'tlw King' pel' .IE , wilh o llr ;my geographica l implicMio m.. tvLIl1Y litles refer to the admin istrati o n of
Tv.'o
l11ain arecJl\ ca me IInJer the
authority of religious ithtitutions: funerary domains, where land IVas as ·i.g ned by Llead pl!rso n to provide for offerings in hi s tomh, ~nLI a priest to attend tll it; and temples, which n:quired bnu 10 fund (,ffe rin~s ,md Ihe priesthood, as well as huilding
,I
THE 0 RIG 1N S Ll F E G Y r T 1i\ N LAN n L' ."1 (; I·
3I
work s and lTt
l ll e of th e o th er m;r jo r gods had pecial tradiliollal titles; fo r exampl e, that of Re at He lio po li s \\'as 'Gre"le,1 of Seers' (u 'cr-maall ), and I h ar of PI ah of Meillph is 'G reatest of C raftsme n' (wcl'-khcl'p) , refe rring to Pta h's patronage of such indiv idua ls. The re we re , of cour,e o th er loca l v~lr i at io ns, refl ecting the fac t that Egyp i ian re li gion "'
Ahove: 1'(1','1. "I", held ,he /)mr of t'j~f ... r dtlrillR Ih ~ reiJ.,.lfI
()j RlIJnes~s 11 (J )~' "a ~ l ~ 'X IX) The \'I~ler U I{IS rhe head ()f [Ill' phtl1"c1tHH( gU l 't'nJ1nenl .
36
THE H IERl) ' LYI'I I S O F .ANC I EN T EGYPT
CHAPTE R [[
<
>
I
I
The Tongue
0
the Pharaohs
Eu\ 1" 1IAN LANOUACJE, th e tongue of the phanJoh" i, n()w 10 ~dl inl enrs and purposcs, dead. Th e on ly pl ace whcre it may be heard tell!"Y, outside Egypw!ogy cla"c" i, in a handful o( [he most traditionali st of Egypti ,11l chllfclws. Th ere, (;opti c the very !ate version of Egypt ian that used G reek letters, may be found in fragm ents of th e litllfgy. (;npt ie ce,'" ed 1"0 he an eve ryda y m ngue in the Middle Ages and i:; now fully und erstood by onl y a handful of scholars. The modern inhabital1ls of t he Ni le valley speak Arabic, a completely different language, or igi nating (ar "''''ick Egypt's borders, H nwc\'er, t:h ere is a relationship between Arabic and ancient Egyptian . Both be long to the "fro-"si «t ic (;"!mily of languages, which CL)VerS I«rge areas of the Lev::mt and the north ern part of A fri ca, A rahic helongs to the Semitic part of the group (along WIth Hcbrc\\' and Akkadian, the ancient langu<1llc uf Mesopotam ia), Afro-asi >lt ic langu"gcs h"ve a nllmhcr of (eatures in common , incl udin g t he re lative importance of consonants o\'er \'owels, and th e use l)f the sa me suffixes for cerr>l in p
Abo",: The en trance pyion of the New Kingdom tem/)ie nf Luxor. 'H ierugiv/J/Is' Hh:'WIS ·.sa(.I~d. Hrnting' , and the sc)'i/JI tla.l most III home in (I rdiguJIIs C()1Itt'XI .
Oppusite: /-1mncscs / hefo)'c tile god Anuhl.l in hIS tomb in the Valle)' of the Kings. TIl,' c£lrlUu"he, "bvt'c /um .I/Jell o lll hi, IwO /J)'incl/>al names.
DEVELOPMEN T OF EGYPT I AN LA NGUAGE :\RCIL~I C
PERIGO
01.1) Kl jI;G DOM
FIllST I NTE I~\1EDL\TE PEIlIDD
SEeD!'>!) I'
t\EW K1NGD0\1
MEOIATE PERIOD DmaS lics I-II ,
f)vn
3050-2660 Be
2660-HOO
I:(I/'Iie,('/ scriP'
Old f.gli)/itli/
... TFi , FROM TilE T{ l\lf\ l"'lF nJFT
ije
Dynasties 1'I1-X la n00-20iO Be 7'ml/.>'ilioll /0 :Iflddle (~I/)tlilll, Il'iliril lasts til/VI/gb //w ,tliddle A'ilI,~dol/1. OI'l/aS/le'! .I'IIi.l111
Dvna>tics XIV- X'VI I ,
1650-1550 lie .!tiddle ~~1 1)//{1JI
!)YI",,(ies X'VIII- XX 1550-1070 Ile Middle 1:/M)/U(Il nYIII.l'iliolllo Lale E.~lp/i{/J/
TIIIRD IKTERMEflIATE
LIHE I'ERIOU
G R~ECO- ROM" ~
COPTIC PERIOn
I'EIOOU
PElll OD Dvnasties XXI- >''XV •
DYnasties XXVII-XXXI •
Pwlemies
i!ol11ans
Ryl.'llltines
1070--664
664--332 1Ir.
332-3U IlC
30 1Ir.-,,, 395
\0
ulle h:~l'plitill
Deil/ol i(
Deil/olic
Copllc /)(Imolic
IlC
Lale ~~ry 1Jlitill Deil/olic
Middle/Lale Egl'/ililJlI culllillile 10 be IIsed jor il/olilllileliiallexis illio Ibe IiOil/tili I'eriod
59;-640
~UNUt-\[n'
.;TIl..lo
IN 1."1.)1 TIl.
"l I~
rT
38
THE IlIER OG LYPH S O F ANC IE ~'JT EG YPT
THE
EGYPTIAN ALPHABET
ANCIE:-JT EGYPTI"''; WAS BASED ON a n alphahet of 24 consonanrs. NO( all of these correspond direc tl y with those found in the Engl ish alphahet, ultho ugh all are present in th at of such a Sem itic lang uage as A rahie. The cunvent ion al order of the signs is thetefore hused on that used in Semitics, as given helow.
HIEROGLYPH
ACADE~ II C
No ne of th e signs helow me true vowel, . In (.u mmon with modern printed Arabic and Hebrew, vowe ls we re nor written down, a nd haclto be su ppl ied hy the reader using his u r her own know ledge o f th e language. The suun d, often transc rihed today with the letters a, i a nd II are actually rcgardl:d as on ly se 1T'I i~vnwels, and also
ENGLI SII EQUIVALENT
T RANSLln. ~ ,\ liON I
3
q qq
•
•
I.J or \\
, n
..
y. JJ ,
•
a,
I
Y
a
~or ~
w
W, 1I
JJ
h
h
0
p
p
•
f
(
m
In
n
n
I'
I'
h
h
I)
h
h•
kh
h-
kh
s
s
~ or , " ,, _ or
~
I'il ~ a
or P
:r
,
I
.
=
An e mphatic h
A softe r sound, perhaps c lose r to 'ch' or 'sh'
sh
I
!!l
'ayin, a guttcral sound not fo und in English
'-I
q
k
k
g
g
l
t •
I
tJ
d
d
d
dj, :
1 As described in Chapte r V, th is mcrhOll
or lranscr ipt ion has been largel y ..,tallt!;.u J ~i nce the earl y part of (he twcntl c.; th
ce lHury. Hnwcvt!r, other convent ions h:lve ex isted in the pJst. mosr co mm on ly thd t lIi:led Budge. The lrl l ler used VJI'lOUS acccnlC.::d I rl'~ (or ~ . ~ and D and 'rh' '!', :.mJ 'tch' i ,
rm
the mllch~repnnt('d \Vall is e":I Jnd "1.
by
THE AN C IENT EG YPTIAN LANGUA GE
bULIre in the Arabic ,cript, un lik e rhe rrue v"wels_ This, of course , le"d, to prob lems when one mremrrs to vocali,e a set of Egyptian wurds, either
THE ENGLISH ALPHABET I N H I EROGLYPIIICS TR,~NSLITERATION
whtll' reading In clrlss. o r pro dllc ing vers io ns o f p~t>una l
nallll', thut are a(eeprah le rl) rhe non· speel" li " reader - IWI -' 1"- ;11111 is clearly ar less palatable than Tu ta nkh atl) un ' The ru le gener""y u,eJ by Egyptoluglsts is thm If there are any ciues as to the "owelling frolll texts 111 scripts that J u usc ,-()weis (e,g, Akkadia n, and Cuptic, the w ry 1,lte vcr..iun uf Egyptian thm used G reek lene,,), rhe'e will be used , but utherwisL' 'e's UTC added until someth ing prnnnuncabte is arri\Td
3
8
,
I
JJ
h
b
eh
h
d
•
f
-=
d
:J
at. Thb explaill!) dH..' wide variation in rr::ll1scnptions
n( ph;:J r;:!()hs' n8: mes fnu nd in diffl'fcnt modern works.
f
g
g
h
h
. l
I
k kh m n
h•
il.. ur , ur
=,
tl)
id
n
o
p
4
LJ
•
r
•
>
I
i
t
Abuve: A dour-jamb in rhe wmb of Ram('ses V I in lite Vulley uf d' e King', The I
r
I
lI , \V
w
y
y
z Th ese equlva lenb Me only approx imate .
39
40
Til E IIIER OG LYPII S 01, Al'(CIEl'(T EGYPT
j_
HI.,...,.I.
~~,."
,
t-
.,.,h ••""
•
~ .,"1
b~
ir.J , "T'
I
h1' 1
I
v, i
1'\00 .. 1-
1
0
'"
"'''''
t
l"OoJ!.llo,1l
I
I "
.i,l
- -•
I
O~
I
..
II
4l-
1
tI,
Iry ,
1
11,
•
I I
l~
-
't
. II.»
_.
•
•
l··:~o.
1"..I
'.
S
•
1 I
l'~"
]1t,II
'I ".,.? ,~ . -/ '\cI p,' .... ., ~
r; 10
,
~- J I
, =:1
,
=
I
1,. ••
r l Sll i~lt
1---+' -- - - -.-
,~"
,
,
-
,~ II .11 •
- f - _.
~
•
" .,.,
,*, •
; I
,,
,1
..... ,. Q
- --
,
0
1C: •
I
"'
'.... J
~i)' .
.
I
"1
e'U\f!
0
-1
,
; po :'Cel, B..I
II) }~ '
, ,
I,
I.
I
'to
1
,
".
I
-+
,
I ~,
,
~
i ~- 5
,,' ~
<. ,
1
0
~
~,
, I t,l
).
-
non ~ f !
~"erl
, ~;, "
,
-
"""" ! )~ I -Plg~~,Q 1h
"
,ot_,._
Wutur
1B,rr, ' Uit
L
t
I
•
(~1 l'
,,
( \ ';',
,
lr'l .
:Jl... ) ..
IU .. hun ~ o
...,........,~yl ,
e
GOB
'41
~ r -I .: . . I
1 ~r 3
Prhst'
" "I ~
, I
[,04 1: r..)
H.t"ub
,,
, ShllJh,
I, l
-
I
<=> ,
• ,k.A..jt
. r:-- . . . . ,j {-"''OJ e'-"~ . _ __
r.
j
".;'
k
.-
"1
D'~ A..r'l,'
"I?_
,••.• ...
T
""I~IA .h
•
-_.- t- - -.
~ It ,l:
oPt...
r
~'" ." ....., ~.1:1.
!-.~
1(")'10,'
---!- -
ol!
"'"
1110 •
•
,
o
..... -~ , ..,...."", ..,
5,1
,4... ~S,l 1 ,11'
'"
t,J ~
: -
"],J-;; .-
v •
• ~12,
. __
n
--'--I D1 . '
I
•. Dyn •
.
",
I
"'--D
wA-r- ,55, J~ 1: <, _
'~/
_-
r)ynlOtll
J)yn 11/12
- --
RJ.AA ,1 I~~ ~t-::2·-1iJ)y~ la/13
Almvc and opposite: Snm~ hierug/>phs and their /Hera tic eqi/i,denls
•
0
4 ,
1
"I,
Hyhtoueit
-b Anh.n«
00
d. l>y1t II
-
TH E ANC IENT ECYPT I A'\J LANGUAGE
HI.rOjl
f""~".
Ciwrft.,
le4crh ..
lo" ... r.
~'r" Ig
,
J......t 1' 1O"lJ,
"
Hurl. H.
.5 ..
Ml.
2~
Hani. Tn _
Pento.r.
t1:B)(
,
9, '
201' ,
H
.L 1\
~,
'
I
!III
[ S. " 1
I
_ _ jThutmo'l~
IIIJP\menophlJ
"~""Htt10,"JILlIV
, RJrnses IV
p.
"'''0"
I
-
"dm · 1
41
42
TilE III EJ( O CLY PH S O F AN C I E:-,JT l: l ;Y I' T
<
> r=====il
-
f< ~ 0000 n Q o0 0 0 000 n ® , o J
C\
J., -
, ><><
o
I
, l dlttX ;L\,['Hlc I lt-\"'"'U tJ i l lt)-..!
Ii llRAI1L J 1:.\ I
)'e(lr 27, illUlll h 4 uI l'ere L. dllY I I . Th~ king" dn!lglucr Nei>l?lia , daugJucr of the king'~ s(Jn SfClflnn .
rnpt 27, 3bd 4 Prt hrw I I, S.1 I-nsw I'hli:l S:ll S3-nsw S3- ' 11 m
t
Above : A himHic lexl , its rmn:scriprioll anJ translarion. Tllis Hem ( nnlC.' frnm rhe
l{lhd mUIL"hed to the ll11IHll11)' of" Dynll$IY XV III 1"'lI1e,'s, dllrinRher rc~inrcnl1 c l1l, fo llowing ro/,he" , in Yellr 27 of "ing P(lScbkh",,,, I oI D'1"I>I" XX I. To sliId"- a . JII,'raUl' te\I , .lcilOl(lrs "slwlh
TH E III EROG LYI' HI C W RIT IN C SYSTEM
Alth'-Jllgh :l lmost all hierog lyphs tepresent ,Ill animate or ina"i " "' t,, ()hj(xL, they were not 'picture \.vriring' in ib c ruL1csl se nse, Ce rtain signs function as picture, o f I h e t hings
to
whic h they refer, but the vast majority do n ot , or if
they do, Lm ly d o so indirectl y, Their essential purpose is to represent the 24 letters of I he Egy ptia n a lphabet in a ll the combinations necessary
t<>
write the
Egypti a n la n guage.
-
c()np~rr it II IH!O liiero~h'phs.
D e te rmin a ti ves and multita tc ral s All a ncie nt Egypt ia n wo r,ls lire Imide "I' ,,( the ,(lunds li , Led in [he tab le a nd thus, in theory, an y word could be written using the sign s sh o wn there . Howe ve r, in prac t ice th is WIIS n o l I he cnse, nnd lh e re a re many hundreds of orher sign s wh ic h wcre reg ula rl y used in writing. The first a re de te rminati ves . Written a n c ienL EgYPLian o mi t ted vowel s, whi c h IIl ean l Lhm m o re th a n o ne word cou ld h ave exac tly the sa m e conson a ntal stru c llIre, An Englis h exa mple could he Ihe words ', h <1 pe', 'ship' , 'sh eep' and 'shop'. S I ripped of th e ir vowels, they a re reduced to the COllSl)ml11ts 'S H' a nd 'P'. Th o ugh it m ighr he p",s ihle
f<)
glless at which word was m ea nt from
th e c"ntex i or grammar, there wo u ld clearly be a problem wi th correcrl y de te rmining the IlIe'l11ing, A solut io n might be ro add a further c h a rac ter to hint a l the mcaning of th e word - perhaps a picture o f the item , or M>tnelhing which Opposi le: Extract from the lexi f""nd in the i) rwnid oI Teli «1 SCUI'iar(( . Tlit Pyramid Texts em.' nmongs[ [he earliest b IO I< 11 eyami,le., of Egyj)tian rdigrowi 1lTicings,
might a lso sholV wh'lt kind o f wo rd was meant. This is prec isely what the Egyptians did; in o ur example, SH+P w()u ld he f"lIowed by lI1l for 'sheep ', ~ fo r 'ship' lind LJ (I he plan of:l bu ilding ) for 'sh o p' , 'Sha pe' is mo re tric ky;
I he noun might h ave a ro ll of papyrus (, "' , ) ve rb could h ave
'il, 10
to
inti iUlt e
indicaLe a physical ac tio n .
' Ill
a h SI r'K l , while the
44
T i lE I I IEHOGLYI'HS O ~ ANCIENT ECYI'T
Unluckily (or the lll ()Jcm (,lIld an ci<:nr) leamer, howe l'er, there was rather more to the hie roglyph ic script tha n sim ply th e a lph abetic signs and de l<:rtll in al'ive:-.. E)!' alon gs ide rh e:-.c \\' cre sign s whi ch coul J write t\vo consonants,
three co nson ants, o r even a who le word (known as biliteral, triliteral and word signs), "ILITERAI. SleN <0>~
crearures OJ" thi ngs rhey dl!picted. The falcon stands for l.hi' god HorHs; rhe disk /11Q)1 re (Jre.;;em Ci
hall ()f .lilTing,
and h", rhe /Jh unelic \.'01,," 'h' , The final arm, holding a flail reads 'bw ' , whose reading the preceding siR" remforces. The whole fragmcm rhus rew.b 'H Un l!), pWleclOr (of",)'·
'3
sw
""~ g
sn
6
a
S3
~
b3
u
k3
ij)
L.J
p3 pr
tp 13 dd
n
comb of Sflh)' J, Valley of King•. In rheir mn.l r elo},nrQre fonns, hierugl),phs were imricwely deladed reJ)rc5cntminl1S of rhe.
TRANSLITERATION s3
wp wn
V
Below: Fragmem fro m the
TRANSI.ITERI\TION 1lI I.ITF.RAI. SIUN • I r
,
<1D
~
rTII
fi
, ,
mn
TRII-'TERAL SIG:\S
~ ITi
mr ms
¥ 9
' nh "h• t
=
nb
1
nfr
It
br bs
I e )i}j
,
0
nlr
•
I) tp
h'
fa
-hn
!D
b pr sd m
0
T he lin e he tween mul tiliterab mld wor,1 ~ i gn s is a fin e on e; indeed, some signs can fa ll in to bo th ca mps, de pending on the co ntex t with in whi ch rh q are w;ed . O n e wa y of spo tting " word -s ign is if it is fo llowed by a single su o ke, a lthough th is does not uni versa lly h o ld tr ue. A useful guide lin e I() c1nss ifi cm i()1l is pwv id ed hy" pec ul i
fo rced' by writing aft er th em the a lph abe ti c signs for thei r own las l sounds. For exam ple , nfr ('g()()d/hecll lt ifu l') is perfec tl y capah le of bein g writte n with I on its own - as it is in so me in sm n ces, parti c ul a rl y wh e re SP'lCC is li m ired. H oweve r, usua ll y it is writte n as r~;,; at face va lue, lhi , appea rs 10 r<:ad ' nftt"r', but in fac t t he ...._ and = are both wh at are kno wn as 'ph o net ic cO lll plements'. This means th at t h ey arc n o l read , hut mere ly ' reinforce' th e m;'-l in ,I.\ign . Th ere (H e, I"H. nveveT) few so lid rules as to exac tly h ow th ese compleme n ts a rc used wi l h ind ividu al signs in indi vid ua l c irc umst a n ces: so me n ili tera ls occu r o nl y us in g o n e c()mplemen t (e.g . ,o 'f;h , sdm. 'co h ea r') , and some bi lite ra l, Illay be used wirh both thei r so unds wr itte n out (e .g, J~lo:.~, b3 t, 'h ush').
•
THE ANCIENT EGYl'TI !\ :-J LANGU;\GE
- ..._•
•
,
Left: Legal document of Year 35 of KinR Ahmuse II tl'rirren on papyrus. Demotic became rhe script mOS I "sed fv r admini.l rrative records allring D~na.,,! XXV I.
45
• •
k9 ~ •
.c..
-, <
-Right: Palette belonging to the /{oyal )L'ribe Djhwmose. The lWO cavities (l( the tol) held respeciively block (Illd red pigment, mixed wllh \limer to make in/(, much like water coluur.L Th e cen rral groove held a seleClion of I)em. 1-1 icral.ic and dem ol.ic were nunncdh 'l,. l."rirren with a reed pen (/ml ink . HANDWRJTTE N HIEROGLYPHS AND T H EIR DFRIVATIV[S
H e irLlglyrhs were idea l fur monumenral and decorative pu rpose;;, as Slirerdetailing with the chisel and paintbrush could he cmried out if reqll ired, hut they were less useful f; lr day-to-day purposes. While the practised ha nd can produce a basic hieroglyph in litt le mme tim e than it takes to write a mode rn r man capital letter, their usc wOlild Ill" ke the produ cri on o f lengthy h,mdwri tten documents a laborious task. Acco rdingly, from early on in Egyptian hisLOry, a disrinc i handwritten version of the hi eroglyphic script deve loped, known today as hieratic. - r I In its emly phases, hi erati c was little more chan a simp lification o f the under! ying sign " , hut hy the Midd le an d New Kingdom s, it took o n various d isl inc!'ivc attributes. The relation:.hip betwee n many hie ratic signs a nd the ir prow rypes is Lhen fm Ie,s easy ro disccrn. The script tak es on va ri o us d istin ctive ways of writing worels, which do not mirror th ose f"und in hi eroglyph ic. Hieratic script was used for a va t range of re ligious and do mestic purr","" l t was mostly used on pa pyri; fragments of stone o r pottery, known ." ", traka , were used fo r casua l jott ings,
-
-
-)
Left: Stela ]Tom A5YIII The Cheel< and Roman conrrnl of Egypt afler 332 Be meant that Greek rapidl: cwne inru use alon!l,Sld" E&':IIJlian 'Crii'LI. Many IJwnhers of lhe Greek
or re(Jre.senW[I (J1lS and language. Here, a 21-vear-o!d named ApollvJ1lOs
,rands hefme OSITlS, with lhe EI0i'nan winged sun-disk above him; hUll el er, rhe rcXt heloll IS lJ11rely in Greel\:.
46
Ti l E IIILR OCL YPII ::- 01
,,'J ClE :--J T EUY I' T
.
,
, •
•
.,.
:
•
•
-
Abo'lIe: C"ptic rdi~f.'/ll" of Ihe 6Ih/7/h (;cntH ry .. II!. It sholt's IH '(1 siranl!.eh ,,/w/JerhlfjJ!I used a" (] wa ll dl!CCJH lf io)l Ul Rrtlt 'c<'i ume In a /",,Jding erecled in [he lI rel l vf Ih e lemple of Lllxor
T il E /\I'CIEI'T E(jY PTl i\N LI\N(;t <\UE
47
Hic r,lIi c n.!Il1m histLlry. l Jo wever, fur domesric IIses, the h a ndwrille n , cripr continu ed to deve lo p, a nd 8r,1l1nd I ynasty XXV a fully disl inc t var ie ty, dcmmi c, C Am~ in to u s~ . A ltho ugh fully deveiopeLI hi l:n1tic is far rem,wcd (nllll the traLlitio n a l hiernglyphs. I h " origi n s of ma n y s ig ns .1re ,ri ll mo re o r less v lsihle. In ContnN. demotic sc ript is ul1fccogni :a hl e as a cIeri"ativc uf hi en!glyphs. a nd h as hee n dc sc rih~J a, re.,e mhl in g 'a se t o ( ag ilaleJ comm as'. De mor ic sc ripl was primarily e m~1 1 0y cd fo r >" llll ini srrarive purpose" .1 lrh o llgh some fun e ra ry hooks were prep' lreJ u., in g it. It was dc s i~Ill:J ro ht' written with a pe n o n papyn" , hut th e re are quite .1 (CII' exa mpl es o f carved vc rsio n s, pa rti c ul arly in the Pto lema ic and Ro man Periods . Amon gS T Ih e he,t kn o wn exa mpl e, Grc ccru",in Ploiemai c cIecrees wh ic h II'c re inscribed in hoth hierogl yph , anJ dt'nloric within tempies. Some 'editio ns' coupled the,c 111'0 Egyptian ve r io ns lI'ilh a Grc~k tnms la ti o n; it lI'as o n~ o( Ih ese , the fa mo us Roscrrn Smne (see pages j07- jO), that pro vided th e key tel the d ec iphe nn e n t of the a n cie nt Egy pti.1n scri pt,. Th e last sc ript used to write EgYPli a n IVa, coptic. Thi, was based o n Ih e Greek a lpha be t, WIth th e addill o n l ', ( c ~rt "i n signs fro m Jemuli c 10 write 'ounds
Abollc: FragmclH from a lvall of th~ wml> of Seth! 1.
Th e (ClJHrnSf hl't H 't'en hieruglyjlh.1 (tnt! hl<'rallc " shot/'n lle1llh. f" -. the ,hurt mk graffito. pm III in"'l oj guillbs'., ann nn Ihe kJt. whIch cLJll rras r.'i,mmgly uult Ihe cktboratc h,t'rugl'j,h., . ,
•
.r •
Left: Flll1eran :i rela from Sheil 61 I. It .11",,,,, Ih e Ills I ph1lsL of rh, {mcienr tcmgllc, knflu'n COPtic.
(1),£1
'«II
£1.\
j>arllClijarh
,,'ed for Ih" 1,,,rl)().I " of the Egylnian dlllrch. The smllt II ~ed
a mixwrc of R,1't!t!k
with
it j~H t'x[rd '((,TTlS
from deJll()lIc
Il'Cl t'r':'t
taken
48
THE HIER OGL Y PH S O F ANr. I EN T EGYPT
AN C I ENT EGYPT I A N GRAMMAR A
the gramma r ,)f rhe va r iuLl~ stage:-. of the Egyptian l::lnguagc i:, beyond the ,cope l,f this hook; rhere are many I,ooks whi ch deo l wlrh the subject, ond " nllmher are listeu in the hihlingraphy. Howe"cr, to fu lly IInderstanu huw
'he hears , and ,gn1 .n.f 'h e heard'. In the>e exa mpl es, rhe r is the pronoun 'he'. In Egyptian , the pronoun is usua ll y wrinen after t he \'crb or noun rn which it refe" (:so we also have s3J, Ihis ~un\ and ~o ,)n ). Negation i, prov ided hy placing ..A- (n) in (ront nf rhe verb, 1I 1thuugh it is inreresri ng that (e .g. ) 'he d,'es not hear' is writtL'n n dl11 .ll.r and 'h e did nut hear' 3S n 5Q I11.f, rhe oppos ite WllY round (r(IITI Wh fH one might hav<.' ~xpecl ed.
1)f,T,\IL[[l ACCc'UN'1 0
hieroglyplUi wurk, one nel'J~
t ll
lInder~
,rand ,omerhing of the navnllr of MIJdk Egypti ::! n.
Se ntence Structure It IS 1ll1pOrm nt to remember rh at the ba~lc form of Egypt i,m is very different frol11 thor of English "nJ mo.t o the r Eurorean language, and , a. a lready nured, is far closer to Arabic and I lebrc\\'. The' hasic word order "f a Midd le Egyptian sentence is Verh·SuhjectOhjec t; another Important feature i.' rhe frequent u.e o ( ~lIffixe5 tl, denote prunou ns. Fo r examp le . c:
>
..... it
, n
J",nh
n '" ,., , ... -._T~" u "" to
,IV,',',_
°ll • _
c::.
.
reads rut ; mw n I)nu.r and
met1ns 'the man .~ i ves wnter to his wife'.
A n b the
\'erh rcl i, ' te' gi ve', made lip o( the "Iph aheric sign r, together with the "'ilitcral A 0; s, 'man', i ~ wrillen
:Ii,
with heing used a. a word sign , th i> being indi cmed hy rhe slI1gk . tro ke rhat follows it. The ,emeJ man glyph can al~o be used liS a dctt:rmlnarive nf va riuu:;, male oeCII" parinns, or prurt:r n(1 rnes. The next bigns ~h()\V how the lise of a hie'roglyph can vary Jepending on context. Of the (uur ,...,_ -signs, un ly the la't is the . imple al l'h abe tic n, rh e prepusition 'ro'. The sign actu ally rep resents warer, [U1J when rhree arc grouped together rhey can act a, a word-sign fnr 'water', read ing Ill W. The follow ing groul' comprise. the hi llfeJ'al ~Ill , with an al l'ha heric I , and a ~eated \\!(J l ml n as::t de termind lin:>, The t is the fcm in me endi ng in Egypt ian. Finall\" rhe 'I ,r, i. tht' thi rd pcr::ion masc\l l me sutfix p rL) 11 01l11, 'h is'. Tenses in Egypt ian, [cn~('~ are qllite complex and do not corre .. spond preci. ciy to those of English. Rarher rhan present and past, the concept. c,( incomplete and complere
appli ed. In tllOb f Crlfie:; , [h is Ju('~ n Ql affect the rranslminn , but can make::1 difference on some occa~ i on~. Th us, the basic veri, a lone denutes the present; the pa,t is indicated hI' rhe add it ic>n ot an n. Thus, 9 111.1' mea ns .:IClion \!,'(lS
N oun s In Mid,lIe Egyptillll, nouns liSuall y go withuut ,1 definite articl e (an equi"a lenr nf rhe English 1I ur the) althnllgh thl. rClItll re i to he seen in Late Egypti an. Given t hat the verh to be is only lI~ed in certrl in ci rcumst,mcL's, Slllllt.:' .'; entcn cL'~ can h"'tok extremely ban.' . Fllf exarnple, 'the sun is in rh e ,,kyl can appear a:s si mply 9 0'ii !i?9 , r ~ (:mn) m (In) pt (sky) . Plural, (wirh rh e cnJing w) are indi · catcd hy eit her repeati ng a \\·ur<.l ~s ign th ree nmes, o r (0 110 \\ ing the wnru with three strokes. Th us 'beaut ie; (nrr w) can be wrillen either
r-- ,!
or
111.
Prono uns He. she, it, they and mhe r rmnoun. are normal ly written as IIsed in (crtl;tin CirClIl11Sfrll1Ces. The !:>uffi x-pronou lls ;:'Ire as fo llt\\vs: •
n
.I
I, me,
.k
y,)JI, you r (mascu linc)
.I
YOll , yeour (fcminl\1e)
.f
he, him, hi" it, its
.5
she, ht"f,
Lil y
I f, Irs
Afl " ':'.
DOD
.n
FT Z U ' .?
"
o U0
.111
you, yuur
.sn
they, them, their
",
... IVAa",
~o 0 0
THE ANCIENT EGYI'TIAN L/\N GUAGE
Adjectives Word, descrihll1g nouns a re p laced after thclIl. dnd ha Ve' rh e sO llle mMb of nllmher "nd ge nde r. For exam pl e
bJ ~ ~
<
'
.
PI' wr (' d ll' big h ULl~ l"
-
masc uline
singular), n C>t~
-
Left: FlInerary stela of H ur, sun of Pedimtll.
from the Rmnesst'IOTI CIt Thebes. The tex t. spells out a /,rayer hy the deceased w the sun-god Rc-TTarakhty.
l1In~< 0 ' , hwt nfrt ('rhe hea ll t iful castl e' - I"m i. nine singular) ,
Below: 'Aneienc' tt!xts were sometimt.>s 'furged' hy latcr I,haraohs. The Mem/,hite Thcology claims LV bl! 1I cOJ)y of (111 Old Kingdom work, but sl14dy vI the grammar .~ ugge.~ts II was wrnren nI •
•
rhe .'ievench ccntur\1I~C .
-
,
-
49
I
THE ANC I ENT EGYPTIAN LA!' JU AGE
not found in the Creek language. Its adoption accompanied the spread ofChristianil y through Egypt, >111,1 progressive ly replaced demotic in regular use. It was gradu all y supercede J by t h e Arabic sc ript a nd language fr o m the seve nth ce ntury ,\1) onward s, HnLl went " lit of daily use a round the sixteenth century, although surviving in some c hurch lilUrgy. Th e version of Egypt ian written with thi s coptic sc ript (and known as Coptic) was the very last , t
Old Egyptian Found in documents of the O ld Kingdo lll . It has some di tinctive feaw res, hut is essent ia ll y >Ill earl y version of the next, classic. phHsl! of the language. Middle Egyptian Altho ugh probrtbly no longer the vernacu la r by the Middl e Kingd om . Middl e Egyptian was the standarJ emp loyed for alm ost all monume nrs and doc uments down into D ynasty XV III. It remained in use for religious purposes until Roman times, wiLh a , lightl y modified vers io n a lso sti ll used for ccrmin lirerary and monumental purposes. Late Egyptian Th e New Kingdom-Third Intermedia te Pe riod vernHcular. elements of which begin to be fo und in monllme nral contexts a t the e nd of Dynasty XVIII. There nre chm1ges in word ord er, a nd the additio n of some foreign words, altho ugh most tex ts reta in <1 h e>wy overlay of M kldle Egyptian conv enti ons. Demotic Th e fOlln of the language used by scribes of Ihe Late Peri od. It mixe s a range o f idi o ms, rllnning fro m Middle Egypt ian to Ihe Late/ Ptol ema ic/Roman Period vernac ular.
'51
Above and opposite: W,dl relief, from the Tnmb
of Kaemrehll (I[ S"'I .
52
I
T H E H I ERO GLYP II S O F AN C I EN T EG YP T
DATES AND NUM BERS M A~Y TEXTS~RE llATEIl,
with the dare he in ~ the iirst thing mentione,i. O hviously, the ern dating that place, us in a particular
Left: Stcia of SiseJldu . Allhe very 10/) we find irs tillCe , day 10 of Ihe Jsl Monlh of Akher in Yenr J7 of 5enu '0,ret 1. The larter', tirles.
numhered ye;t r si nce the supposed hirrh
prl!nmnen (lnd nom!:'n W'e ail 1.1)1l<5ual1y enclosed in a single carwLlchc. direcdy bdoU', The main texl is a slClndard uffering jOnnula. while ar Ih e borro111 IIf rhe .S tela Sisel,dll himself and his .!'ife srand
o( Chrtl't was not em ployed 111 anclenr times. Instead , it wa'i the re igning king',; feign that was used tll provide a rime
structure. An Egyptian da re line might run: 'yea r 15. under the person of the Lord of the Two Lands. Menkheperre (Th utllh)se III ) .. ..; rhi. corresponds approxlInatcly to 1464 !Je. The hien1glyph, for 'roya l year'
befl!re an offering table. and receiw tite homage of litelr children.
f®.
me read1l1g rnpl ( -sp ). Up to the Old Kingdnm , this term ac tually rc(e rr~d to the census of c3rrle that usua lly uccu rred every o rh er year; thu,. a year number 10 woo ld acruall y refer to the twemiNh year of Ihe reign. For mmt uf Egyptian hism ry. however. it referred , imply to th e nllmher of years since the king ca me to the thmne. O ne slight p",hlem i, th ai dllring some periods the reign wa,:, cow1teJ from New Year':, day
(i.e. the fi rst day u( the fir, t month of the "ffici,.! iiest seasun ,,f the yearl. wh ile during others. C(lunting hegan on the king'. actua l date o( In rhe latter case this meant that if a pharaoh had come rn the throne un (e.g.) 14 j une.then 12ju neYear 10and 19juneYea r 10 would be nm a week "part, hut 358 Jay,. The Egyptian year wa, divided in m three seasuns. each of which had four months of 30 Ja y'. The fu ll 365day yea r was maJe up by five special fe,rh',,1 d"ys. The seasons were named
~0
~
@ "' ,
.
311• I (Inundation )
pn, (Wi nt e r) a n d
I
'::=0
~ mw
(Summer), hut hecau:-,c t1H~ Egyptian~ lacked a leap~yea r,
take into account the 365.25-Jay '01,,, year, the calendar grnduall y slipped until the 'c,,'on-names hore no relation ro rh e agricultural cycle; (mly after 1.460 to
yea r~
did th e ~cas() n:- and
Ca lCl1 l lrl f
synch ro nize o nce
again. A (u ll Egyprian dateline might thus run as f"lIows:
mpl 12 3bd I prt
rrr
hrw 6 I)m n n"v-bi ly nbw-k3w-r' (Year 12, munlh I ,,f Winrer. day 6, under the person
of rhe Dual King Nuhburc IAmencmhat III) .
Number A (c\\ n
h,er, gil,
I
1(1)'
i!
top
THE ANC I ENT EGYPTIA N LANG UAGE
Numbers A few l1 11mher.., have heen menn nnel..l just uhuvc. Thl' hiernglyphi c ,cript useJ "decimal ; ysrem A, ("lInws:
1.,[
, of
Hlc.~ ,
Till: signs were u:-.elo.1 in l.le:-cend lllg: o rJ~r; [huo;.
1.732.5 27 wa. wr itte n :
I
all ngle
10
The main 100
{,mn ula,
stela e stand d recem!
I
1,000 10,000
I
100,000 1,000,000
53
Below: Tomb rdief fro m the Mastaba of 11 at Sa'lL/am showinR fanner.> (!/ work. The Egy/llia n )'ear Wll.'i bw/t arUlind ,he ag>kll/lHral cycle. ,he beglnning uf the year numillCilly coincidinR tl.ith the rise the floudwaters of rhe Ni le. Th ere were three seasons: Immdarion. Slimmer and Winter. each Imting / 20 day,.
or
54
THE I I IER~)(,LYrH5 OF .\ :--Jl"I l: '1T EUY f' T
Ab(Jp~;
Till'. \Jml1li_~(nH! '1' 0/ Ihe Eel IIc'nl LJe,ell , J.:/lIl11ll1he, e/J Irolr/Jin~ /l,rd., III (! 1..· ILif>~'h! l from 13.:'111 H(I'IIn lulllh 3 {)"IIl"I\' \ 1/ , I"hilw:, H'~n' l-rl'tJl lcm/: •
~llUu 'n
Ih~ir
lOrn/" hlllHin,1! !['iid lll1l11wll ",tel hlrd" III
llJjnllin,~ in d~d {h lClltH the:' Iw~1
d l)lll.
in Irfe.
Right: In !ilL' smne trJmh . u. . . I>ickill,g dlll.l f>({rkin~ (niil in [hI.. l,rre,1/ SI! l' ltl'(f 11.'(l1'J<.t:'1's
man ~ 01"l.:l1onl
••
THE ,'1NClE\JT El; YP TJAN
-
" LAN(,)lJA(~L))
'i n THE
H I E RUC;LY I'H S OF A:--J C I E:--JT E(;Y I' T
THE WORDS OF A PHAROAH H IEROGLYPHS C\:-' BE RE.A D FRO~1 LEFT T() RI (;H I,
right to left, or in column" from top to hotto m , Righ t to le(t was rhe most usual, but th is W"s adjusted to cUIX' with loca· tiun and decorative reqll i rCllll·n l~. The orie n r
ani ma l and bird signs ind ica te wh ich way a tex t sh o uld he read. T h is stela, se t up to mark t he suut he rn burde r of Egyrt as estahlished in Dyna,ty Xli by Sen IYosret Lll, hcgin~ wit h the 1l:J lll es and ti tles l ) f the ki ng.
Introduction to text
l'.·\RIOL( HFnF
TR1LAII:KAL ~lti'
nIl'
j..\'
1\.1\1\
I
d;
1'1\ I:.NUr. t 1:/\
:-iJ(. i'\J RI:\ I: R<.;ED
...; lnN \VITIICltJT A RI\!
I
~
o
~
'1Ii1-
ill' II!I' upr\\' Ibe Hums
Lit'/!
1I.HI'-hitv ' H'-R' . !(-k Dllal King KbakiJrllll'e.
nbl.V Il -l,. II/s wl
Neb! )' Jlie!/eI'IIICslI/.
di 'III; o"il en/i0 .I' l
Neljerkhepe1'11 SI(,N~
Gll.UUI'!:() t-UR ,\RT1'"iT J(" FFFI'( :T
{@t ' li -lt
/)ik-II/)'"
bpr Coldell Falom Kbepel'
Lil '!!
jI
.......... ,\inn"
s ,' "R' ,Wnt
II
of Re
C,\RT()lICIIF ('1 r NPl\ tl:\I
brf
o/bis bod)'
fa®nuuouuo /'111'1 )1'111'
16
16
D D D<
,hd 3 prl MOlllh 3 ojPel'el
a
. ............
'"*'"10
bi,,' beIOl'ed.
Lord 0/ Ibe Tlru Lallds,
Senll'osrel.
IX-gin ni ng with rhe date , the n ame o f the mo nth e nds wirh (l 'su n ' sign~ sh owing that the wo rd refe rs to time. ' Boundary' is spelled o ut with a mixture uf alp ha betic sigm (the fi N, rh iI'd and fourth) , rc in forc ing the second, which is the hil itera l I ~ . The last two signs arc detenni·
dr -
gi"(,JlI~jil.
;()r el'el'
slabili(l' alld domillioll
scarab is written , lo r a rtistic tm p ression , before the hmvk; a n d in the secono ca rto uch e, whe re the fi rst sign" 11'51'1, refe r to a goddess, so a re wri tte n first, hut read last. DFTFR\ tl'ATI\ [ SICKIFY ING nF()(iRAPII1r.AI. f"TIn'
ir/ bntI //Iakillg (b )) his majes/ )'
tnh- dd - ).v s
eli
SII - w srt
Q"I- D
~
x
IIh-f 5W)'
RILATFR ,4.. 1 pr REINFORCH) WITH \\lITH A[PII A HETIC r L[ I>...
,
mr!
•
a ,0
, ••• , •••
-
T he signs a re genera llv• read a, writte n, except for in the (j rsl ca rrollche) \VhCfe the god's na tTI e, Rrl, is writte n fir~ t , hil t read last; ill the Golde n Falcon n ame, whe re th e
~
,'C 7 ,
I
fl~!
SHUIJ,' rDREIGN I'LAlt: /\AW : ~t(JL/\ 'I."J I\.:--
<
t 5 .\~
r s)'
(a) bolllldm}, •
sUlilbel'll
r al
>
~~
"" ,
,
Heb
na ti ve , t he fi rst o( uncerta in meaning, rhe second heing a to ngue of land , showing tha t the word is a geugraphica l te rm . It is also seen in the word for'suuthern', place,1 after its n u un, as usua l in Egyprian . T h e fin al sign represents 111 0 untt-lins, a nd signifies a foreign placl', name.
The Royal Proclamation snake, This is n o t read, being a determi nalivl' Wil h SOil)€, Where (l sen tence wbhes to make a n e mphasb, it begins with a li ne >'article i.e. derived from the ve rb ' to he' . • obscure symbu lic mea ning. The seated -king dete nnina, T he ,en tence is fai rl y simply wrine n, except for the final ti ve sh uws that the i mpl icario n of rhe wh o le group is 'roya I fo refathe rs'. wo rd, wh ere 'father' includes the a ppare nt / sign , the
THE I\N C I ENT EGYPTIA N LA~ GU AGE
BOAT
II :,l( , 'J l r YII'\( ; ( :UM I'U '! L() ACT ION
I /HI
il is tbe case Ib({1
di
I
a
~
It ; w
it is Ibe Ct/se Ihal
IlIIade
(In iJlcrease
(Iball) Illy/albers
a
~
D D [
r(I'1.11.1'
ilH' .i
ROI L SlliN lr YJNG A nSTRi\( "1
>0<
• /w
0 0 0
~ --
Itlll - .; I gOillg/flrlher soulh
J'A [' YRl }~
Q ~)ft'
a
• • ••• •• ;:wwuc;.
1Ji• 1' boundal'F ,
:; ll j N Wl TH ARM
41
AS T RA\ ~ L IN THE :-il)L'TH W..l,~ IW R(1)\ J
I ~J.i
IlIIilde
<
nFTF R~ II NAl I V E
X""
./f .I1 .1,
•
57
!
>0<
~_IoY.
'it
!
,
swell
Itr flPOIf
11.1
I{'bal II,(IS ordailled
fo r lIIe
Aga in a simp le sentence, HII bUl the first a nd last groups combine bilateral signs with rei nfu rci n g alphabet>.
Th e fu t ure :-'; !:.ATU' 1>,1 ,\1\1 )11: J I:tU, II NAT l vr: .... 11()\\' I Nl; n-I AT HFA n lN(; I" 'SOY
PolL<\ 1LRAI S ,
~<
>
~ l A IT!)
m < >
~~
LS
•
Noll',
,\'()fl
•
""
7
lib
5 2)
g rl asj or
II'
}' IAN ME:\ " J'\I(; 'I'
urlllille
<
>~~~
~
\\
I ,' S.
srwdlyjv 1I'i,O shall fIIailflaill
m~ } '
T h e l hird group sh ows ho w the same sign can h ave f WO lIs(lges; the (jrst seated m a n l il:termin es t h e wurd 'so n ', the second is the ma>cu linc pronou n 'I' . The fifth group of lhis line is a fa irl y unusua l fo rm of th e ve rb thar refcr,
fl~'~ border
0 ~~NI:"""
I'" Ihis
to the future : if it is spe lled alphahe tica ll y, uctermmed
hy a bow , tr ing and the papyr us ro ll , t he laller show mg it to be an ahstrac t idea . Both adjectives a nd demo n str
Pel ERM INAT IVF O F .'\ \'rl)\ IAl\. l i l\ 1/'\( , RlRI H
)
o
.
s}.1
1'11'
a SOil of , mille
is (be)
1"111.1( >1')/ ll'/)O is !;om
The th ird group shows hL)w the passive is wr itten in Egyptian w ith il inserted into the middle o f rh e ve rb the l'n ' i, frequenri y left uncertain . The last gro up wmes the first pe rso n \\l it h rh e sign uf a hmvk o n a perch, in
II
hll1 .1
0/
III)' /Jl!rsoll
cont rast to t h e scatcl,.,! man lI~L'd e lsewhere . ThiS is hecause t he king was an inca rn a tion of th e hawk goJ H o nl< and th e te rm ff "'", a speCIfic design atio n o f the king himse lf.
'l:.liA J1\ '[ PRFF1\
fM
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a
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II
s ~ .J
no!
SOli
uf III ille
77" ... .'iLL_
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'it
•
Is
II
ms .I(W)/
IS
IU
indeed
1101
/l '/)o is hom
indeed
o/me
Th e same 'prospect i\'e' verb fo rm mer'lliu ncd ahove again appear< in the third a nd fifth group, o fhier uglyp hs in this line. The latter is interesting in t h at rh e ve rb 'u r'
means 'to no t', a concept alien to English language structure . A more no rmal negrH io n, lIsing the prefix 11, is found in t his fin~ lli ne.
I
58
T H E I I IEROGLYPI I S OF .A~C I DJT EGY PT
CHAPTE R III
,
Lis ts, Staries and Ins crip tians , ,
II:I\O(;LYPII H : SCRIPT <1 nd its dilTCi deri va tives were in use on
the ha n b of the :--J il e for m orc than 3000 yea r,. D uring this
Belvw: Statile oj Khacfre. Thi.~
I, I
I, ,
U!onc.iel-j"ltl piece encapslllarcs the HllljeSI )' and confidence uf the Old Kingdom Wyna.l [ics Ill-V I), H'hu.:h s~t nl0Sl of lht:' norms of ERYptian .IUCiel)' .
lime they were e mpl uyed fill' a wide v<1 riecy
of
pu rpose"
ran gi ng fro m 11ll)nUlllCllLal insc ripti on of 1h e tnust sacred rc li giclLh import to laundry. Ii'l s and tO uri st gra ffiti. Many differenl m ate rial s were u>cd as writing ,urface,. The most pertlla ' nent doc um e nts were Gln'ed in to stont" t h e \I'a lls of bui klings, frec-standing slahs known as ~tc l ae, or the living rock. Aim,," a ll suc h compos iti u n s IIsed the form al hieroglyphic scnpt, except itl vcry btl' times, when carved exam· pies of hOI h hie ra ti c a n d cle m m ie are t" h~ found. Hieroglyphs were ;,1,0 \I ielely used "" p a ll1tec1 su rface" slic h as plaste red \\,;,Il s and ite m s elf fun enlry equipment. III s"me cases, h"wever, lung religious tex l, mi ght be \lTill e n out in hienl1i c, Llsing a pen, [ prllperly painted in o rten extremely cle raikd hie roglyphs, hUl t h e intl'riors t'req uenLly fea ture aredS in which ,I p:l ni cui:u, cx tensi , 'c, co llectio n crf religioLls ,pe ll s (t h e C:o((in Texts) i, ",Idecl in hieratic in illk, Llsing a reed pen. H icr:llic was th e scrip l used for 11)().\1 eve ryday l' urpL"'''' Ihl' prinCipal ll1 e Ji a be ing ostt:lk;, (fragm e nts of pollery or limeswne), while-
I
\I'ash ed wooden wr iting-hoar,l, :l llel papyrus.
I
I i I
A
C H RO NO LO GY OF LITERATURE
AKUI.II C PERIOI) J)maslics I- II • 3050-2(,60 III. Lab,'ls: .,/lor! utSt'J'ljJ/ioJls ollli'
I I,
OL I>
KI.~GI)O~I
Dm;Jslies III-V • 2660-2200 H( 1~ )'/,{/lIlld
Te.,I,\' 1'11',,'/ biof!./'{/fJbies
FIRST IKTEKMEDl>l:ll PERIOD Dvnaslies VI I- Xla • 2200- 2070 Be /Jecrel!,\' BJOgrapbit:'s
THREE M I LLENNIA OF WRITING
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Above: Dj"'er's Ste[J P'TClmid (It S1U{'Iant, Ihe ance,wr uf ail/Jyramids, sigr[(l.lled Ihe bm }, monlllnt'lunl SlOne architecture in Egypt. The reiR" of Kin!: Djmer marked a
or
~lIDDL E
KLNGDOM
Dynasties Xlb- XIJI
2070- 1650 BC Coffin Te.rls, Siories, Wisdolll lexls L't)Frl:'>. OJMI:NKABU
mlljor rechntl/tlgiw/ and [)otitic,,1 .Ite/> forward for EIC'[)[. The end uf years uf civil war ailulllcd ra/Jid /n·ogre.l.s. made
manifest by the begillnillg of Il,,, large· scale tlSe uf swne
NEW KJ NGDOM
TIIIIID INTER· MED IATE "E IIIOD
r. R~ F.CO· RO~/;\N
I)slla.sties XVIII- XX • 1550- 1070 Be Book Q/"liJe LJead: 'Hislwica! ' lexlI
DV I] 'L'i lic:-. XXI- A')..'\! •
PlOlcmics
1070-664
'0 HI'.. '"[reo,HUN
BC
.Hlljorll!)'liJo!O!{lCa!
lexls: COl/liHUe Ihrolt!!.b Lllie Period, IJ),IIt1s1ie.s XXVI-X'(X{,
PEH IOD
Romans 30 Be-,\!) 395
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G'reek il!f/llellce Kl)}.j,\N ~ \U ~Il\1Y
MA~K
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Ab"ve: Th e , ,,,,cwory o[ Subl, ond Haro1leril at I\om Omho. completed hy Ptolemy 'XII , jClIher Ih" last (; reek ruler of Eg:>ln , Kleo/)Qtrll VII. Ailee Ihe decline ui the N t' tV Kinwlom. Lite hisu)T} of ER}'f)[ tum marl<.ed /ry her increllsing .~ LdJJel nun lU fom~i.~l1 pou en. L'llInI(I[eiy, the cmml'ry was wken (wer b)! th e C-;re2ks and
or
I
[hen lvas incorporated iTl w lhe RI)J7wn Empire, Nel'<'nheiess ,
muiinon,,1 temple" to the old gods
.~ lI ch
chis une, L'U!Uin lled to he /",ili , I
lIS
.A. , We IHIIIL: "j,'endy SCL:1l (see l)(l,~e 2 I) the first examples o f whal mighl be termed 'proper' Egyptian texts come in Dynasty Ill , coinciding with the imrodll el ion of ll1()null1cnml sto ne huildings inw the a rcha",o logi cal reco rd, By the f(' Lllld81i on of l)yn ,,,ry IV, "rCllln,1 " century Imer, rhe wrinen Llllgilage was appr()aching maturity, with much mo re extensive narratives being written and, lrll)re impOr1i llldy, s ur\'i \l in ~ to thl: present day, At the san1C tim e , othe r manifestations of Egypt's culture wert' reaching their first high spots. Thus, the Old Kingd()m (Dynasli es III- VI) wilnessed the building of the vasl l' yral11ids at Dahshur and Gi za and their small er, but brilliantly ,lecll rmed, sliccessor, , II .A.husir and Saqqara, together with sc ulptu res thm re main all1L1I1gst the masterwnrks of Egyptian 3rt. IN SCRIPT IONS FOR. THE GODS
EX
THREE :vI11 . LlN K I /\ OF WR I TIN( ;
61
PArER~ FR OM PL AN TS P,APFR pruduced frum the fthrnu~ stem of [he p"pyrus pl " nt (f:YPCrttS papyrus), a l11emher ,If the >c,l~l' fa mily, The lung ,rems " re sliced up, Ihell Lhe slices are idid ~lCro~~ each urher to fn nn () Irwt. and P/\I'IRlh IS A
plflced in
rI
pl'e.;;s (\) pnll..iuce:J
highly M,:orviccdble wririnf,.!
mater ia l. Th e earli est (tl ninsc rihed) example uf a !",!,yrllS roll cume, (r"mLhe Dyna, [y I tomh of Il e ma ka at
Saqqara; th e mrlrcn;:d re rmlilh:d
III
U ~l' utl til Ara h
Lime>, IoU LLhell di>"ppcared \Vlth rhe ext incti nn or Lh e pt1(lyru" plant in tgypt. H lIWC\Tf, it '-.u f viveo ;n the Sudan and elsewhere In the Me,li lerr:lIlcan , cln J is nuw gn,l\\'!1 cUllltncrciully in Egypt to prnv ill e paper (ur Lhl.' f\) urbt markeL.
Above: /)etail from I he Buwnical Temple tl'ilhin rho! Gre(/( Tc m/>le of Anum , Kanw{"
DmLI roOS t
III "
/J(I/,yn" rhicher.
Left: Sphlllx of A"w"""har II Afu-' r (1 ('C'JlII O'"\. (IT mon..' uf ch,.'ii ,
"
-
\('(lr, the Middle Kill J"lll (D)'llasties 'X Ih X III ) markcd "
oI ccnrTu//)(}H'c'T. and I I second flowering oI ESC.I'! '~
re.>;wratirJll
civili,aLia1l Till, , tJilinx had a cheqllerccll1iscoT)', h~nH! in:)l:nh~d hur/I Jur irs llwkcr and rln\'(' mll"h larl" kin!{s Eg'/JUllll ,.,tI,,1'I "f,cll ll~\ llr/>ed thcil /)redrcem 'n ' monument.":, t1nd thus WI jllscrd}~d name It/Jon an ubjec[
dues
nOI R,IWTlfJItl:'c.: irs dtUl.:.
62
TilE I I I ERO() LYPI-l S O F ANC II·N l
EGYP T
Above: The pylun-RQleU'(!y of the temple of Luxor. It ,,/as adorned I" a p£llr of vbdlsk< (nne of " ,hieh is now in Paris ) cmd WI accmml of Rmneses 1f's harde of Qade.,h , In Syria .
-
Above: Scene from the H' /Justyle Hall . Karnak . Hieru~l)phs scn ed a.l calnions for a temple .lfene , in thi.' case \('hh the kmg l11akin,l! COl u(feriJ l,Q fO Am ltn-It!.?, King uf the G"ds. The hicmgl)'/,I" giw Ihe namC!i and utlc.~ of the lJrur.agunisLS. Tile king \(Ia.' ,"'i~ina ll~ labelled a, Selhy I. IlIH his carwuchc" u'l!n~ later changed w chuse 0/ Ius sun . Rame.lc.' II .
Below: The rnmb of Rameses VI. Fur 111(01)' Ct:'11 II LTies , the inL('nurs of rO~(1{ lOmbs wer" sImple, and largely llIlado1'l1cd. Il~wc.,er. they luu/ ele"duIJed into cumlJil!x ~ nies uf elaboratd~ elecuraled comdors and chamhers I"
Dvnasric. < XIXXX. -
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Te mple norma ll y fea[UrcJ two kinds of sce nes a nd texl". O il(: showed the kll1g di splny ing hi , prowess aga inst Egypt 's e ne mi es; the o ther dep icted Ihe monarch making offe ri ngs to lh c lelllp le gCllb, "ccompanied by Iex t s descri bing the rilllal" and someti mes lengthy m ythologica l inscriptions, inc luding h ym ns a nd narral ives re l"ting to [he rel evant Jeities. Suc h tex ts are parti cuhll'ly commo n in te m ples of lhe Graeco-Roman Pe ri od. O nc exam pl e , in the Ic m ple of Horus at Edfu, g ives a lengthy account 0 the wa r be l ween H o ru s a nd hi s u n c le, Seth; the inscripti o n, ca rv ed in lh c . ecund century Be , conmim cchoes of a c iv il war in Dynasty II , 3,000 years e'lrl ie r. Th e majority of te mple-ca rvings relate to th e Lla ily c ult o f the god, in • which thc king is sh own as princ ipa l I •• ,,((ic hml, alth o ugh in practice a high (J -.. priest would have laken hi s place. From IheM:, it is possible to rec o nstruct much of the 'da il y li(e' u( god in hb Icm pl e - d ressed and fed regularly, a nd carried in procession o n .-.. grcaL (ea,r-days.
-
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Above: Scene from I he fllilerary eha/Jei of ,he \ " ~,a Rnmos(' , ·who n,mri,hd in (he reign of Amenilole/, 1I1 II shuI(" " noblemall', II.tnf!ral, wirh sen 'Qn[' Gn'rying his possess IOn :, and (/ cruwd of Ilrofe.I.,innnl femak mnur-ncr.'i. ()ncc.' a~(U n ,
rhe
hieroglyph.1 /lrnt'tde ca /,l
Lhe t'l 'ellC~.
Left: The .ltela of Sell1l","r OJ DYllaSI) XVIII . The focal /'0;'1/ of a "haile/mI.l il.l "cia - indeed, for 1I1i(ull" cum ina" ,d,wls . (heer chapel nw:, hal'c bt!cn nu mIJrr chan a shei(er for ,h" " da Th" ((slially fo(((lIl'ed (he Jeeeas,'J ill frnm of a /ahle ui uffcrm~., sumetinh?.li accompmllt!d b," membte,., of theIr fallu/,; !Ire belie{ ",as l/cal by helllg aC/l, cted, c<"r:: tilmg would magically he .I!I/J/l/i"d ttl lit>.' dec>.'med in the nex( tI arid .
64
TilE HIER OG LYPII . O F .A.NUENT EGyrT
THE
TEXTS
OF BU RlAl
A LONl~"[[)f THll;,E
pyr~midl\, formed only part uf t il\,,' whuk~
fl1110ngsr otlr 1l1ll~l nLlITI('rn\l~ "'lIrviva l~ of
magln d machille that \Vas th e r:gY r t i~n tt l1 ll h, Fdr below grcltll1d Wrl S rhe hu rial ch" ml'c r in which the cmh,hnc'd h"d\'•
fro lll the temp le, nf Lhe gl).]S. texts frulll (ullera ry Cl)nreX rs arc Egl'Ptidn textS. Idea ll y. •111 Egyptian tumh
(ompri ",ed an ab(l\· ...,-g n.)und n ff("ring: ~
Gbt:~ W::h
place and a subt er ra l1 CH I1 hurial challlhl'r. T Ilt.: (unner rrmge frum a hure ~te l ~ t l) cl)mplext.:';:: df rOOI11S, ei lher hllllt intn rhl' C,lTC of" lIla,taba (I'ench -shaped tUlllh),
::let eith er ~I~ ... ltrec l C{lp fl On S Oil rhl' 'H,:li\'lt i E'!l depl cred, or ~ll l'p l~' ing Il'lrlgic formulae to l'n~lIn: the . . afe pat-sage
w,)!'l d heyond . The>c hedlillrull y decnmteJ ch"l,d" ,II1d their roy"1
tn, (lnd ex istcnce ii'l, the
cqu iva lenr" the temp l c~culllp Jc.xt':-. that ... ro()d r eforc thl'
To,,: TlllI[)Jw,\e IV offered Ihe sil,'11 of /ire by Ih" goddess lhe IVes!. The scene form., I)MI of
or
ur
the cxtcm rve decumtion rhe kin).!'s 10mb in {he Valll':Y of til l! Kings, where lhe nme-hal/uwed I)~ra1llid ttJltS
df~cardt?d
cOllct'aimenr .
In
jat'nur
of
Below: Coffin of r ash"rh,m" .."shch (D~' ,,{(>[~ XX II ), .:nt'cred • tllfl h didne images and lticrng/~/)h.\. The Imloir sl)el/ed oa[ lhe magic forn",lae t/WI ell.\J
Ihe afterlife,
U ll t
with lists of offcf1n~s to tiustain l he deaJ, Late in tile' Old KlIlgd olll, ,"ch Ii"., begin lo appea r Inl\ ide the recr;:) nguiar wooden c,lfi ns thm hou.cd thc' bock• In "dd it ion, co ffin::, hUft' lh . ., I,:arlie q ve r. . inn s l)f n !:IlarH.h:mJ offerin g f{)rrnul a that was to
ur ca rv ed i nt o a rock e~C(l rprncnr . (:u lminnring in the slc l8, "nmefltnc:, 111
the furm of a 'fal ,e clone', that , cr\,cd '" thl..' ~'ll irH nf interface h(.:[\\'l'l'n thb \\llrld an,1 the next, the>e dld pels were J ewfflred with a wid\., ntnge of scene!-! 'ihllwing the agriclI ltliral a nd indu,triallile or the CO '''''!,)'. The .. tela ilnt! these ~ccnc~ :Jl . . ~\ hurl." text-. 111 hi ~ r()gl yph!>, th,H
eterlli l Y. III on ly a few thi ~ r(')n m dec\) tTLtcd , uSlIully
was rl') ... Ieep
hecume uhiqu itous
111
Egyrtian (uTlt'rary
contex t>. Thi> i> the I)[p di n,,", which magi c..: all y pn. . ,vld ed th~ defld wirh erern:ll S ll ~ll· ll ~lI H: t' . Fl1U I1,..! d11'\'IIIQh nllt Egypri:111 hisrury, it has ~I n umher of \'nrtant.." I. . ut <-I tyrit.:al l'XLI II I I'k' fun:: a::ofoll"ws: ' ~",al offering to I the god I Osiris ... thac he 111(" Riw offerings comi,,,in!: of bread " nel heer, oxen (lnr/ [
Rod In 'es, '" Ihel/)iril of th~ Jec"'''Ied NA."~E·. Duri ng the lvtil.klle K i ll l!doil l . mo re px l t fhtVC fu ne rary in::,criptiulb hegin to ht:~ fOl ll1l1 , heginning with tilt' 'com n Tex t . . · I wr irren Oil the 1I1 tcriors of wuuden cuffl n:-. rl nd deslgn~1..1 (l) .1id tht' d...'ad Pl..'rsC)fl'Sj ... lurney into the nex t wurld , Thb wa~ envb8ged as heing ro the wesr
of the WllrlJ ,,r tht' li\ ing, ,,,,eI tn reach It the dcad haJ tt l t' l'hlllre many dcJngers, By lilt' lim t' u( the New KingJum, a t:ullIpi t' tL' guiLiehtl()k rl) the journ ey hnd been prl'rClred. T h b W~h referred to dS the 'Bu(lk Cum ing Forrh hy Oay', hettcr knc)lnl today as th .. 'nook of rhe lI ~lI" lI y inscrihed nn <1n ill ll,mlted papyru, DeaJ', It
ur
w,,,
TIIREE MI L LENNI A OF WRITI NG
65
Right: The Ilyramid of KhaefTe CH Giw. Fllllt'WT) l'/zapeis could l'it/z<,r
be Clll In the rock eSCar/'nlent , huilt into a hcnch-sha/lcd .l tTl/crUTe J
(I
maswba, or bl!
(,ompleteh fTee swndmg. The firsl. tWO types can he .\een here, on the .\oUlh -e
ro ll , bur wa, also fo und o n coffin< and the walls o f the ~o mb , It Icd t h e dead thro ugh the jo urn ey wesr, gi\'i ng Lhc currec t responsl' to tho~c whu guarded th~ ga te!;; ~ I\) n g rhe WflY, and cu lrnina red in the decca~t'd \ tria l befo re O, iri" King of the Dead . O nl y lh me who had led agl'o d life wo uld be' " lIc'wed into t h e world of e re rniry. The heart was regard ed as th e scat of memo ry und intellige nce, and tll test tbe dead person it \vas \Ve igheLI agains t a (eather - the hicru· g lyr hi c symbo l of N1<1at, godrless ,sf trurh. Ii rh e sca les balal1<:ed, a ll wa, well; if n o t, the heart was thrown t<1 (l I11n nsrer, which are it and cCIf1d cmo('d thl; ::Dll i to wander for e rernit y. flut rhis wou ld neve r happen: the illustratio ns in the Bouk of th e Dead sh o wed success, and according to Egyptian belief, if something was sh o wn h aprening, hy m;)gi c it did happe n . Thi, id ea lie> behind many images in ho th to mbs and te mpl es, gua rantee ing co nrinui ty for e ver. The written word had s imil ~lr imporrance: as lo ng ~s (l pe rson';:; natne su n h'ed in writing. the y lou survived. To be utterl y forgl)tten waf, a pe rson 's real death . During the New Kingdom >mel 18re r, many n th er funerary ~ book~ ' grew ur, w ith differenr rhe mes, hilt srlll w it h tb e iment io n of cas ing the tran, itio n between the rwn w{)rlds. Most books fir::.t appeared in the l l) ll1b~ ot the kings, a nd o nl y la ter spread ro their subj ect> a t ~II level, uf ,uciety.
Left: Ne'" Kin,gc/om pal)YTl ls uf Amenemsuf. From rhe New Kingdol11 nnwards, the mumm y wa.s ustlally eqlliPIJed with an illllsn'med /Ja/Jyn<.1 rIllilmowl1 a.1 the Bool< of the Uead. Th is wQS a 'gujckbuuk' Jur rei/ching the next world , nonnally tmitten in hieral ic. This de",il .,how.1 jOllr guardian.1 of the dead, imown (l\ rhe Four Sons Homs, fru m the right Illlse ri , HallY , Dualll1lref
or
Clnd
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68
THE HI E ROGL YPH S OF Al' C IE NT El;Y PT
UT OBIOG
A bove : Thwm use 11 1. Ourill?: the New Kingdom (Dynn.,dc.1 :XVI1I- XX) , Egy/lt became a world power. Under Thwmo.,c III, her empire and collectitm of smellite states extended from northem S)rJa to tlte heart of the Sudan .
Previo ...' pages: \~'all beanng the tlll tobioR"aplty of Ahmose-sl-/banQ Qt EI-Ka b. It recounts his role in the mtrs of libermion nI tile
begimlin,g uf the New Kingdom, III which the Palestinian I hksos kings were expelled frum Egypt.
PHIES
BesiJes malerial relating to the afterlife, buri ul-pl,lCc, also contain ed some of the earli est length y 'cclil ar compos itions. These are the autob iographies ometimes indlldeJ by official in their tomb-chape ls. Th eir primm'V PllrP'''C i, to glori fy the author, p:lrti clI l!n soc iety. In spite o( this less- than-,)hjcctive <1ppn ae h , useful factual material ca n oft en be glea ned. O ne of the mos t irnpori
TI I REE MILLENNIA OF WRITING
Osiris: 1 celebrated thc grea t gOing-forth, 1followed the gud CIt his going, and caused the shil) to ,\(Iii, Thuth steering the sailing, I eqLtiiJ/Jed the barque Id rh a chapel and affixed (Osiris) '.I heLlutifi,li adormnems when he (Jroceeded w the district of Peqcr. 1 cleared the ways of the god to his tomb before PeqeL 1avenged Wennefer that da)' of the grea t fight ; I uverthrew all his enemies upun the sandbanks uf Nedy r: I caused him to (Jroceed into the g1'cal barqlle, 1t raised !t(J hi.s heauties, I nwl
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Works of Faction? Anorhe r all whillgraphy llf th is general perioe\. now 1,)sL, ma y have formed the bas is for the 'Swry of S inuhe', o ne of th e classic, of Egyptian lite ra ture. The ex iled S inuhe, a counie r of A rn ene mh "t I, wanders the dese rt, is befrie nd ed by l:\eJ ouins, has ma n y adventures, is fina ll y r"rdon~d wh en a new king, Seso tris I, comes to the Lhro ne, and re'u rn, to hi s bek)\'ed home land, In iUi vivid de tail and general 'feel' it clearl y dive rges from sLandard tomh autob i· ographi es, yet it fo ll o ws their hasIC , tru cture and is eIthe r a pure ro m anc~ II sing rhe tc"diti o n,,1 a utobiograph y as a literary d ev ice, or S inuhe's ge nuin e tomb insc riptio n greatly c1 abor" , eel - ei th er ' IS a work of 'fact ion', o r a ge nu in~ nmnt ri ve fcom whic h a tomb inscriptio n m igh t have been c dir~d Jown . A sim ilar example, from the re ign (If Thullnose III (Dynasty XV lIl ), descri bes th e ca J1ll1r~ of th e Pa les tini an town of Joppa by Ge nera l Djehllty, whose romb (now Im t) seems to have been a t Saqqara, Hi, , I r"l "gem of smuggling h is soldiers imo the city, hidd e n in hlSkets ca rri ed by porte rs, survh'es in" fo lk-ntl e , hut is prohably based upo n a n origi nal to mh inscription.
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Above: The dramnllcnllvlunlled fUmh.l of Meirivat~ LOmb) are oftell banal, b,u a feu' are
of considerable mU'res' and this vne cOllw.ins the accowlf
of how Subn; jUHrneved the
Ea.Ii{Cnl
I )CSl'n
Il1W
IU Terrier.:'
the hody of his dead father and pUlI;sh I,is mHrderers, Below: Abydos , ,he scene of the '1,,,s.lion I,lay' dt?scrib.~d 111 I kltemufret's (llIwl)l,,&o'aphv, The great hrick morlHa'" em'lUSHre
of Khasekhemu,:,
( DynGSI y 1/ ), slLlnd, abO! e the wadi in which muSI uf Ihe anion occurred.
70
THE HIER OGLYI'I I S OF A'IC: I ENT EGYPT
Soldiers' Tales
Belvtv: Scene fmm [he firsr pylon of Ramese_, HI's mortuary temple ar Medinc[ H"b". Kameses II r smire.' hi_, enemie.l before [he gud Amtlll. They are held rugerher by their hair, while the killR raises hi.1 mace abo"e his head_ The king's carwIIches are paniCtl/arly deeply carved, I>erha/>" (1.\ a defence against thuse who migl[{ wish to usur/> ,he relief m
the future!
Warriors' autob iographic, from the early years of Dynasty XVILI provide much useful detail. In particu lar, tex ts in the tomhs or :m army ,,(fice r, AhmosePennekhbet, and a nava l offi cer, Ahmose-si-lbana, at EI-Kab re lan.: to th eir service in the wars of Kamo 'e ,lt1d Ahtllosc I that liberated nonhern Egypt fro m Palestinian rule. General Amenemhab, in his tomb at Thebes, provid es derails or incidents from the campaigns ofThul-"" ,se III , including one when he saved th e king from" charging elephant while ou t huntin g in north Syria. Such informative autobiographies hecome less common in later times, most ex ample, being more conce rn ed with th e offi ces held hy rhe aut hor, and how high he stood in the f
THREE :vtIU . I'Ni':I A OF WRITI NG
Above: Fig/II
,(~n e
71
from a
tomb m Saqqara. A nlllnba
of U /d Kingdom tnmhs Q1'e dccorateJ with scen~.'; of bOQtmen cm"r)'ill,g Olll nw(k
barrles. />res IHnah/y fnr Ihe c!1lfcrl(WlmL'nt oj che re,liiJc..'11[ of the l<)))l/J. Left: A model anm 01 EgY/Jrian ' /)O(l1111Cn fOllnd III the tomb vf Mesehri, II Gupernor nf A.~yU/ durin/.! Uynas [ ~ Xl . The wmb aLIO contained a Iroo/,
of N lI hi(ln
so/d,ers. The (1{)t ernOl s uI the lIomes (jmlt Illers) of M idJ/,' ER\'/JI U'er~ h~""i/}' inrt1o/t1ed in Lltl' civil tran rhc.H 1P{lged (h~ ring cite Flrq l11 lc!rT1h!LiilllL'
PerwJ.
72
THE 1-1 1E R 0 l; L Y I' H S 0 F .A>J C 1DIT E G YP T
I STORICAL INSCRI PTIONS
Above: Til e LOmb of [ile nobleman Il t'kilmire ," Ltt,()r. A pm.::t'.",ir))] ()f peuple brin)! ([I)t" , i['u)), and leullard" I~'ss lblc
trihlltes from E~rypt 's
1c.!.Ii.~~r n~ighb()!lrs .
Below: Thwm ose III smiting hi!J t' Tlc HlfCS, from (he {em/J/e (If Anllm-nt' '" Karnak. All E&",prian 'hIStorical' texts ilad a IJrupaganda role, and rhe hucmirm here '1Vm ro shuw rht' king\ d()miniun uver borh E&"'{Jr and [he o[l[side work! ,
Length y roya l 'historiu d' text, selJlllll ' lIrvivc from doe ea rly pe riods of E,~yp r ian hislory, The term 'historica l' is used adv isecll y, since it is illlport<)nr to und er, tand tI'H1t kings did nul leave records l) f their deeds as records fo r posterity. Rather, monmchs c(ll11l11issi(ln ed 'eXI, 111<1 1 deI1l0n' lr;1Ied how lhey had fulfilkcl the cos mi c role e,f the king: to mainta in cO>111ic meier, defeat Egy pt's enemies and provide I'll!' Ihe ell It of Ihe gods, to name bLlt a few of the more illlpUrLanL royal tasks. These inscr irti ons often ,Iesc ribecl a kin g', ,let iviti es as an iliustrati,)J) Dihrtllary templ e of Pepl' II of I )ynasty VI al Sa4L!ara lhere i, a rei ief of the king smiting n lih ya n chieftain, wh il e the latter's f later, in Dynasty XXV, King TahmlFI h shown at Karnak. smiting th e se lf-same ch iel, whilt' the \'ery ' allle members of his family look un . Th e I;ltges l body of 'histo rica l' texts comes from the New Kingdolll , wh"n the kings of Dynasty XV III eX lenJed Egyprinn ove rlordship into the heart of th e Sudan, and as far .) the Euph rates in Syria, 1vLmy were "~ I up in lhe: gigantic temp le of A mun -Re, King of the G ods, at Karnak, either on th e w,d Is of the temple, or on free-s tanding rtlund -toJlped stela e. Among th e mos t info rmat ive are th D,e ofTh utllt osc III. und er whom the Egyptian 'Empire' reac hed its greatest extent , Hi s in sc ripti o n s a re less slllothered in rhe elahoraLe rh eto rica l fl ouri ' h es that frequently hinder the understand ing of ot her examples, and doey allow US to trace th e prog ress o f hi s military campaigns in so me detail. Nev e rth e le ss . poetry W , IS
,
THREE MIL L EN'JIA OF WRITI£'(o
useel withll1 ,Jne ,)t hi, stelae from Karnak. The text is coucheJ in thl! tfRalll"s", II (Dynasty XIX), in particular th at whi ch culminated in the Battle cl Qadesh (c.1285 He ) againsl Ih <: Hiuil C, in Sy ri a. Two haslc versi() n ~ of the narrali ve ex isl, on <: couched in a 'p\)etic' form, and they can he found on the walls of at leaH fiv e t<:llIpl <:s, 'IIlJ <)n papyrus. .A!though th e h;lll k nea rl y endeelll1 di saSIl!r for th e Egyptians, th<' insc ript icm5 purpose is mad~ c le,lI" hI' rhe su perhuman srrength and ski ll atrrib uted to the king, who is crediteel wirh single -handedl y turning th e ti ,1e of the h'lll k . Amongst b rer royal tex ts, the stela of the Nuhi an king Piye (Dynasty XXV) , fn,," N ;1 p;ll ;l in the Suda n, sran ds O Ul. It rei ares Ih e cnnquesl ofEg yp l hy Ih e rul er of Nuhi a, reversing th e trend uf hi stllry, which had normall y seen the S\ll ilh ern counlry ;,uhjugnted by Egypt. Ils II1h ahila llls were nol well regarded by their nort hern neigh hours, a ste la <>f Senwosrer III (Dynasry XII) frolll Sellln a (see also rages 56-7), lhe n lhe EgY Plo-N uhi an borde r, and now in Berlin, srates rh at a N uhi an .... listens, co [all at a word: Tu answer him i.~ lCJ mal
73
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Ahow: 1'~/1J1l VIII of
R"(lcc ways uf cll" pnncipa/ wm/,les wert! r>rinh''\Ill'S for In-uJJClgandi."i t inKTI/lfI(}ns . BeLow: T},,' 'pu
scelae. placed arlilmd the uwin !!!rnpl,-,s.
74
THE HI EROGLY PH S OF AI'CIEI'T EGYPT
-
HRONICLES
Above : A basalc sl"b recycled (is the lid [,r the smCUpllt1glls of An'dl11es{Jcl'Y "lilt., Dyna.lt' VI ql
Below: Tire 11".in Canon of Kmgs. Although i[ is [he most comln'ehcm;,'e chronicle duc",nen l. kll own 10 dill e, sct'cre damage has le.ft it 1(.'i [}]
. gaps. many JTIlmaung
An excq)[ion tu such highly parli ..rI °hiSinric,d' I'e xt,
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Left: The temple of Selhy I, ,m, "j Ih, />"'1 pr~seT1l!t.1 ttl Eg:,-pr. If!! king iLH 1r12~ In one of
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Ihe rear <,on'id"rs of Ihe
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Oppos ite: The temple of .)clhy !
hiswrica! order.
Right : The '!-..mplc of Rame.\e.l /I at Ah~do.l . Another chro nologim! 'king •
lisl' was fOlllld here .
Abwe: ~e lh~, I (lnd his SOll. em"," Prillce Rame.'e.\ (lmer 11 ) , seen w the lert 0/ die I'si in Serhy\ len1/Jfe. I«(lme.~ es r~aJ.(j Lll)fa)4..~· from a scroll , whieh i, for tile bellejil oj the lung I", of kings uAwsc cartollcltc~ {/rt? can 'ed m }runr oj him . Allh(mgh gencmll, LlCCtl1"atc, man' killgs (Ire omitted . Some, inch"ling Ihe Jt'hole of Dynaslies 'X I 11-'X\ /I , seem tu h",,
76
T HE HI EROG LY PII S OF ANCI [ f'.:T El,YI'T
DM[ N I STRATIVE DOCUMENTS
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Above: The /Jyrumid of Sell H'osrei /J QI Lal"", . II 'U 'll$ ;;cn'iccd hy Kallllll , a ''Ulurkmen's seulemeJlr ' SIn in Lh- nast' 'X II . KahHn is
II,P
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tJn C
of (J ILf bes t S() UT CeS for
admintsrnui11t' dOClHnenLS.
Below: KahHll la, in a nou;.. de.solarc area along.side rhe v(mished valley temple, 1.6 km ( I mile) to the cast. ,'v1an y /la/lyrli.1 docliments were flJl Old in and (u/jacertl IU Ih e totl 1'l l and are not-v In •
flerlin and London.
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77
T IIR EE :VIILLEI"l'IA OF WRI1IN( ]
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records oj those accl/sed of robiling ~o me of the royal tnmhs.
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Abolle: The nWrflwr> temple comllb. oI Rameles III at Medincl H ahu , which .,e'Ted a.< the h"a(/(/lwrcers uj" the admilli,tmtioll oI the hup,e necrupolis, or ccrncwry area. at Thebe.I dllring Dynasties XX- XXI. It is lm impurtant SU UfCt' uf Joc1I1nents . most of U,h'Ch u ere Jomul in the carl)! )'ear.1i of lhe nineteenrh cemur,• . From hltre Cllll14! rht! erial
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Below: Vi/l"ge oj Deir d-Medilla. iJating frnm the Ne,v Kill,gdom, it u m [he home of [he Ulorla'l1cll and Clrtists reslJullsible fur bllilding the ro~al tmnhs ill dIe Val/cy of the King'. A ,'ast range ()f dOCWnelll5 has beell recOl
,l1. \"J.. :fY~L.eJI
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worf
la ..ished on the [lharanhs' se[lldcllTes.
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Above: Ostrltiwn Jrom Thenes . Many admillisllali1 rc: dunon t'llf~ lvere wri [cen Oil /Jal» TItS, lnlC sllt't'n
ur lime stun~ , kl1()wn a.~ m rr(d~a. 'erc "l:so used, hiermic serlin .
11
U Slwfi)l
I7Iscriht!d
In
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711
THE H I ER OU LYI'II S (IF AN
lENT EUYI'T
X PEDITION R ECORDS
Ahrwe : Tile rurnbl uf tl,,' gupenwr.s of AS1.cQn 0 11 tile Ilill oJf Q"h""r eI-Hawa
o/,/" "i(e rlleir Cley.Tlle gut enlOn wert! the &'Tl!cHf!S r explore'-' of rlleir clay,
-
wmb~
nmwin
a(tnWH.~
()f mltll'\l of then' jUIIf11t!y ...
into
rhe hcarc of Africa.
A lot c)f the 5«1t(;'\ 'ncrg y a nd resources was devo tt'd to expedition ., into che dt'se rt regions o f Egypt. \\fhe n th ei r t'xpediri on was c()mpleted, lead ers wo uld icm'c behind insc rihcd n::curds of the ir activities at the site. A parti cularl y frelJ uent desltn.:rti o n was the W~l di Hmll111
or
ficed her
Below: The Tmnh "f f Iar/
LIllO)]
the block , (( nd mane a fire .
\Vith the e ncllllncgeCllcm of thts o me n, [h e bloc k was safe ly qllarried for ic., j()llrney to Thebes. Q U
A bo])e : lnm'iprion from dIe Wadi Map;hara. Anoeher kl11d of expedcrinn rewrd is /JrJJvided by the graffiti lefe hy ,ari()J.ls '1 r wrryin~ l?X{ledicil!ns. Some oj [h ~ ellriiesc t'xlI1 l1ples arc in the Sinai wht'r~ lIIn7lluist.' 1./.'as mined ; dli'i one shott,S I
'seueferu
s la~' il1g
an enemy .
79
TIIREE M I LLENNIA O F WRITINl;
!llh er n:cords "f the quarry \\or~e". H"wen: r, frnl11 the Sec,md Inl e rilled i,lte !'eriod Cl)l11e ,Ol11e cX ln. !llleiy '! trange text". Know n
they comprise ,igm 1" ,II ,'pre
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Q/
Theile.'. Illlelldd desein" ,,()n u/ Munejl/hoe/lc IV's :,arcul)h£lgus . The Deir d· l3l1hari tl..'m ples lire wH'lIrds Ihe rigl1t , Wit h l)nt" Ul~ lU1nb
fir
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dln/"'ls Il,e N
Below: \,Vad, Hml1lflamtll, a 1n ajPr q ll arr~' in!{ area, whu:st! .'\ 1() 1lL'
u'a's JXlr£iclilariy
PIIPI/itO
for [he maJ1ltfQcwr~ of j(lrcoJ)/ll.Ij.,rj. Thl.'i rum 'tea... caPl.'cJ h) (.l',wrn1nL'n ti.'or"inR
in YeCll' 3 of PsaJll ctik II .
80
THE HIER OG LYl'IIS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
IS DOM AND PH IlOSOPHY
Above: King Khllfll, rhe h",lder of the Grt'at Pyramid m Gi~u and second ruler of Dynasty IV, In his rei~Ol Iit,t'd one of the earliest knot<'n "'
A ty pe of text related rll ali lohiog raph y is 'wisdom literature' , in wh ich the author gin', advice to hi s descend ,mrs, These rex ls are ("und Lhro ughouL Egyptian histm y, rhe ea rl iest sun'iv ing examp le pfllbably del oW' rulers" ", See now, men rebel agains r the Serpent, StOlen is the C1'Qwn of Re, who pacifies the T« 'o Lands .. , See the royal residence is femful from want" , Th e rroo/)s we raised fur ourselves have become l3owmen, bent on destroying! A si milar tone pervades a number of other types of tex t, for exa mpl e the ' Harpe rs Songs', which cast a jaundi ced eye "pon li fe and J caLh , One ,eems
-
• Above: A scribe of /)yna.l t~ V, one of lite period, !Uhen 'uisdom literalllre' flu lIri;hed _
THREE MILLENl"IA 01· WR I TING
even dlluht th e helid' in eternal life that Sc) cha rac te rizes the anCleIll E/2\,pwlI1s, and adopts the philosophy of ' cst, drink and be merry, ror l
[Q
/ hat e heard t/,~ sayings offwise men/. tI'hich are qu oted [() this day: Where are their s/mnes ' Their walls h,we fallen and their shrines arc gone. There is no one who can come back from (d,e next wor/dl to tell H.I how they fur e To comfort us until we rcach rhe /,laee where they /wve g(ln e. So ... follow your desires while you live ; Place rnyn'h on )'()llT head , cloth Y()llrself in fin e linen .. , Remember, ne cannot rake his goods wirh him ; Nunc goes away and then corne.1 hade
81
FoLLowing pages: Dcttld (/J
wall pa", f.lnR jmm f he cumbs of the workmen. A hm-per plays j()r the Foreman of the Royal Tumb workmen , AnhlfrkhQlf , and his ,dfe, Waa/', in [heir /'llrial c/wl1Iber If[ Derr d-Medina.
I
Below: Scenes of celemarion on the' Red C:hap"I ' erected by 11{f [shell.llft at Karnak.
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84
HIER OGLYPHS O F /\NCIENT I: (>),I'T
UMAN RELATIONSHIPS Ihc,c gloomy thu ughts, Egyptian 100·e so ngs an d poetry celebrate the here and n,.l\v. Egypti>l1l lll a rri ages we re mnl1lget! hetween parents In con IT", 1 10
fie/ow: The Overseers uf Ihe MlllliCl.risl; Nia"khkh"III" "lid K/mllmhctep, frnm rheir Joim tom!> at S"'i'l"r£I. The Ilafl/re of (heir re/wiulls/ll/J IS IHlCer!am , bur rhe mwge ha.I imiJllflc),
uSllally seen nn more regal. mUHwnellCS . al l
11m
while the cliu ple were st ill children, but 1cJ\·e-march es were still ideal ized. ' He -,wres me nUl when I walk by, and all alone I cry for joy; how /wIJPY is my delight with the lover in m)' sight ... '; ' Hemin!: YU"f voice is Iwmc,l,'mnarc wine, fUf T liw III hear il; every glance (of yOHrs) which rests a ll me means more to me than food ilnd drink ... ' . There'lrc many d,)Cumenrs of this kind, some of whi c h a re riddled with double-enten dre" ""nie l/l arl y with reference, 10 I.IJi es' 'J.!flH lo". R ,"hcr m()re prosaic me doclIlTl en lS rcbr ing to the details of re lationships. The re see ms to haye been no ' marri age ceremony' '" , " ch: the w, ,, nan ,i mpl y IlH'''C,J inlo
THI(E[ t-I I LLENNIA O F WR I TIN G
85
Right: LI!uI! r.' from the D)na" t) XI munltar~ -pri"st H<'qalwkIHe . The 1)('I))"'i are
ll'Ticren rn hf(~ratic . in column~ . Soon aflt:!n( urJ) , rhi$ jJHlCflce cell~ed for da) ... tn ...day JOl'lLments! ill fatluur /u) ri;;ullwt line."
ur
her husba nd ' hou 'e. H o wever, wi 11, and adoPlion; Ca n he rmeed thro ugh d ocument, fro m towns suc h as DeiI' e l-Medilh l and Kahun. One in teresling sel rdares how n childle5' coupl e purc h ased a , lave, with wh o m the hu s band f:llhcreJ " numbe r o ( c hildren, who then hecame his heirs. The re a re a l' o the usual SIl1"lI-lOwn scorie> n( dOll1esl ic 'GlI1d"l, that a ll o w us to kn o w mo re a bo ut the c iti:cns o ( De ir ,,I - Medina t"'111 rhose t1( 'lny " ther se ttlemen l o( en rl y an tiquity. Some in,li vidua l, a rc ,0 well knmvn that their handwriting al o ne is e nough tu identify a doc llll1 e nt: the Dynasty
XX scribe
Beluw: Th e tum}, of the V,~ier Ipi al Ue, r d ·B"hari . I"st left uf tile path . The prrvme (lrchil'e of hi.l Imest llcqallaklHe It'''' fUlm,/ f!I front of the t"mh, ",hae it had b~en c.li:l[(lrdcd for '\tl n k' remon h~ Heqm",khte', lon alld de/mt,.
Djhutll10se a nd his son BUldullllll n, fo r example, and Ih e rather earl ier Qenhirk o psh c t", who is e,,,ill' id e n tified hy hi:, altocio lls scri pt ! E"en ea rli e r is (he corrcsponJ e ncc se nt
hy the Dynas ty XI/XII 1110ITuary
prie t, H eqanakhl.e, I" his ,on, con:ring aspects o f running rh e family fa rm ,111,1 other domestic Issues. The s iluali on re"cal ed about the relatiun, hips within the h()usch(J k l inspired Agatha Christie to usc il as rhe basis fo r her novcl, D~(I(iI Cumes as an End!
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86
TilE I I I EROG LYPH S OF l\N CI ENT EGYPT
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TORI ES Abooc; The guds H anl<, 1m
and Osins from tile rem/,/e oj Selhy 1 at Abydn.l. O ne uf Lilt:! hc.u~ /m()um
.sturie$ from
ancien! Eg)'Pl WQS the myth u[ Ihe Kod of Ih e decld, Osiris,
I('h ieh wid vJ his mllrder b) hi, brulher, Seth , hi.1rc,me h~ his sister .. wrfe hi.~. (lnd clle 'l'Cmge(lll ct! carried OIt L lr~ his .lOll, Horlls . I
Alongside ,111 rhese wrillen sources is a wide range of stories. Most were douhtles> wid hI' public sto ry -tell ers long before being wrillen down. We ca n ofte n see this from the way thai Ihe tales arc put together, with frequ ent repeti ti ons, and a more-or· less poetic m
T H R E E Mil. I. I, N N 1A 0 F W R 1TIN G
THE STORY OF THE SH IPWR ECKED SA ILOR
•
A c1as:,ic uf Egyptian literature is the tale known as rhe 'Slo ry uf the Shipwrecked S"i1ur'. It upens with a sa ilor tryll1g ro comforr a coll eague who ha just rerumed fTUm a disastrous expedition. The sailor lells huw hi> ship was sunk in a sronn, wil'h the loss of all of ilS crew apa n from himself. He is washed up on an island where he meelS a giant sna ke. Althuugh terrifying to look "t, the snake is friendly, and the su le survivor of his family, the rest of whom had been killed by a fall ing mete· orite. Sympathizing with the sailor for the loss of all his shipmates, he loads him with gifts, and corrccLiy prophesies that a ship will pa and pick up the castaway_ The sailor enels up being presented tn the king a nd prollloted. Unfurtunately, his attempts to show hi s colleague that 'all's well thal ends well' are of no avail: the latter dismisses him with the remark 'Dun't try and he cleve r with me: who gives water to a guuse just befure it is killed?' He knows that he is to be puni shed fur hi failure (the nalure of which is nor revealed in the surviving copy of the story).
.
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,
Right: Model hDat from the wmb of the Chancellor Meketre at Tilebes. This is one of the finest eX£lm!J!es of an anefact that was common placed in Middle Kingd()m tombs.
first rulers of Dyna ·ty V, and the story was clearly composed IInder the last of them to sh ow that his (amily was o( divine llrigin. O n the other hand , some sturies are s impl y for enterrai nmcnl. More th, princes in di sglli se and qu ests for magica l items. Allegoric, such as 'The Blinding of Truth by False h ood' and OIhe", delllonstrate the victory o f gooJ ove r evi l. Sturks (cHluring i!ods me common: more than o ne tells I)f the co nil ict hetween Ho rus and his uncle SC Ih , I h e murderer of Osiris. So me of these formcd rhe hasis lor rhc : lrri c Hll'er~)[man ces during festivals, suc h as that related in the autob iog raphy of lkhcrno(ret (see pa!!,e 68- 9) .
••
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87
88
T i l l: Ill EllClGL YPH S OF l\l\ C IENT EC,Y I' T
EXTS OF MAGI C AND MEDICINE Opposite: The tem/)/" oj Sobl, and l-Jarullris ((/ KU7Il
Ombo , This relief shows t lQyinm
medil-'ld i1l:,(rHnll'll l S ,
jrom the Ptolemaic
p~,.ind ,
Below: Gn'co-Roman Period mwn7ll)', The [ gy/niam were tf..'eli known III che !HlCrenL H'ul'/d ClS "I,ysicians, T he medical/lapyri inclllde rna'" ~xamplel
vI [, remm~nL for lrallma. The owner of [h is )m lmm) I",d /osr w ) ann "arly in II!e, an il1)ltr) " 'I,,cl1 I)ad c/,'ar/)' heel1 slIccc"s!II Il)' treated . The embalmen had /)rom/ed hi») 1dth a prosthetic (1)17 1
}ur usc..' in [ite afwrlife..
In th " anc ient IVprld , t h c Egy p' ians we re rcn\)wned as ph ysic ians , and reco rds cx iSl n( Egyptia n doctO rs be ing se nt a hwad til trea t h ighl y-pl lr,l as prope r 'medi ca l' proced ures, and t hose whi c h IW wou ld dismiss as 'mag ic ', H uwever, onc ll ll'" l'e lVa ry o r mak ing such pejo ra tive di visio ns based on mode rn scie ntifi c know lecl ge , In an e ra where th e lllt'ch,lll islll of di sease transmiss ion IVa, unkn o wn , nnd existen ce of su pe rnarura l be ings was regarded as fac t , 'mag ica l' pract ices were perft'c tl y login ii . Indeed , given th e importa nce uf a pat ie nt', att itude", successful treatme nt, th e ri tuals <1me ti carri ed o ut may Illdeec! have had a pos itil'e resLII t. Th e ' re" I' m cd ic in e in th e papyri dea ls wilh inju ries a nd co n,li tio ns th a t clea rl y h ad an ex tern a l cause or m;llliicst;Jl ion , O nc of th c mos t important or ' LJ eh d ucu m ents is the Edwin S m ith S urgica l Papyrus, now in Ne w York, a syste mati c guide to th e cx mni mll ion a nd trc; llmC!ll of va rio us conditi o ns, It d esc ribes th e exa mination procedures, stmes wh e th er ll)' n or tre"t1l1 cnt i, poss ib le, ,Ill d rh cn gives inStruCli ons as lu h o w to ca rry o ut a ny trea tme nt. O th er papy ri have a rathe r less systemm ic appro
)
I
90
rHE HIER OGLYPH S OF AI"CIEI"T EGYPT
" J
II'
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•
Above : The 10mb of l.he Sreu 'ard Kheruef fmm U>nasry XVIII .Ti,e ancien l EJ..';J t)[ian.~ waC' Ihel1!.st'I1 't's
mnongst the ('m'liesl wI/rises, (md lcft their graffiti on rhe ancient m ()nI tm t'1 1l$ {h e)' vlsiwd. Here an mh . .urrittcn
hlermic graffito has been added tv Ihe can cd [al'ade of Ihe 1.U1Ilb.
THE END OF T il E ANC I ENT LANGUAGE
Th e varillUS sc ripts of the Egypt iHl1 language rema in ed unchallenged in Egy pt until the end ,)f the La te Period, when the counrry fe ll under the yoke of fo reign empire,. Fllll(lwi ng Alexander Ihe G reat's conqu est in )')2 Be:, and the establishment of the Maceclonian (, reek dynasty of the Prolemies, there waS H., tend y innu x dG rcck se ttl e rs. With the ruling class co mposed of Greeks, G ree k writ ing heGl tn e widely 1I" ,d. It served wi th ,kmoti u ls d, e ITlain adlllin isrmtivc medium, and appea red alo ngside it and h ieroglyphic text o n a num ber ui munurnen t,d decrees, such ns doc R()Sell n , lone Hnd Decree ,If _an()plls . However, hieroglyphs and hi e ra tic were by now la rgely restr icted to re ligiLll!> lIses, ~rn d it is c lear rh"t kn o wledge them hecmne more and m,We restric ted as cime went by, Te mples conrinued to be bu ilt with the ancient
or
religioll s images (lnJ texts, but th ey \vcr~ w.,ing;.J \'ersion of th e hlngurlgc that
was noll' some 1500 years o ld, and bore little o r no relatio n to the c urrent speech . A ll th ,lt kept th e ,rncicnt script ,di ve was th e religilln wh o", dogma it was usecl to e nshrine . Pre" l.rrc on [he ancient script was further increased by the inexorable spread of the C hristian re ligion th rough th e country. The las [ great , trongh llid " f paga nism was the temple-isle llf Philae, [he cult-centre of the goddess lsi, since th e Lme Pe ri ud, ,Illd it was the re. in AI! )94. tha t th e last dated hieroglyph ic imcriptio n was ca rved, 82 years afte r [he Empire beca me C hristi an. Pag
TI II\[: l: MIL L L N 'J I A 0 I· \XI It I I I t-- (;
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Aballc: Pari oj' the lem{lle III l\1lliwrn uICl in l\ll jhul. Alti1() !lgit (I2 m/)I~.\ c()n[iml~J to he Imilt In rhe anCIent snit' dllnnR Ih" KonWll 1'<1'1,,£1 . Imot! ledge of till' l1nLiL'lH -,eti/Hs &"'"dll" l1~ declined. ,
Left; The Tel1l{)/e ,If Phil"" I/Ie 11>J(I/ SlJ'(lllRhuld (if (lllg, llllSl1l
in
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• Above right: The Hadrian aI Phila~ . known hiero/:lyphic
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ulICe
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inscn/)II(J11 oj" onflqlliLY, Wll..oj:
,an cd /"' 1'0
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All
394 .
by thcn thc Ia' i demmic leXI hall also been wrinen, again ::ll Philae, in .A f) 452. Writing in Egypr was by then either in Greek or CDPI ie, and within ZOO years, increasingly in A rabic as well. Hierogl"phi c sc ript now slum bered. HI EROGLYP H S FOR T H E MODERN AGE
Ahove and below: Wiilh dlC decIpherment of ancient
£&':11)1;(111 , mure jwrhf,,1 ra5lic!.eS were produced, olle of rhe heSi heing rhe IHscri/HlO1l plt/ced llL'Xr to the cnrrQncc of the Orl?Qr r)rwnid lIC Gi~" hy Lel)sllIs.
It IV"', nlJlllntil 1.400 yems after the last ancien t h ierog lyphic in. cripl ion had heen written that knowledge of [he scr ipl was n'gained (see Clwln(')' V). This knowledge h" , hugely heen dive rted towards the swdy of texts wrillcn in ancient times. hut there have been examples of new texts heing composed. Pms ihl y I he ea rli esr D( th e"" is [0 be found at the Great Pyramid ,11 Gi"" whe re a large. we ll-c ut hieroglyphic inscription is 10 he found to the [OP right of [he entrance [0 the monum enr. Rath er th an King Khufu. the founder of the pyrmnid. it comm emorates the king of Prussia, Friedri ch Wi lhel m IV (1840- 61), and was insc ribed by the Pru,sLI11 Egypto logist Carl Richard Lepsil1~ (see page J J 9-20), who leel a great ,ci"n [ific expedil.lPI1 10 Egypt (rom l842- 5.
• •
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THREE M I LUoNNI/\
ur
WRIT I ~G
93
Since then, 'lich new texts have appeared e lsewhere in th e world, Mml spccr'lClILlI-l y, in th e 1980s, the :00 in Memphis, Tennessee, LSA , huill Its new ga le in Ih e (orm \I( ~ temple pylon in ce lehration of its namesa ke, the ancie nt ca pital of Egypt. For thi s, sch o lar, at Ihe University of Memphi s translated the :oo's Mi,sion SllIl elll cnl III I0 MidJk Egypti a", whi ch was then can 'ed in hiero"lyphs on to the favades and architraves of the gateway, a magni fice nt rClllind cr of Ihc cndllring pm"cr o( anciell l Egypt anJ its age-o ld 'cripr. Below: The fron l ia,ade lU Memphis Zou, Mem/)his, Tf!nnc5~Le.
The
;::00 's
,
mISSIOn
_~ [at cmem,
[ramlwed incl! Middle Eg'Pllal1, is colollrf"lIy displa ~ed nn the gateway_ Th,s i, per/wl)s [lt e )/11151 i1l1pressi1.'r! i.'xtl111 plt?
modem
lISe
II! lilt.?
{)f hierngly/!/\.\,
Riglu: The ['<-'manee F.:J!:Y/)[iall H a ll,l' , b"'/I for John 1-Il\'l11 in 1835 , jllSI
Above centre: M odem can ouchc al G i~a, ;vlade for KlI1g Farotl
liS i11lerl:'sr in ancien! E&,)'/n tl'W
rc-il,rylited. While Ihe
m'erall arrangement is
derl1'ed fro m Egy/J1i
rt!s l ; nO/{Se, n01.1 a
cafercria , j /,/ ,'\ l in frnnt nf [h e G rew [',,'(Onid, ,
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THE III EROU L YI' H S O F ,.>.NC I EN T EGYP T
CHArT E~
,
IV
Hieroglyphs Eclipsed ~NERA L KNOWLEDliE of rh e hi e roglyph ic ,crirt e.mtraetcd
n 'ridl y ,JlI1' in", R,"11al1 limcs,
11 5
use was effec ti ve ly limited to
the walls elf te mples, and so to tilt' n,~s tr icted wo rld o ( the p ri esLhuod, In lhe,e c ircumst,:ll1 ce, the ex isting belief h e ld hI' G ree k and l\ (lIn ,m wri le rs I h,,, hkr, )g IYrh s were somch mv ,, "n el hing more m ysteri ous th a n simple lener' gained furth e r , urp"rt, Ea rl ier C lass ica I wri rlTS hm' l< II y ' ''1'1'(>1'1 cd I h e V ICW I hat: h iclOgl vph s we re ;1 I rue sys te m of wr iting, a nd evt' n thm th ey Wcrl' the a n ee"tors o f all alph abets, PI",,, ,lt1d o lh ers ;
few G reeks ,lt1d
ROl1wm, cve n i( living in Ei!YI'[, lea rn ed the sc rip t , M ost wo uld simpl y use Grt.' c k, rhe lang uage llf gl) Ve rnnH: nt; . I few Ini,!.,!ln ven tllre intu Jcrn o tic, bUl
Above: Temple of /.\1.\ m rhilne , Wi ,h the ,·ielory of Chri"ianil y, many paRan It!.nlpie.''i were c())w ened cllIlTL'hes . H er~,
l{)
{lJe ("'1'05S J1ll~
rt!ell carved un LOp nf the
sacred
(eX 'S
of (he ClII, oj
ISIS ,
hicrogl vph s lay o utside [h ei r ' ph e re , Th u" C lass ica l sc holars con ce ived hi erog lyp h s
sy mh"li e , nOI 'cx/)ress[ingl rhe intended cOl1cc/n by means uf ~~ ll(fbl e.\ juined (llIC W mwther, <1S
brtt by mealls of Ihe s i.~n ifican ce of rhe objecrs which hal'c been copied, and b)' irs fig llralil'c mean ing thai has been imj)rc>st'Li {)" the memory /JY 1m(cliee', Thi , ,'ie w
IV
ex prc,,sccl hy [h e R o m a n hi s[l)rian l)io d o rus S icu lus, writing
in [he middle of the fi rst ce ntury Ill:,
FR.OM ALEXANDER TO NA POLEON
I I
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PTOI.EMAI C PERIOD
ROMell/ PERIOD
COPTIC PERIOD
3:i2-)O lIe
)0
_195- 640 B!!,ljiipilr/ oftbe Basiel'll h'1II/!ire, based
h:~J,/)il'lli('d /;1'
59) f.;f{J'!I{ "ute/I! {(
beirs oj'
AlexlllldPl' ilw C'lWli
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NOllltln Pru('I!lCl: A.LL\ANPtH ) HI: (i IU:\! \I n;yrTtAN < ; l' J~];, I\AIl~A~.
III 11 l'Jj'T I( '-.1'1 (j\i\ UF TI IF "-JI)
cl .... ltln \ 11
II)
on C()J/.I'IalllillojJ/e
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-.-..c_ Above: Temple CIt \Vadi dSt'b,w in N"h;a. One (If I},l' rcmr>/t:!s laeer COIl1!Cnctl ilun a ch"" ch, ;1 /wel heen originally buill h\• I\ m"t'les 1/, H'/,U had }h't,;n SIW U '11 I ljJcnnR )lot( tcrs either liele of rhe l1Iehe at the back, which hael held (he di1 inc images ,
Rig ht: Detail from Tom/,/,' m Wladl cl-SehlU" Wlhen Ihe temple t!'a < CCHl'l'(,rl cd, e ,\ ler~ tlmlR WliS
•••
cumed in w/tircwa:.;/l , and Ij figure IlJ SI Peter, Iwlding £1 ma.~.~it'1! he,)', J)ainc ed In rhe lUcile. ThL' 1t ·hw.'H'lI:J h hlts n()u I)artl~ jet/len atl'ay , leat'I7lR Lite lI/J/>earcOlcc dw[ It is til . . samt tl l}w '" Ihe r"ciplet ll of Ram".Ie,, ' ~"fI.I!
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OTTOMA.~
1lI
640- 15 17 liJt' ('''"('1'111 Alii/,
.lu I517- IR05
cOII,/lIe/'s HRI1!1 jo/'
Ihe linkis/) Su/I(/)I I-dillli IIII'ades fllld 1" \ ,R II'TH Il'- ('IF - 1lF t., \. 11111- ..\1\ ... r ,V·... .. IH. [ l \ TF Il I ' ... .;....-i \11
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Ibe Krilip/l(
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1/1(' ellllllll:1" illll) /m i:"11i/Jin! IIIC0l1)()rli/('s
\ ) \\ 1-':- \ II I I III ' TT( l" IAS J' \ -\lIll )
rr R1\)1.
•
96
THE HIER OG LY I' II S OF AN C IENT EGYPT
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Above: The Chrislian cath"dral at Qasl' Ihrim in
NlIhla. It is rhe l"sl parr uf L()WI!T Nubia lu remain "bove ille surface of 1.ake Na,ser, and nriginally LOwered OtJer the ri't 'el".
Above: ~Ul l.lle of Thorh in IllS chapel in rhe caU/comb of hIS salTed ""illl,,ls (1/ Tllnah d·Uche/. A 11t11ar gad , TllOrh was sometime:;; shown l i S ( I hahoon \('i,h Ihe cre>celll moon un his head . He Ims k"el' <'qllmed H'irh J lcrme.<.
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The re "'ere ,orne ho no urabl e excepti o ns to thi s state of ignoran ce, One was C h aire mon (jl.mid-firsr century AD) \\'ho had lived in Alexandri a, and descrihed vminus signs with meanings thar a re nor roo far Frorn the truth, although tied up in a symhllli c world view. C lement of Alexandria (C.AD 150 - An 215 ) seems to have recogni:ed the ex istence of phonetic signs, >llt-h o llgh o nly in an overall symbo li c and "Ilcgoricnl context a nd a translat ion of the tex r on al1 obeli sk at Ro me (now in th e I' hl::a del Pllpnlo) hy " certain Hermapi on in the middle ,llhe third ce ntury, later quoted by th e Ro man hi stori an Ammanius Marcel linu s (C.AD 'l 30-60), is broadly correct. H owever, hy th is time, the philosophe r Ploti nus (All 205- 70) had se t out the theory which was to underpin EuropGm hierogl yphic studies for o ne and a h alf mill ennia , Plminus suggested t hat rarhe r th an represent ing
THE MYS TERY O F THE HIEROGLYPHS
the gouse arc said
to
mea n 'mother' and 'son' , re pectively, Thi s is quite true,
but for purely phon eti c reClson s, nor hecillise 'rn ,dc vlllt-urc:s Jo not exis,-1 Of
'geese lo ve I heir offspri ng mo re than any other" The re. are a fa ir num ber of sim ilar examp les where ~ si gn\ usage is correc Liy ilicmi(i ed, a lhe it (or unlikel y reason s, hut th e re a rc a lso examples of imaginary sign s o r complete ly wro ngh eaded interpretations, It is c lea r I h"l H o nlJlOlI o h ad access to some thin g aki n to conr" CL Wilh Lh ose wh o still unde rstood h ierog lyphs, but lacked that understanding him se lf. H is work was a classic exa mple of the kind of account produced by someo ne with a pass ing aC,!" ,linr;l11ce with a suhject, hil t with our th e insight to IIndersmnd hi s limitat io ns, H(ll'apollo's work was lost fro m the end of a ntiqu ity down to its rediscovt: ry in I he ii(1 cemh Ce11lury, bU l was subsequenri y pril1l.cJ and regarded by almost all sc ho la rs as the only 'authe ntic' accou nt of t he hierog lyplh,
TH E
JUNAI55AN CE VI EW
During th e Middle Ages, interest in h ierog lyph s slumbered, In egypt, th e ab olute victory ofC hri srianir y, and its widespread replace ment by Isla m after AD 640, meant th at the o ld scripts were utterl y obso le te
97
,
Above left: Tile sarcupluzl!.lis milde ffn' tile !rut nallve E&'Y/Jtian /)haraoh, Nakhthurh eb. rh(Jf(wnie monumenrs became Ob}eCLS nf cllrimity , to hc re-!elcd where afJ/)w/Jriare , This sa.rcup}I{/KliS UNlS used as part of Lln C1bhaion fOllncam in [he Atwrin
Musq l ~t! in
Au,xanchia,
Above right: Tile Rafa! MUS41<" in Cwro, The derisi« break with the past came t<'llil the mh hwmion of Eg)'/n in ,AJ) 640 , \Vith ehe ,iew" - uf . 1slam , A wbic g"QliL
~,
Above: FHlncesco Culonna's Egyptian famalY, His inl'enred hieroglyphs lUere uf cunsichable influenct.' dllrinp, (he sixteen Lh ct'llWr)', although , a.1 may he clearly :.;een , rhey bore no
resemblance co ,he real ching
,
I
,
•
98
THE HIER OG LYPli S OF ANCIENT EGYPT
POINTl NG THE WAY THE OBELISK (frc)m the
Cl ree k for 'roas tin g spit') wa s the f un damenta l 'YIllI",1 uf the . un, its tip rcpr~'cnting the rays nf rhe sun striking do wn th roug h tlte duuds. A sq ua t example (k n o wn as th e ben-ben
stone) was th e foe ll::' uf t1 evot i o n in th e grerlt re m pie of rhe s"n -god Re at Hcliopoli,. H uweve r, m Uo t o h ,· l i,ks were (ar m ore sle nder, and ,,>tinily flanked rh e entran ce to a temple.
I I •
I
The ('a rlie t kn own exa mp le was erected hy Ten (Dynast y V I) CIt H elillp,)lis, al rh o llgh rhe oldest o ne still . ra nd ing is th a t of Senwo m ' l I (Dyna'ty XII ), abu a l Heli uPll lL~. M U~ l uhdbks \-ve re qU<=I rrh.-:d from the gran Ite of Aswrl n, ;II1J c::Irrieu l )n barges Jo\Vn~tn.'altl to tilt:
•
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Abooe: Rame,es /I 's emrance W I.he temple of
Luxor. T he obelisk', as.liOciatioru are reinforced by figures of baboo11$ on Ihe base adoring Ihe •
•
rlsrng S l~ n .
>..
Top right: Temple (I[ Karnak . The survlvml!" obelisks of ThutnlOse J and I lalshe/)SHI (Ow"r over {he central area of
Ihe tempi".
te m ples "f Thebes, Memphi" Hdi up" lis, Pir""'",e,, and oth er c it ies furth e r n" nh. The rra nsporr of o ne pai r of Karnak ohe lisb is depicteJ in the Dyn asty XVIII temple of H at,hepsut a l Deir cI-l:lah ari. It b gene rally agreed that t he actual creeri,)n r,)ok place hy dragging th e o beli sk to rh e rop of a rmn!, , helow which was a san dhox . SanJ was a llowed to escape frolll the laller, gently lowering the ube li sk imo place. A televi sed ex pe rim enr ca rri ed oll r in rh e USA has now proved the efficacy of rh e techniq ue. Obe lisk. we re generally Jecomred wirh rh e names and rirl es of th e kin g who ordered them to he e rected, together with ~L> IIl L' ~ li..H"'·lIwnl un his ur her dedi cation of th e ltl , onUIll('nt to th e gods. The exa mpl es were
I""
prod uced in Illtll1Y
The R OITIIlIl
ea rlier nhe lisk~
WeTt'
Period. during which time tran:;pofted
to R UlU e ( r fl;' -
erect i,)[\. The re, they p layed an important ro le in rh e ell ri y ;:nremprs a T deCipher ing rh e hieroglyphs.
Left: The obelisks of Ha/.Shepsl/.l are amongst Ihe besl docl
TilE :VIYSTERY OF Ti lE HIER OG LYI'II<';
99
Egy ptia n hl~roglyrh" the:"e new s igns beca me Inl ill lan:ly minglecl with spec ul ati ons re lated to th e rcn l ancie nt script, A n example: of the con fusion ()\'~r wh at constitllted real hierog lyphs is shown hy th e frequt:nt reprod uction of a n ' Egypri an text' on a Ro man te mple fri eze fro m R()l1Ie , ;tntl ,I widespread be lief th aLIh c in ve nted r hi e rog lyph s in a n illustrated r,1I11;t 'Y hI' Fra n cesco Co l o nn ~ ,I (1433-1527) were cop ie' 01' actua l itrc ri pt ions! I, During th e sixtee nth ce nt ury, 3n incrcasing numher of sch o lars • bega n to take an in te res t in hi erogl yph s. A n impo rtant st"lge was reach ed wiLh Ihe pu hli cmitln in 1556 of the Hierogliphica by Pi e rius '\ Valerianus (1477-[. 1560), a compil m ion of a se ri es of 58 of his c• , T . ' , .works o n th e suhjec t, prev ious ly prod uced sepa rat e ly. E'lch deals with a specific hie rog lyph, o r group o f hi e w ~ l yph s, and uses th e \, no w-traditio n al meLh,)d of all egory to expl ai n th e m , Exp lIllth o rs, marks its impo rta nce. I t was subseq uently reprin ted in mo re th an o ne lang";tge, a nd re mai ned a key reference so urce for it century. Th e cen tu ry a lso bmugh t to ligh t more genui ne Egypt ia n tex ts, th rough Ahove : I{dief from the telll/,Ie of Serhy I af Abydos. th e re-erecti on of a co nsid e rable nlllllhe r of obeli sks at Ro mc. These h ad been broughl Lhere hy rh t: Roma n e mperors, overLh rown at th e end of antiq uil Y, The ibis-headed Thorh, gIld of u"'iring and wisdom. rel'il'iib 'Ill d th en rediscll\'e red and re-erec Led hy a succession of Ren a issa nce popes. Ihe resurrected O,~ iris. Th e process com inued in ro th e seven teenth cenlUry; o ne of the men mos t c lose ly ,Issoc iated with th e wo rks. Alh nn"sius Kircher, be ing pc rh aps th e key BeLuw: Th e R()man 'hinh house' temple at Dend(lrQ. fi gure in the specu lat ions con ce rning h ierog lyphs in thi s pe ri od . Emperor AugltslUs. depicted as " phmaoh, make.l olfmng, KI RCI-! ER'S FLI G H T O F FA NC Y to Isis onel her sun. I lnTiL'. ALh'lIl "sil lS Ki rcher (160 1- 80 ) IVas a po IYIll" th. whose interests covered " Egy/JCian cults, especially fhm whole range of scienti fic and hUIII ,mi ,'1 suhjects. ll is inte res t. in Egypti an antiq- of Isis, spread to Rome itself. uities was k indled hI' seeing a book cllnrai ning p ictures of t he obe lisks in R o m e, w hi c h i n sp ir e d him to arrelllpt ro decip her t he ir insc riptio ns. H oweve r, his first work on t h e Egypt ia n language was foc used on Coptic , man uscri pLs ,md kn mvl e,lge of wh ich h ad begun to come to th e west ea rl y in t h e seve nt eent h century. Kircher had heen e nuu ted with th e puhl icat ion of manusc ript s brought back hI' Pic trll de ll a Va lle (J 582- J652), an Ital ian noble man and trave lle r, and produ ced ,Ill int rodu ct ion ro t he Copt ic ton gue in 1636 . A l t h o u gh a numb e r 01' Kirch er's conclus iotl" were tncorrecl,
-
--.
•
•
100
T il l: H IE ROGLYP H S OF ANC I F.NT EGYPT
Above: Medal made for Sixrus V ( /585- 90) .The obverse .Ihows the tn07lt/ments /Am:ed at the Va ucan , Lateran , Piazza PO/Jolo and on [he Esc/l/ iline i" ){ome. Inrerest in rhe hieroglyp/ll wm re-enl(endered in the SIxteenth and seventeenth cen lu ries
I
when variuus fJopes re-erected a nu",ber of LllC obelisks tha t had i>cen mOl/ght to ){ome in Im/JeTia/ times. Pope Sixtu.' V was the greates t of the obeli.lk-/,onUffs.
Above cen tre: Obelisk outside ,he '11t
Above: T ht' imended mme of the Lateran f1hel isk. It s[i/1 lie" in it., ql/arry at Asw"n. A flaw in rhe rock led La its rejectlun and abandol11)Jellt by thi' ancient craft"men.
the book contain ed r he fun da mental observa tion thm Copti c ,md ancient Egyptian were the same language. A furrh cr vo lume, published in 1644, proV ided a (m rnure in -depth account of Copti c, ,1Ild hecmne th e h".is for all St ud y of the language in th e irnm ed iatel y succeeding decades. In J6'iO, Kircher was further entrwited wi t h the pu hli cat ion of a study of the obe l th en he in ~ re-e rec led in the Piazza Navona (see /Jage 103), one o( the lates1 known , and (as we now kn ow) ca rved for th e Emperor Domiti an (.Al) 8 [-96). Kircher al so , I udi ed other obe lisks and Egypti an m,lterial in Rome. He hegan from a beli ef in the close eq uiv,Ji encc he1ween cl ass ical and Egyptian mytho logies, and rh ar a correc t idea of Egypti an ph ilosophi ca l concepri ons had hee n prese rved in th e works of th e c lass ical and other writers. O n the bas is that th e cl ass ica l sources h ad also said that th e hi eroglyphic ., cripr con tai ned the esoteric k now l ed~e of r he Egypti ans, Kirch er thus fe lt that he knew in adva nce whal hi eroglyphic tex ts sa id, and it was sim ply n quest ion of determ ining how th e one could be de rived from the other. In doi ng so, Kircher rega rded th e h ierog lyphs '" symbols, ye t also be lieved th at there was a para lkl 'v ul gar' usage, th at might be basica lly alphalll!t ica l. Whi le hi s limi ted wo rk in thi s di recti on W
•
THE MYSTERY OF TilE I I I EROGLYPH:i
<
••
\
10 1
, 1
-.
•
•
•
Unluckily, the vast majo rity ,)f Kirc her's cffon s w;), direcred ro wards the no n -ex istent ':,y mho li c' use of hi erog lyphs, thm based thei r meaning o n a llegory, understandab le o nly by initi ates. Eac h hicroglyph w:" "" ign ",1 " philosophical concep l or Jell1<>fl o log ic: .t Ill:lIl ifest
force commanding throllgh sl
or
ENLIGHTENMENT
TIle phi losophi c ideas that unde rpinned Kirch e r" work we re already under attack during his lifet ime, princ ipally through demonstratio ns that Lhe H ermetic works were in no way deri ved fW Ill anc ien t Egyp t. Fol lo wing on from thi s ca m e scepti cism over whether the hie rog lyp hs we re indeed the esoteric repositories of priestly learning.
Above: The site of the Uumlll Ohellsk. I fa~ing lam by Ihe SlU.Teu u.ke III Kalllak
rem/)Ie for nearly 3C' yem s, Ihe Lateran ubelisk ",a.1 finally erecled here by Thtltmo.le IV, al the e(lSlemmUSr end uf rhe
LCmrle. II stood "lUlie, as « symbnl of the S1I11.
102
THE HIER OG LYPH S O F ANC I ENT EGYPT
Left: The title page III l\ ITc h !!T '::i O he li sc us I'arnphilius (Rome, I 65Ll) . tvllich plIhlished his concl"sion.1 on nn obelISk re-",wl"d AI ha71a.sillj
OJ,,,
~
:
• ""'...:::::::::~:::::;::;P'''''
L"-::::=::-;'" , "
,
')
,"'--,f":.,
II
,
Ii
in (he Pia~ za Navona.
\ •
1t
[9
[7;0 /1
1
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:.-: )E
....
:
'
_
/
t
Rig ht : Obeli.li< in rlre •
\• 2: J •,
C'"
J
J
-c:-
, i Olir.
~17
4 'I
"
4.
!' ;J
Piazza Nal'ona , R ()m ~. This mOnWllCnl was O)/e oj' rhe [ilI e.\(. of ilS 'YI)c. ha\'i1lR beell c",wel and erected jnr lite Ruman EmJ}el'UT rJnmiua1l .
Above: Kircher', (inaccurate) cui" of DUl1wian '~
car{(.ntche ( Ill [.lIe Nnvnna nile/i.,I" This he iIHcrJ)Te Ced as retulhlf!: 'ThL'
beneftcen r gener(lrive force cnmmn nd ing thn)lI~h
supcrnal and in fcrnal the tlnw of sac red h umo ur cnuul.utin!..!• fro m ubuvl'. dl.lI11 in ion , i.1l1grn ents
Saturn , the di sposer of fleet ing t11n e, prom otes the
fecu ndity of the sn il , cummanding h umid
Ui.lt u re.
Fur h\', his infl uence nil things havc life ant! (,>fcc'. The cartOllC}," and I he signs that follow i[ aetl/all, read : ' Kasaro~ Tl'm i ytyano~
[Caesar DUlilitianusj, 1I'1l(> li\'f.:'~ (or ever'.
Early in the eighteen th ce ntury came recogn ili on of the ex iSl ell ce of cursive Egyptian scripts. while" conceptual step furwar,1 is to be see n in Book IV uf Th e Dil'ine Legarion 0/ Moses (1740), hy William Warbunon, l31er Bishop ()f G lo uces lcr ( 1698- 1779). In Ihi s, he ,el ()[II Ihe view rh
THE MYS T E RY O F THE HIEROGI.Yf'H ·
103
,
< •
...... •
J
Copri c as so cO 'Tu l~ red by irs links with Gree k as to be useless rrom th e po inr of ,'jell' uI deciphc nll enl. Dc C "ignes' view, re ll wi n e,1 popular through out the ce ntury, o ne major proppnent be ing th e Swedi h dipill mst Co um N ils C ustar Pa lin ( 1765- 1842), who wrote seve ral vo lu me., on th e .,uhj ec t hetween
I OLmd I KI 2. More he lpfu l was rhe growing co rpus of copi es of real Egy ptian texrs , in parti c"lar th ",c hn " .gh. hack hy rnlVelkrs r" th e Near East. Carsten Nie huhr (l733-18 15 ) spent 1761-2 in Egypt a nd made acc urare copies th m enabled him r" pr"ducc a ta hle , h()wing n se lcct ion ufhicr,)glyph s, sorted by kind. Barthelemy's obse rva tions o n the import of ca rtouches we re reinforced ()vcr 3) Yl.!ars later, hy the wo rk o f th e r hmi sh ,mtiquarian J0 rge n Zoega ( 175)- 1809). In 1797, he published a stud y of the Ro man obeli sb f" r P"pe Pi", V I, a " las, ivc t(lme th 'l1 included a n in-dep th discussi <.m <.,f t he hi erogly phs. Zoega recogn ized the signifi ca nce of the direc t ion in whi ch n hie roglyph faced to indicate whic h way a text r;)n and , most crit ica ll y, th at some signs mi ght he Jl11re ly ph oneti c. However, he we nt tuo fa r in suggest ing rhat the fina l pre -Cop tic va ri a nt of rhe sc rip t (de l11 o Li c) mi .ght h ave h CC< l111 C nlphHbct ic . In ' pitl.! "fh i, insights, Zoegn did nut ncru a ll y try to deciphe r th e sc ri~' t ; rarhe r, he clrew a line unde r wh a t h ad come bcfn rc an d prov id ed ,In inrel Icc t ll.ll springhoard I owards true dcc iph cnn cnt. With in a year of the pub licano n of his book, th e key to rh e mystery of the h ieroglyphs had hee1\ (" un d.
Abuve: The n UWn uu.'i 'Bust nf Isis', in Tlirin .
It had hem cia.ls.lled as 'E!(YPlian' OT1 the grull",j, that the charactcn IL 1)( Ire: H'ere hlerogh/)h, ; " Illimner "I 'li'l"!tl'rs, Incll~Jmg
j uhn
Needham , [hell In[erpreted thl!1TI Wi Chinc.~e, [hlt .Ii
pro /losing Ide11lilY i>.!luwn Iht It..n smp l. s. In laC! . the "!(T1.S " Ifni!, [he ~odiac . [he"e b<'m~
nuthing to e tit'n link th e I1llage t"ilh E!(ypt!
104 Ti l E I I I I: I( OG LYPH S OF ANC IU, T EGYPT
The Key
•
IS
Found
N SPITE O ~
Above: Napoleon flnn a,,{me iHSJ)ectin~ a mWnHl)' dllTing
his 1791l Egy/JCian expedition. Napoleon', rnililllry amhitillns produced an I1nex/>ected re-<111t for Egypwlo~y .
Opposite: <.)",'cn
HQlshcpsl.lt's obelisk (I( I\I1111al< . Th i, is plln uf dIe dedication inscnption, ,hou illg the hiernglyphic .s tyle of rhe 'XVllT Dynasty.
Til l! MODEST PROGRES.': in Ih~ SI ud y of hieroglyphs during the last part of t he e i ghl e~ nth cemury, th e re rema in ed " funchllllenl<·t! pmbl em . Th e re was n u wa y of tesring any of the th eories or suggestio ns in " meaninllful way. In short, unless c111e had ' 111 inscripti on or clocume nt in whi c h th e sa llle m;)l e ri .11 was proVided in bot h hi en>glyphs and in a known language written in a kno wn sc ripL, the rt' was littl e ltIore Lh .1t cou ld be done to expn nd the field of kno wledge . Jusr such a pivotal doc ument lVas ultimal ely provided during the French occupat io n of Egypt. hegun hy Ge neral Napoleon Bonaparte (Ialer Emperor Napo leon I) o n hehalf of t he French Repuhli c in 1798. The expedition was primarily aimed agaiml th e United Kingdom; it was intended LO provide a strategic ha., c for a n assa ult on British possessions in India. H owever, it a lso had t he alleged 'h ighd "i III of' improvi ng th e lo t of the mltives ()f Egypt', and exploring, mappi ng and recording the COUnLry. In additio n to military and nava l furces, le"IllS of sc ienrists, sc ho la rs and artists were also asse mbled to fo llo w the advanc ing arlllies and capture Egypt fur th e wmld of knowledge . Th eir work wa. ultima tely to he publ ished in I he Vrtst, 19-volume Descriprion de l'Egypte, which appea red between 1809 and 1822. This immense work prov id ed for the first time a co mp re h ~nsive, reliable documentation of the land of the N ile, and pl ayed nn abso lute ly ce ntral role in the developmenr of European I\lte res t in a ncient Egypt. Togcl her with the po lit ical cha nges thar iL also ushered into EgYPT, Ihe Nap,)leonic expedition is genenlll y fdt to be the first greal turning po in t in the history pf Egy prology.
C OUN TD OWN TO UNDERSTANDING .\0
394
AU
452
Lilsi hierog(vplJlc
/,a;'/
/f. \·1
delliolie lexl 1 A::'i T I I rFRCI( ~ l ypr b , ['I-HI \F
1419
1636
1740
176 1
Rediscol'OI:) oJ IJo}'(}f1ol/o'.I l/'ork. /0.1'1 sillce Ihefifib
Kircher jlublisi>es his jirslll'Ol'k
WarburlUo ll'riJe.f Oil biol'OgO Phs
/JaI'l Mle III)' idenlifies link belll'e(ln hieratic IIlId hielYlgI)1)hs
am/uri' •
FR0 NT1 -= P!rC[ o r
KIRCIIER s WORt.(
~ IR ~T
,
DECIPHERMEN T O F THE HIEROCiLYPH S
•
1798 iliscOllel;l' oftbe lIosalt(/ Siolle
IR14 lVlltlg idelltifies lIIords I{'itbin Rosella Slone
RO:-"I:. J I A -.I ON I:.
1816 Bankes Obelisll found
1819 YoII IIg pllblisbes .firsl./i'nrlings ~ANKE"i
nl:\ElhK
1822 C1i(/mpo!!ioll publishes .firsl collc/lisiollS II:.A'
f-K.:\:-" C O I ~
CHAM IULL ION
1836-44 C1J(/lIIpoliion's die/iollar)' (
JI •
IIlId
grall/lllar conciusiollS puhlisiJed
10)
1836 Lepsills publisbes coneilisiollS
106
Ti ll, 111F. RnC;L YrH~ O F ANC IE N T EU yrT
The Fre n c h expeditio n o,dled fro m Tuu lo n un III M a rch 1878, captured M a lta in Jun e , a n d a rri ved near A lexCl n ,lri a a t th e e nd "f the " ,m e m o nth . Egypt's secon LI c ity was ra pidly captureLI, :md within a sh o rr time th e wh o le cou nlry WH S !lllde r Frell c h nil e . H owever, lhe Fren c h were al reaLly tra pped in Egypt as, on I August , a Rriti sh fl ee t un , le r Re Hr-Ad lTli nrl Hmmi o Nt'lson I",d attacked the Fre n ch fle et in Abuq ir Bay. and destroyed il " II ex ce p l lor 1 W() Iri gD 1CS. O nl y few da ys earlie r, o n 2') Jul y,
,I
sl
h ad been (o und during wnrk o n the con structio n of Fnrt Julien. just o utside th e n o rth De ll" town ofRashi,1. Th is IVa, the l"cm io n ,,( one o f the m o mhs o f the Nile, Gnd h ml hccn kn uw n
til
rhe CJreeb as R",c Ila . The shih hml'
three sets o f tex t, in hieroglyphs, demotic sc ript a nd
""s
Greek respectin;ly. Lu c kily, iI , illiPo rtan ce ins laml y recogni:ed by a Fre n c h ,'fficer of the Enginee rs, Pier reI'ra n c,:o i., -X""i cr B'H lc hmd (1772 - 1832) , a nd i1 w,,, ,em W the In stitute Nati o nal in Cairo, set up by l\unap
as part u r hi , plan tv tra n sform Egypt in to a m o dern Ahooc: Th" Descnprid" de , I'Egypte U!(i$ d,,, cneiuring res l!l l of the millraril) ahnrrit le
EgYIltian exl,ditioll . DonafJane h,,,1 br() ,,~ht a large le<11ll of scholars Wilh hi.I
counrry
8S
the centre for sc h(l lar ly work. A t the Institute. the ston e was
in spec led by th e Ge neral himself. a nd co pies made fo r dis~'atch sc h cl la rs uf Eurupe. The slo n e was sch edul eLI to be take n
to
to
the leading
France with the rest of the Fre n c h
eX l'eLlitio n's ' 111ti4uirics. "nd w"s in lhe h o use ,iGenen d Menn u "I Akxnnd ria,
arm,!, which wulerwo!< til e , [In( .IY.l temlitic ' ''rny of lhe
when the Fre nch c:)p ltulated ttl the Grit ish fo rces le d by S ir Ra lph Abercro mby in spring HlOl. Ever si n ce Nelso n 's desl rUeI iun u( 1h e Fre n ch fleel in 1798 ,
and I/S monument..;;. The re.lulLI \(Oere IJilblished in nine l'u/lOn e.) vI text , (mel [i.'11 1'/aLCs belween 1R09 and J Fl2 2, and formed the 'IJringb()(/ra frum which tile s"bject of Elf.lln%lf.l then dcw/nped .
Ih" French pos itio n h ad heen inc reasing ly urttenabl e , particula rl y tll il ow in g
L\ Jll1l1ry
or
the la nd in g orBrili sh troo!'s in th e COUl1lry. L ndcr Artic le XVI o f the Treaty of ' ap itula ti u n , a ll antiquities were ru he ced ed to ri, e flrilish, hill Men o u c l" ill,,: d do nI the sto ne wa s his o wn prope rty in an a tte mpt to p reve n t its rellll)V a l. Ho wever, in Octoher, H retllll o f rlrtillerytncn \.ve rc tlltitnn lcly :"lent I n ,
lake: pussession, Dnd th e sto n e was emba rked in j-IMS L'Egyptien!1c (also a n ex-Fre nch rri ze) , "Iltl " rri ve,1 Ht Pmt.' l11 o ll[h ill Fchrumy 1802. M ovcd 10 1h e Soc iety o f Antiquaries in Lo ndo n o n j j March. it then unde rll'ent inte n sive study. Within" m,mth, a tnl1l;;iHti(ln o f th e Fre n ch tex l Iwd heen read
1, )
lhe
Soc ie lY. and in Jul y casts were sent to Oxfo rd , Cambr idge , Edinburgh a nd Du hi i n U n i versi ti c.' , wirh C() 1T1 P kte f'IC., i111 il l'S hei ng d i, I ri hu 1cd a round ElItOl'e . To wards the e nd of t h e yea r, th e ston e was mun~d once m o re , Il e lll h o m e 11) Brili sh Mu!>c um.
(U
its pe nn a-
YOU NG AND CHAMPOLLION
Real [:'rogress o nl y c"me fro m t h e work .,f two inci iv id",d " rh e Rriri , h phy, i, ch I Th"m'l s You n g
(177 3-1829) , a nd
J ean- Fr a n~. ois Cha mp o ili o n
(1790- 1Il3Z) in Fran ce . YOllng Wa.' " po lYIll " th o( th e kind that n o lo n ger .' ee11" 1,)
ex isL loda)" a chi ld pro digy \\'ho a lleged ly cou ld read at the age of tlV(1 , and
1)I: ClI'I I EKMENT OF Ti l E I I IERl~ G LYrH S
by 14 h ad a knuwledge of a dozen languages. Initi all y trained as a doClor, he becu ill e ~In Ilpri u d ' IX;c i,di sr whtl wa , cku t:d a Ft:l! llw Il l" Iht: Rilya l SllCiety at the age 01' 20. Two years later, he we nt to Gottingen to study rhys ics, return ing tll Engblll ci aftt: r f,t: ing mV:lrd ed his d()crm,lIc 1< 1 ,,"d Y:l 1 C:'"llhridgt: Univer, ity. [n 1799 hC' set up a mcd ica l prac tice in LLlnd on . AlIh()lIgh :I dislinguished ph y, ici, a nd in N ovember produced a conjectural transla ti o n of them. By th e (nl!mving year, he h"d prepared" de lllllli c a ll'h"het ,md 'I li st o j'tl6 dellll)ri c wllrd.;, with their G l.'eek equi valents. Importantl y, he alsc) reco,gn ized that the demotic, hi er· a l ic. HIIJ h icrugl yph ic :->c ript :, \vert.: Inerdy \ 'ari nfll:- (l Lhc ~ : line wri I illg ~ y~ [ e lll . This was based un his stud y of \'arillUS ma nuscri pts of the Book of the Dead, Ih e rdi .Q io us te xt Iha l accnmpanied man) Egyp l'ian s to Ihe gr,))'e (rulll th e N ew KingdL)m onw,ml s. Th e Roo k nf th e I)ea d has a very stan clarcli zed formu· I,ll'ion , and is ("lind wrilt Cn in ,~dllh rce scripls; indeed, so me arc cli spl "y , ign , that a re half.way hetweC'n hi ero" lyphic ,md hi C'ra ti c. Careful study made it possible 1O Sec which hieroglyphic, hi c r.1ric and demo li c sign, were eq uiva· lent to o ne ,mo th er, an d to .,ee diffe re nces hetween rh e w"ys thm eq uivalent signs were used within di ffe re nt scripts, In 18 19, Young published;l di ges t "I' his researches tLl cla tC' in a supple ment to En cyclopedia Bril1lnnica. H e h ad co nclud ed that Lhe hi erog lyphic script USL:d Cor \\lriL ing furc ign ruyal nam c~ \vas largely phonetic , rather (han picruria l; he had de te rminecl the va lue of ce rLain incli · • •• vidual signs; and he ha,1 identifi ed the cl rLo ue h es o( Pt(, le my, Ge rinike and I 'Turhll]( lSis ' (= Thutll]( ISc). Tire biller •• was essenti all y 3 guess based o n the app e,n "n c c ,,( "n ibis w ilh in hi s cartc)uche: from G reek sources, it was kn o",n Ih at Ihi s hi rd wa, sacred 10 th e god Thoth . U nfo rtuna tely, hav ing got so far, You ng \vas un ah le lo cunvin ce hirn:-c lf
107
TI) ~ Wll'n
of Il a$ hiJ (RoSctw ), near the nwwh of "Wl..'s tL'nl hranch uf l hl! J\.'rl~ Della . Th e ail.imi>o)'] «l11 Ahove:
s tone 1{'as di.r.;c()t rercd h el"'~
BdOlv: NlI/)oieclllic (ortiJ"iC(ll ir J1l,li (I I Hu.sl! u(l,
It
t('(]S
I) ere , ill Fo)'] JII lien,
liUlt an in .~crih~d s/Ll h wa.\
found
III J
799 . •
108
THE HIE ROGLYPliS OF ANCII:NT ECYf'T
THE ROSETTA STONE T ilE ROSE 1 IA STONE, a, it i, known, W >1S ,1I1Ce part nf ",tcia, o rigina ll y ahou r 250 cm (9 .4 inehe,) high an,1 80 ell1 (3l.5 inches) wide, o f which the tup 30 elll (ll.S inche:;;) or so i~ now lIli3~ing) laking with it a co n;,id# erahle pruf'uniun uf the Hierog lyphic tex r. The
beannq the hlemglyphic, demutic and greek scnpts, the fir!l l lWll writing lit ...' ancient EgYr'lianlal1guagc, the last the Gre~k. C:ompan,o n of t he thr~e te xts shou ld rhlls. in theory at least, make the dec lphennenr of the Egyptian texts fairly srra ightlorward. Unf,)rtu nll tciy,
l)e1111)!"IC rin d C]reek pl)rt io n s un..', hUWl'V,.: f , largt;· ly
lh is was nnr tn he rh li:
GISt'.
complete, and the iatler \V~-t 3 read iml11t!lli;ue ly 8fre r rhe di:,cuvt
A
B
c
DECIPHERMENT O F THE HIEROGLYI' I IS
At first, scho l ar~ >tudying rhe R ose tt ~ Stlme cnncentratl.,d (,111 the dem orie rext in viL'w of lhe" amount uf the hien)g lyphlc sectiun that wa, missing. The fact rhm the script had been developed as simpli -
fied
h ,llld~\\'Tittcn klll.:r~
hid from ml)~t
nh~crvc r~
109
A
the
di rect rdat io nshlp hetween it an,1 th e hi er""I)'phs. The ge neml fee ling wa. stillth"t whi Ie I he I~rrer were till esoteric. '~)'tIlholi(' cnnfecrion, demotic wa~
likely
to he 'rea l' writln~, Neverrhe k.s, Jeall -J m~ph Marcel (l77ti 185 4) and Remi Raige. h,)rh memhers ,,( the sc ientific c011lmis . . inn rhat h ~1L1 accompanied l he Fn.:nch army f O Egypt, haJ fecogn ized deT11~) tl C (1S (II rsive hleroglyph, while the stnne was ,till 111 Egypt. The inwlIlpleteness of the hieroglyphic textlllay abu have c,)ntri hureJ to th e delay in decoding rhe text. The first hreakthroug h camc in 1802, with rhe
Abo\le; Tile hieruglyphic scction of thc li
B
work of tht.: Fren ch o rlenr;;) l ir.:; r Baron Anto ine·
SIlvestre de Sacy (17';8 18,8) on th e lle-mutic text. He managed to isolate some of the proper n a mes, hllt faded to explai n them correctly. De Sacy's wurk was ClJI1lin ued hy th e Swed Ish dip lomat Juhan David • A kerhbd (1763- 18 19), whu managed rn csmh l ish the demo tic gruups fo r all proper names on the ~lone, as well for 'remple,', 'G re eks' and 'him/hr<'. o Unforr una tel y, Akcrblad was umhle to go fu rther, as he had ass Ullled demorrc ro he a who ll y alphahe tic script. He h ad made important ilbights, h oweve r, unl ike a number of ut her pULative dec iph erer,. At one extrl'lI1e. Ta nd eau de St NIc holas claimed then h icroglyph ; ; were no m on.: thall decnra ri ve I:-a rrern s, and not wriLing . u . all. Cou nt P::Jlu'l (.'iee 1)(lge 103) continued t,l advance his 'Chinese' thel'ric>, c:ompouncied WIth a llegory. O n e of his suggesrio ns was t har [h e Psalms of David were Hehrew rra nslatlons of Egyptian texts; this cnuld he proved hy translat ing the Hebrew [ext into Chll1esc(!) , thus providing a key rn the decipherment. Juse ph von H amme r Purgsrall (1774-1856) based his ideas o n an Arabic treatise o n certa in en igmatic alphahe ts althu ugh they did nor actually include hierog lyphs; on the o ther hand, he was o n e o( the first adhe ren ts of rhe true decip h e rment when it came. A lexandre Lenoir (1762- 183'1) appli erl as tronomica l approac hes to the hi eroglyphs with le ss than happy resu lt s. Pierre Lacour (1779-1858) suggested th at hieroglyphs were vers io ns of Ilebrew letters, and in turn th e ances tors of the G reek alp h abet. These are hur a few examples lJ( the various stra nels of argu me nt that ran in parallel with rather mo re productive researches.
Above; The dnnOI.ic sectioll of the Stolle was [hat fIrst addressed by wOl/ld-bc decil)herers. No[ only was it "Imu;[ complcre. , hill its cuni1,.'e Jl(lWre led same W sl'(spet'l (h(1l it mlghl be" mure 'rational' scri!>[ [hall lhe '-,)mhollc' hleroRlyphic.
c
The Greek tex[ at d,e bottom of [he Swne wa.1 easily readahle. T[ ,hu.1 /JriJVided the key I.har aI/owed lite decilJhennen [ of the uther two scripl.s.
L10
TilE IlI ERlll, LYP I 1S OF ANCIEN T EG YrT
Hight: The ,\tl0111 1J1I51, or Birth Ilnilse of Is!." a [ Ph,/ae. I'w/eJn\ \' iSSlld a l111m ber oj" deere,!t',": in nHlfI.' rhan Olli' ~Cn/)L lI e ent ered {ite east side uf the Birth HUllse with
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hierop;ly{>/lic and demotic, (111" 11m ~"·ee".) Tile [exi.' were SUbSe'f lU!ll1/y Ol'er - CIII l.t1hh ~ci.'nc.~ of Ptolemy X17
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Neus Dionysus and [he guds .
Above: PlOlemv Ill 's nmldlilingual Decree ,If CLn10jm s. A. number ."i l lrl 'i1.le; •
Ihi.:J une waS [olOul re- used as
[he rhreshdd of II Cair""c 1710.'qll C, Imr wm tolJ hadly dmn(lged W 1,1(lY a role in i1ierop;I),{>h,c deC/pilenlicli l .
that alphaheti c signs were used as such in ordinary na rr;J [ ive hi eroglyphic script, desr[tC rhc r"Ct [hat a nllmher Dr hi s ex isting mmsliterations puintcd in this \'ery directi on. The final re~n lul ion or Ihl: rroblem "'as therefo re to be to the cred ir o( Champo lli on, who had been working in parallel with YDlIng. Like his oritish counterpart, C hampolli lln had "I.\() beell " ch ilJ prodigy, wh o was learning hmh Hl:hrew "n,1 Amhie hy rh e rime' he was 11 yea rs olel , Subseq uently he Learned Coptic ar G renobLe, and obtained a uni versity reaching post there at the tender age of I R. Hi s r<>rlllfil ca ree r was mu ch ,I isrllpted by h is Republican po liti caL views, bo th un der the late First Empire, and rhe Res(()ration monarch y in Fmnce "(Ier IRI S. He obrai1ll:!d " C hair at G renoble in 18 18, but it wa, onl y in 1824 that he received offici al forgiveness rmlll Loui, XVIII , and the rcwa rJ or" ,Cil:n l in c mi" ion to I(,dy to study Egyptian materi al there. C hampollion's first published contribution tl) the dcciph enn ent dehate came in 1814, when he stated his view thar Demotic and Coptic were the , "lIle langu"ge, differing only in the alphabets used . This conclusion w,,, crllcia l, si nce it i a common (but nor wholl y rruc) axitun Ihar an unknown language in " n IlIlknmvn scripr i, und ec iph erahle . Like Young, he also worked through many Bouk of the Dead manu sc ripts 1:0 est'lhlish l:Ljuivalences bCL\veen hieroglyp hic and hi era l ic signs, hur until 1820 \Va still tied to dllO idea rhat hierogLyphs were an ent irely sy mbo li c ,y, tem, r"lhl:r than having an alphabetic basis. Soon arlcrwmd s, howeve r, he reca nted, and embraced th e theury that, for foreign names at least, hierogl y"h, could he phonetic. Whether rhi s wa, a result or having read Young's wurk, or arrived ar independently, is sri ll a horl y dehared issue. Champo Llton ce rLainl y always claimed the latter; at this , Ii stance we shall never know. RcgarJlcss or why he look Ihe , rer, C hmnpo li ion's recognition of the hi croglyphs' basic phon eti c nature opened the way ror rapiJ (ur! her progress. O ne useful expe rim en l was to le,1 Youn g', prerni>e as to the relationship between the hieroglyphi c, dem otic, and hieratic scripts. C hampolii on eX Jlerirn enutily worked backwards (rom Ih<.: now long-e,whlishe,IDemot ic group for 'Ptolemy', and ultimately a rri ved at a group of hieroglyphs iden l ieal wilh that on the Rose lla , LOne ,upposed 10 hl: rh,,( of Ptolemy. lie tri ed this again with
DECIPHERMI: r-: T UF THE HIER Cl CI.\'I'II<;
III
Left: The RO.lcU,' \I"n, ,'" displu~
Klcnpnrm , hur IVa' un ah le to check his res ult unl d a definit e hi erog lyphic writing f th at queen ly nam e was rUrLilc()lTIing. TH I' STRONGMAN AN D T il [ QU EEN
This was provided in 182 1, with th e mri va l in England of an obeli sk, removed (mill Ph ila c by G iova nn i Belzoni (1778- 1823). A rUfiner d rcus strongman, he had fi rst gone to Egypl a a h yd raul ic engin eer. lie subsequcmly und erlook n ,eri e, of comm issions for Henry Salt (1780-1827), rhe Rritish Con ul in Egypt who, like hi s cou nterpart from I he OTher European powe rs, was bnoy coll ect ing ant iyui ties on behalf of both his COUnLry and himself. Belzoni obtained a number of majur l110nUlll cnlS ,md opened a series o( 1()llIh" including lhc renowned sepu lchre of Se th y I in the Valk y of th e Kings and th e Second Pyramid at G iza. He also clenred n way into the G reat Temple nl Abu Si mbeL A lthough oflcn cond efTlm:d as a pl.underer. he wok more cme o( hi s find s [h,111 most conrempo rarie , and puhli., hed a comprehensive accou nt of his work that was in man y wa ys far ahead of its time. Afrcr b ,ving Egy pl, he lTIounred an ex hi biti on of his find s in Bri lain , ,md tilen went to exp lore west Africa; he died in Benin , en route tll Timbuktu .
Following pages: The god:, Re-H
uf Eg'IJllan
IOm/)1 and
tl'Hlf,/es inslJirr!J genl?rano!l'i: of IcllOlars 10 sw rch fur the meaning hchind Ihe [ascin"'ing t'ni&ona of h l ~rogl!'phic 11'lltill,t! .
Left: Lunette of hilllll(l tal decree frvm Kom el .. I Ii.'in. The Lippe'· pan oj the RUlctUl Scone i.Ii nnu Im[; hou el er. it most /Jrubably resemhled thlll of this , lIghtly eurlkr decree l
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114 THE HIER OC;L Yl'IIS O f' ..\NCIENT EGYP T
Above: Thumas Y01nI,Q
( J 773-1829), one of the weat jlolYlllfltlLl of IllS age, made frlnd{lm~nfl.tl discu1'eries in the field, uf medicillc. physics and language. Although soon uwrwkell by Chwll pullion, his work on papyri and the Rosetta Swne
marked a
'I""'lt"'" le(ll!
(ul'1(,W'd in Ihe process leading
w the fmal dccillhermen t.
In 1816, William Joh n Ban kes ( 1786- 1855) had discovered an obelisk outside the temple of Ihe godde" Isb un the islanLI of Philae. A, u,ual, t.he obe li sk ilself bore texts in hi erog lyphs, but its pedestal had a text in ( ,reek. Belzoni Wll' commi.,sioned tll hring the monum ent back to England , and it was ullimate ly erec ted in 1839 on Bankes' t:!statt:! at Kingston Lacy, Dorse t. Bankes was a hillel-owner rind Memher of Parliamenr who Im ve ll ed exte n sively in the Near East in 18 15- 19. He took a deep interest in Egyprian antiquit ies >md f()llowed th" h ie r()glyphi c Lleb')lc. He look the view thallhe ca rtouches on tht:! llbelisk hore th e saI ne roYli l nll mt" (Plo lemy lind Kleopmra) I hal appearecl in G reek on the base , and made a similar observation regarding greek and hi eroglyphi c lexl s 1m Ih e pylon of a now deslroyed Iem pie al HlI in Midd le Egypt. However, he also bel ievt:!d (wrongly) that the hierog lyph ic and greek [t:!xts on rh e olx:lisk were trans lations of each other, some thing also believed by Young anLi Consul. Sa lt who , with ou t much justification , fancied him>e lf to he " hierogl yph ic sc holar. With the availab il ity of rhe Philae rt:!xt, C hampollion now haLl his two known cartouches. Rot!) of lhem c"uld be ch ecked against their demmic versions, as well as aga inst each other, si nce they helonged to individuals whose G reek names (Pl n1c maios and Kleopatra) sh ared a number ofletter s. If hierog lyp h s were indt:!ed p honetic, I heir ca /'l o uc h es, (g'AP (ijnl and ( Ah,\,o~~_;]i;€l, should also share hi erog lyphi c signs. It was imm ed iarel y apparent that th e iell u s P, 0 and L wcrc in thei r cxpected places: ~t.; .il L~OPJ!. ==j;,oC). With thi s taken as rt:!ad, it was possible PoOL tll kl entify ITlLlSI of Ihe remai ning signs: PTOLMEES; KLEO P.A = RA oC). G iven rhat the rest of the nam e was c leml y thm of Kleopatnl, it was in ev int ble that = had tIl he Ol nnerhing akin to 't' (it is actuall y a 'd'). The remai ning oC) had been obse rved hy Young as fo ll owing the sign; wh ich, by contex t, had to ht:! I'e lnininc names. Il was thu s clear that it was a feminine ending, not mean t to be read. EXIT YOU NG
Above: jean-I'ranqoi.\ ChWll/)oliion (1790-1832). The IJrinciraJ decipherer of hiero!(lyphs and tile holder oi (he 1.vorld's fint Wllll(:,T.Si l )' Chair of EgY/lwlol!).
C hampolli on's bas ic approach had been ve ry sim ilar to rh llt use,1 by You ng, working fro m greek ,Illd dem()1 ic names back lO the hieroglyphi c royal names, and thence to (he va 01' the alphabetic signs, but with th e imporrant difierenee th
Hav ing reac hed this po int, C h ampnllion was "hie to presenr h i::; pre limi nary res ldt> in a fa mous cO lTllTlun icatiun to the French A cademi c des Inscripti ons et Belles- LettI'es ('the Acade my') on 29 SCPl ember 1822 , the Letcre iI M , Dade!", relative II l'al/>habe r des hiemgly/>hcs pholleriqlles (' Lettcr L" M, Dac ier, rega rding the phoneti c hieroglyph ic alph ahe l '), He , till remain ed douhtful , h"we\'l:r, '" ro wh eth er "II hi erog lyph ic tex ts we re ph onetic , IL seemed poss ihle that signs could have hee n adaptcd t(l wriLe fore ign names alphabet ica lly in the G raeco-Romnn Peri od, hut were more normally employed in a symholi c f", hi on, whi ch would mean that narrati ves and non -G reek name would still be a closed book, This was 1he Sa me C
Ahove: Anlln)'ntOtLS CUp)' vf ch" Boo" of che Dead datnW
I.he Thf)'(/ / ncemlediace PCl'iod, The 11I(1;n 'gllidebouk' w rhe afterlife c, f",md 111 hllndred., of w/)ie", and III all three ancienc ER)'/llilm seri/)(,\ : hierng/~/l1uc , 1umUlc and dl'HlOlic YUll1I g' and Chal11/lo//;oll made cunsiderahle u..~e of {hi., w 1'c!rrly rhe 1Vll)' in l-t1hich hiernR/Y/lhic ,ltR'" relaled !fI to
[heir C1.O".<;h'l? l.!{l!tit'(liclHs. THE BR~AKrHR OU GH
It was therefore vi tal to tcst th c thc<)l'y agai n, 1 earli er, mni v(', rnya l name" Thb IV'" successfu l I cmried out wh en, u 'ing the Coptic 're ' fo r the sun sign in the ca rtouche ~ , C h ampolli on arn ved aL RE-?-SS (' ha,1 alrcady been recogni zcd as an epilhet, mean ing 'heloved uf the god A mun ', "nd nOI pa rr of the actmil name ); th ere was a lso the ca rrouche (:\-iTIP) , wh ich You ng had guessed might conccal the G reek 'Tul hm (),i,o, whi ch might be read as 'THO TH -?-S', Th e king li:;t written by the third-century I>C Egyptinn pri c,' I, Manetho trongly suggested that ' /' should he 'm ' llr 'm,", The Coptic link could once more he invok ed, :; ince the G ree k wo rd for 'to bear'
or
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flECIPHFRMll\T OF THE H I EI('OU LYI' I IS
Egypti an na mes 'Rameses' and 'ThtlIIlH lSe' , sh owing thm the pho n elic tlse 01 hieroglyph s was Egy pi hill pr'lCtice, n"t simply tha t ofiGler fore ign conquerors. rro~ress was the n ra piel. In 1824, C h anlPo llion puhlished his Precis dll s ~ s { eme ilierogiypiliqlle ('Summ ary 01 th e hieroglyphic sy. tem'), ,md two years late r was mad e Conse rvator of the Egypti an co il eci ion in th e Lo uvte Museu m in Paris. He undetillok an expedition to Egypt in 1828-9, which b"i1r on the Napo leoni c COlTllTl issillll'S wo rk to funhcr e nhance , he documentation of the Egyptian mo numC11ls. Hi, tritlmph was th en ca pped hy his Gppoi ntm ent to Ih e " ',,rid'> first fuill' rofessorship c)f EgyplllllpLlll io n 's work, in pa rti c ular soill e of Ihe Imre r's hi stori ca l views. Knighted in 1839, he distilbl hi s conclus io ns in a number of hooks, hi> grC'l1 Manncrs Wid Custom5 of lile! Ancienl Egyptians (1 8 37) be ing th e sra nd ard work for many decades; indeed, 'l1l ahri.lged editi on i, sti ll in print. CHAMI'OLLION'S UGACY
At t he time ofCha mpul li o n's de,nh, th e manuscript of his GramntClirc Egy/.Jlienne WHS c(lI npl ctc, and was published in 1838. Hllweve r, hi s remaining work wa far from ready fllr publi c;)!.iull ,m, l, worse, a n umber of iICIl" could not be fOtlnd, incltlding a Imgt' prop rtion of his projecled di c tionary. Lu ck ily for Egyptology, C h aml'o il ion 's e ld er hrother, jHcques-j oseph C haml' o lli oll-Fige,lC ( I 77S- 1S67) was :ea lous in plac ing his sihl ing's work he fore the wo rld at la rge , fLlllowing the government's purchase of hi s manusc ripts in 183.3. Thtls, he pilo led Ihe Grmmnairc rhrou~ h the press, a nd began Ihe ptlhli c
11 7
AbUl!e: Th e island of Pitila" , ( l' drawn bv lite French (!x/)edftinn a.~ I
It
npflcnT) in
CUlIlllli!:lsion d e~ M OnUI1l Clll:-.
d'Egyprc,
1809 22.
Abuve:
CiI(Wamll
/Jaw 'llI
IlelZOlll ( 1778- 1823) , ad'llcnrurer, t''(plureT lind ~XGi't'awr.
Opposite: Til e Finl P)'/on of rhe Tempi" ll[ /,i" Phil"" Twu obeli,k., flanki,,!!: Ihe aPl'ruach 11'ere ereered /" Pwlem) \ II / Erler)(ere, II and I-:lerI/,arra /11 .
I 18 THE HIER OGLY PH S OF ANCIENT EGYPT
Sa lvo lini. a 22-year-old forme r student of t he yo unger Chnmpolli n n, who h"d heen sludying Egy pto logy (or only a yea r. At meeting of th e Acade my in August 1833 , Silvestre de Sacy, who haJ also bee n C h a m po lli o n's me ntor, ap pealed (or in (ormmion 1m th e lost ma n uscri pts' whereabo uts - to wh ic h Sa Ivol ini added hi s o wn tea rfu l ap pea l; noth ing was Ih e n h eard (or seve n years. Th e n, C:hmle, Lenmrmmt (IS02- 59) , o n e o f Champo lliclrl's former co llabo rators, was a pproached by Luigi Verardi, wh o was allempting to \Vind up the affairs () ( S:1 lvoli11i , who had died trag ica lly young in IS38. Venmli had hee n trying, with very littLe success, to se ll a series of manuscripts bearing Sa lvo lini's na me, and was seeking adv ice o n h o w ro proceed . As soon as Lenn n m ll1l ,,1w Ih ese Ill a nuscripts, it was clear to him that the lost writings of C ha mpo llio n had bee n found. Con fronted by this (act, Verardi agreed lu se ll Sa lvulini 's archive tn Lc n o rlll an t fo r 600 French francs , the C h a mpo !Lio n mdterid l join ing the rest of his ma te ria l uncl e r C h a mpo LLion-Figeac 's ed iw rial pen.
Above: The /Jan""s Obeli.II<. notv in the grounds of
Kinuswn L(icy House, Dorset. It had been ["lind by the Tem/)/e uf I sis (It. I'hilae, b), Willimn j ohn Ban"es and ta/
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The Oicrinnnaire was puh lished in 1841, hut suffe red fro m its words being arra nged by t he kind o f thing rcp rcscnt.ed hy I h eir inil i,'] sign , rmh er than al phahe ti ca ll y. Th e clecision to d o so had bee n taken by C h ampo !L ion-Figeac, since his brother h ad not h ad time co unde rtake a n y kind of a rmn gc l11 cn r he lorc his demh. In adclilion. the hi erog lyphs h"J hee n tnllbc ribed into copti c letters, with an underlying assumpti o n [h a t a li words written in hie rc,glyphs wou ld correspo ncl co o nes in Copti c - which was not I h e Glse (see Chajner /I ). There was a Ill ore fund a men ta l p rob le m in that C h ampoliio n had ne ver grasped the Jiffe re nce between u nililernl , hilit c r,',] a nJ trilire ra l signs, be li evi ng, fo r exa lll['Ie, th"t ~ ( m ) , \ (mr) , 2 (mi) , {""", (mn) , 11'1 ( m 5) , were all , impl y ' m'; lhis multipli c~ ti o n 01sign s \Vith n llcg~d l y the S< lTll ~ r~adin g h ad been a major G1 USe for di squie t amo ngst those o pposing C hampolli o n 's syste m . Fina lly, many o f C ha mpo lli o n 's conclusio n s were presented o nl y in provisilln,'] forlll ; rh .;re rc nmin cd ImlilY ga ps ami incon sistenc ies, a nd clea rly very mu c h mo re work was requi red befo re it wouLd be poss ibl e to read a connected a nc ient Egypti an na rral ive withOlil recourse to a bilingual tex t such as the Rose tta Ston e. THE PRETENDERS
Above: GlIstat"'-' Seyffarth ( I796- 1RR5). ,he longe.1t lived of Cham/Julliorl 's uppun~nl.s. His (s)'s lem' ern/n-accd rvarinw; hlzarre. concepts, which /JnJ
Con siderable time e Lapsed before the wh o le of th e oriclll<1li st worl J was able to accept that C ha mpa Ili on h ad indeed ide ntified the co rrect syste m for deciphering th e hieroglyphs. During the \ '3 yea rs Ihal (oll o wed th e ficot appea ran ce of rhe 18Z4 Precis, o ppone nts of C h
rc.~cmhlancc to
A number o f these presented more-or- Iess misguided a lternat ive approache" o ne of the lo ngest I iveJ being thm d e ve lo ped by Spohn and G usta vus Seyffdrth
the. CT!1i? me"nin~ vf lexlS ,Nt'venheless , he did lIse{1I1 work. most imjJnrtantiy making the first recon.sIT IKriull uf chI!
Kings in Tilrin.
em lun uj
(1796- 18S5 ). In \830, Sey(fa nh receivcd I h e firsl rro(~ssors "ip in Archaeology at Le ipzig University, but the hi e roglyp hic system he embraced -uffered from a fundamc ntal probLem: no two users seemed able to proJu ce th e " "IT e tnlllsiarion
I) E (' I 1'11 1: R [1,11:
t-: T n I' T I I E I I I I: R U U L Y I' I I ::; I I 9
o f a given text - n,lt , urpri,ingly, given lh"r a , ingie , ign coliid ap pa re ntl y have ft up to ;) d oze n different values, de pe nding o n Cllnrext! Ultimately, h e em igra ted to Ame ri ca in J 85 4 agai n' l the hackground of I he who lesale reject io n o f his philo logical theo ri e, in hi, native Ge rmany. Neverthele,s, his rese "rdH~s h"d illlp"rl.a m practi cal resul ts, including in 1826 rhe fir, 1 rccnnstruction of the the great King List fro m the myriad papyru s frag ments in Tu ri n. Seyff" nh 's lIlisforl un e was tn c ling In his e rroneOus h ypoth eses long beyoncl the po im a t wbicb C h ft mpo lli,)n's co rrect o n e bad ,w rte,1 til pmve il.se lf. eve n into the phase during which it h ad rece ived universa l acceptance. Hy the "a rl y J HoOs, he h ad on ly o n e disc iple lefl , J\,1;IX U h le mann, wh" himse lf died in 1862 ; ho\\'ever, Seyffarth sti II. felt suffi c ie ntly sure of him ,e li th,lt year t() e n).!;lge in vilri o li c ex change in print with th e British Egyptolog ist, S ir Pe te r Le Page Re nouf (1 822- 97), who had h ad the temerity to point ()ut th e l"'lin fl a w, in Seyffnrth 's thellri cs. Scyff:uth mnin w ined his pos itio n until his death, aged 9 1, in 1885, a trag ic loss to th e true srud y o r" Egypti ,lIl . THE FND OF THE MYSTERY
The death-knell tL1 these a lte rn ,1[e th eori es ()fd ec iph ermcnr h;ld ;rirc}ld y CP IT1 C in 1817, when the Pruss ia n Egyptolog ist Carl Ri c hard Lepsiu. (1 8 10-84) prod uce,] his Lcttrr il M. Ie I'rrJ!esseur H. Rosellini SLlr I' A I(J/w iJel Hh!rrJgly{liliqll.e (Letter to Professor H. Rosse llini a bll llt the Hieroglyuhic A lph ahet). H aving unde rtaken a sy.sre rmlri c c()mpari so n of all I.he va ri o us p ro posed me th ods "f
Abcwc: C"rl/!ic!wd LepslltS ( III J0--84) . In ,uL.lin·nn !oJ hi" ,!...rn.:'(1!
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or
Left: The Grear Temple of I\altll'ses II ar AI", Sinrbe/ in NI!/J1a. ,dlleh /lrflvided Ihe carwilche of Ramest's II [har so Irelperl Cillimpoiliun . Til ... area souLh o( A.,w(ln al.w cOllwino; some nj che t't?r:' las ! hieroghl)hlc imcnJ>liom Ct 'fr
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rHE HIER OG LYPH S OF Al\:C IEl\: T EC YP T
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deciphe rment, he was ab le to sh ow that Champollion\ was cCriainly the correct one, ,rlth ough nor withclut its problems. These he undertook to correct, for example those regarding the ex istence of signs t hm rcprcscnLcu morc t h
[) Ee l PH E R :-1 EN r 0 F T H E HI E R n C; L y r II ~
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ve rsio n s of the hm gll ag e. Th irl y ye ars lacer, Lepsills dis co ve red a co py of a n o th er tri lin gu a l tex t , the De cre e of Ca n op us , tha i "ll ow ed sc ho l su c h l of a Eg yp tia n m a teH'ord represen ted . Tll1" , 'i' ria l in the mu seu m, lIl ge thc r \\'i th a ll th e wo rds in the tex ts pu bli sh ed by Ja me s ( 1)1' ) and fi) (tp ) are Bu rto n (1 78 8- 18 62 ), Jo hn Ga rd in er W ilk ins on ( 17 97 18 75 ), Ipp o li t() rogeL/ leT ; in a modern Ro se ll ini (1 80 0- 43 ) , C:ha mp oll i o n a nd Sa lvo li ni. In 18 38 , Bi rch pu bli sh ed a dictional'\"• rh t2 u'ords shu u'n sa lll ple r for the pro po sed Lli ct io na ry, co ma ini ng 12 pa ge s wi th 93 wo rds ; un fo rher.: (lrc t>lw.:cd far alJan , tun a te ly, the re was ins ul'fic ie nl int ere st to a ll ()w the pu bli ca l Imdsyr ia n gr am mm ', an d de ,cr ibe d •.. 0' 1 '"~1' , ... (...v \'"l.""'Y'.)V"\ '-~ ' <..)1,t,.v.",,~ "''''t~'Il, O ld Eg yp t ian , thr ou gh his pr od uc i io n of th e fir st ~_":'...,,· ,tj, l~~~ .... ~', t... ~ . . , l~ .... ~tA."~l.. t~ ~ h ,~ , ~ o?J " ~-.,._ • . .l> " .. """",,, ass um pl i()n of C ha mp 011 io n 's C:h air at Ihe Co lle ge de l:.... . "", ll.J,· ~"" ~ .h... JIlA. . . ,,'-" ),,,.... Ih>..-..t~.., tA'~.,~w .Jt.vJ,.~ ... \~ ...... t ..i_t~ ')....; '''''ll '' ' ",'t.' .""" r~ . . . . . . . ~ -) ~ ....~,.. ....J, Fr an ce in Pa ri s in 18 60 , wh ere h e I .... yl " .1., •• '. "'i '(," ~ % til I • C h
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1 22 THE
III E R OULY I'II ~ CH' AK C IEKT EGYPT
Above: Samuel Birel> ( 1813~5) worked III d,c Pllblic Records Office hefme rHo";ng to I/''' I1rirish Milsellln in 1836 . Tl>e pivulC,J Britisl> figure in es whUshmg rhe correernes, oi ChampoilluTi " Jecil,ltennenl, I>e was rmtel> in demand as a It!t..~ w,·cr , Q}j we/.l (loS 'H"ririn,g for
hmh rhe acadelllic and /!(l/mlllT a"dience.
many area, llf l)b,curity remained, ,ome of which have , till not heen properly re~(llved . T h rollghoul Ih e middle years of the nineteenth century, schll iars such as de Rouge, Birch, Lepsius, He inri ch Brugsch (I R27- 94), C h arles Goodwin ( I R17- 7R) and Fra n ~ois C haG::IS (1817--82) labou red to resolve prohlems. Birch's long- pl anned J)iccionary was iim,Jl y rllbli , hed in 1867 , although uninrtun arei y 'h idd en' as Ihe fiflh volume ,)f a Im dti -,'<)Iume history of Egypt. Even more unfortunately, it rapidl y went a suppl elll ent of , imilar length. The prod ucti on of these grea t volume,; IV'" the culmination ,j{ whm ha, been termed th e 'lex icographica l' phase of rhe study of anci ent Egyptian. Since Young and C h:Hnpo lli on's da \" the tocu> of studi es h ad heen ,)n the decipherrnent and co llecl ion "f words. A lthough there had, of course, heen work on the gra mmar thar glued them all wgerher, quire rightly Ihe pri orit y was w find (lUI the ha, ic mea nings of the signs and groups of igns. I lowever, from [he 1870s onwards, rhe foeu, began to switch, pmlic ularly Lhruugh the work of" ~ruUJ1 or youn g German sc ho lar, based in l3erlin - the so-c,dlt:d 'Berlin Sciwul'. T he b id illg member of this grouping was Adolf Erman ( 185 4- 1937) , whose works, together with those of hi s stud ents and 'lSs"ci,nes, revoluti,mized th e wh,,1e , t udy "f the language. T H E KFRLlN SC H OOL
Erman IVas th e first worker to full\'• ul1lkrSl and the differences hetween the differen r phase, o f EgYPlian - Old, Middle and Late - and a l ~L) the way it fitted in to its family of language,. Hi, v()lum e ()n Lale Egypt ian gra mmar was i,sued in 1880, the same yea r as his fe llow Berliner, Ludwig Stern (I H46- 1911), produced his importanl C()PI ic gramm ar. Stern , h oweve r, abandoned the subj ec t 111 1884 on Erman's appo intment as he,," ()f Ihe Egypi inn Department at rhe Berl in Museum , the Coptic mantl e in Berlin being pi cked up by Georg Steindorff (1861 - 195 1), wh o h"d heen Erman's firsl student. The 'Berlin School' nium viml.e W3S co mpl eted hy Kurt Sethe (1 869- 1934) , another student of Ennan '5, who I,Her was to hec(llTle Professor fl i Giill ingcn Un iversity. The Rerlin School was espec iall y concerned with the way that Egyptian grammar operated , parti cularl y with reference to Ih e verh . They 8ttempted to put Iingui sri e stlld y on a fu ll y systematic basis, one exa mple being their promotion of rhe meth o,1of rran, liter&ion that is Inrge ly still heing used today. In Ihe latler part of the nin etee nth century, a wide range of methods w," lI,ed to transcrihe Egypt i,1n scrip" into roman letters. A long drawn Out sion of transliteration meth ods was to be fou n,1 in Ihe va riolls EgyPl()logical and mchnelllogi c ,J jnurnals, fro m which the 'Berlin method' ultimately emerged victor ious. Neve rth eless, some ,ci1(llars ref,,,ed III ncccpl the ' new' met hod, " nd S()llle () f Ihe old npp roac hcs were still to be found down to the 19305, particu larl y in the works of French EgYPlO log isl.' fi nd in the writing of th e British scholnr Wallis Budge.
DE C IP I IERMENT OF T il E l IIEROGLYPII ' 123
Th e other legacy of the I3erlin schoo l is the greatest of all hieroglyphi c dictionaries, the W onerbuch der agyptischen SfJrache ('Dictionary of the Egyptian Language '), begun in 1897 and edited hy Ennan find Hermann Grapow (1885-1967) , The latte r was vet ano th er stude nt of Enmm , and Steindorff, upo n wholTl a llTlosl all the work g radua lly devo lved after W o rld War L Comprising 11 fo lio volumes, the materi al was compiled by a comm iss io n o n which many of the leading Egyptologists of tb e day served , As wilh mosl such e nterprises, the wo rd s and thei r refe ren ces were collected o n slips of paper, kn o wn as 'Zettel', and flimed to inc lude all known inscriptio ns and manusc ripts, In th e end, over 1,500,000 slips were compiled , The publish ed text was handwritten and lithographed, six volumes being written o ut by the Danish Egyptologi s t, W o lj a Erich se n (1890-1966), The W orterbHch remains the fundmnenral reference work o f its kind, fllt h o ugh supple mented by vario us o n e- vo lume dic tio nari es , th e most widely lI sed one in to the English language being A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyjnian ( 1962) , hy Raymond EJulkner (1894-1982 ) of University Co llege London, One of those who flccepted many o f the I3erlin find ings was Francis Llewe llyn Griffith (1862- 1934), the first grear British philologi st sin ce the dea th o f Birch , A s the first Professor of Egypto logy at Oxford University h e laid rh e fo undati o n s for thm in srirurion's o wn 'schoo l', of who m the key fi gures were S ir Alan Gard in er (1879- 1961) ,mti Battiscomhc CiLinn (1 883- 1950), Gardiner h ad studied under Erman, and did a vast amo unr of work on the [ra nslation and publicatio n of texts, testing o ut th e synta x lying behind them while doing so, A major frui[ of this wo rk is his Egyptian Grammar, first publish ed in 1927, and still in print three -qu,!fters o f a ccnrury later. Intended as a [caching too l, the vast majority of today's English speaking Egyptolog ists firSI learned the ir hieroglyphs from it and, alth ough new teaching grammars are now a ppearing, modern students arc sri II experi enc ing its 31 lessons, Gunn, Griffith's suc cesso r in th e Oxford Chair, published relari ve ly litde, a siruatio n to which his extremely high standards contrihuted much, Nevertheless, his StHdies in the Egy/Jtian Syntax (1924) bro ke new ground in the study
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1 2 4 THE HIER OG LYPH S O F ANC I ENT EGYPT
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of the verb, and compressed a vast amount of material into a compact form, Another key British fi gure was W alter C rum (1 865-1944), a Berlin-trained Coptic ist, assessed as the eq ual of o nl y Ste ind orff in mode rn studies of the las t phase of the Egyptian language. His greatest mo num ent is his Coptic Dictionary (1 929-39), a 1,000-page tome that was published in sp ite of the author hav ing to abandon many of his materials in Vienna, when caught there by the outbreak of W orld W ar 1. MODERN TIMES
The work of the Berlin School and its immediate successors brought Egyptian philological studies to a level at which they remained until after W orld War II. It was then that the work of H ans Jakob Po lotsky (1905-9 1) ca me under consideration. Yet another product of Berlin, as well as Gbttingen, Polotsky's work o n aspects of the Coptic and Egypt ian syntax led to a revo lutio nary reconsid eration of key aspects of the und erlying stru cture of the language. His work h as been a po int of departure for many of the more rece nt scho lars of the language, concerned not so much with the words and grammar, but with the fundamentals of why meanings are as th ey are, rath er than simply what a given passage means. Some of Po lotsky's conclusio ns, such as the nature of Egyptian verbal forms, are now being challenged by such sch o lars as Mark Collier of the University of Liverpoo l, but his standing is without question,
UEC1PI1ERMEN T OF THE HIEROC,LYPI1S
125
The ongoing debate on thi s and many other issues is an indication both of the health of Egyptian philology as a subject, and the fact that, much as we now know abo ut the ancient language of Egypt, that knowledge is still incomplete. As new texts are discovered, areas of uncertainty can be resolved, but it is certain that some obscure texts will remain so, particularly those dealing with religious concepts that may have been somewhat opaque to the majority of the ancients themselves! As well as this refinement of our knowledge of the mature language, important research is revealing evidence for the very earliest years of the hieroglyphic sc ript's life. While the 'mystery' of the 10'1
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Above: Francis Llewelh'n , Griffith (J 862-193 4) , the first Professur uf EgY/Jt% gy at Oxford Universi ty. For years Britain's foremos t Egy/Jtian phiiolop;ist , he did much impurtant work in t)ublishing texts. In addition, he perfurmed the feat uf decij)hcring the Sudanese Meroitic scrij)t , although the actual language written still remains largel)' obscure. M eTuitic is written in a script ultimately deritled frum hieruglyphs, bur is unrelated linguistically to ancient Egyptian .
•
•
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I .
1><>-Vl. • • ••
...,.,.. ""- ( SOttAA. I'; ""- IS).
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IG I
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,
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Shutt: 1'1 .
I
h ... d." J.><>n. O ..
dl"-
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~ d.,,-~ Jc:"d ..... a.) Soit D Ii ai,,:fAd dl'\. ~ '2.0. o.:~Z:: A'lf~t;;~i'J ,..,...... ..Rkn. ~ ~ 1«)." . . :}" 1,..." .. ell '2.1. j,) Slit I:! :~< ~ o-ft .IX>Tt. ~ S,!;ttiM. ~'L
i~'~' 0 = ,=. .J...li,Q Q", •
•
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t
Left: A page from the great Berlin W ortcrbuch, shuwing its inclusion of meanings, together with variant writinp;s. I t was the culmination of Egyptian lexicograph y.
126
THE HIER OG LYPH S O F ANC IE N T EG YPT
.
~.
'ld
I
75
'7"
2
2
i
....
_......"...
- ---",,1.-
-
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E
'
DEC IPHERMENT O F THE HIER OG LYPH
127
THE TANIS STELA O n 15th April 1866, four researchers - Ca rl Lepsius, Max imili an Weidenbach, Leo Reinisch and Robert Roess ler - were visiting the site of anc ient Tanis when they stumbled across the corner of a stone projecting from the deb ris near so me fa ll en obelisks. Th is h ad been spotted earlier, but ignored, by an engineer working on the nea rby Suez Cana l. It was a stela inscribed with a decree conta ining a lma t perfec t hi eroglyp hic and greek ve rsions of the sa me tex t. It was not until two yea rs after its di scove ry that H einri ch Brugsch realized that some 'sc ratches' on the left- hand edge of the stela were actua lly the demo tic ve rsion of the text l The Tanis Decree offered confirmation of the theories put forwa rd on the basis of the Rosetta Stone.
FALLEN
O BELI ~ K S
AT SAN EL-HAGAR , ANCIENT TANI S
TilE FACE OF THE TANI S 11EC REE
hieroglyp hs is no more, there will long be material to keep researchers occupied just as intensively as were the founding fathers of hieroglyphic studies. Knowledge of the anc ient script is also now more widespread than at any time since the Greco-Roman times. Universities all ove r the world teach the language, whil e adult education classes in the subject rema in ex treme ly popular. A s recently as 1998, a self-teaching guide (Collier and Manley's How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs) became an unexpected best-seller in the United Kingdom , an eloquent testimon y to the att ract ions of an Egyptian culture that has been dead for nearly two millennia. The stud y of hie rog lyphs and the language they enshrine h as moved from the first fumbling attempts to iso late the sign ificance of individua l signs, to the situ ati on today where the minutiae of the language are being investigated to the same degree as any other language. Ancient Egyptian texts are no lon ger 'deciph ered' - they are simply 'read', but this position has only been reach ed as the resu lt of the labou rs of many individua ls over n early four centuri es. Without such scho lars as Kirch er, Young, Cha mpollion, de Ro uge and Erman, the hieroglyphs might still h o ld their mystery.
Opposite: King Seth )' I before the god A nuhis, in the , kinS('s temple at Ah'ICI0.5 . -
Left: Sir Alan Gardiner whose Egyptian Grammar
was for over 50 yeaTS the ten book mos t commonl-v- u.sed b-. students of ancienr ES()'/)[ian.
12 8
Til E lll EROG LYP ll S OF ANC I ENT EGYPT
on a wide variety of ancien! Egyptian monum ents, from tombs and te mpl e~ to obelisks. As we h ave seen in C hapter II, a monarch had li p to five 'great n ames', but they were se ldom all found used logc lh er. Whil e the name(s ) vari ed with rime, it is thl! cartouche-nam esthe nomen and prenomen - which are most frequently seen. While the spellings seen in them were fa irly standard down to rhe New Kingdom, from th e Nineteenth Dynasty onwards, there was an increasing variety of ways in whi ch a given king's name could be written. A t worst, there can be 20 {lr more ways of writing a given cartouche, although nonnally Lhere are only two or th ree reg ularly fo und varianl•. In sOllie cases thi s refl ected the OVAL NAMES ARE TO fiE FOL"ND
l1YNAST I ES A ND C llR ONO LOG IE S
(act that a given king used a number of different epi thets to add to his bH,ic names (see pages 26-27) . In other cases, it was simply that a range of spellings or arrangements of signs were used to writ c the sa me name. Th e latte r often explains the diffe rences between cartollches wh en written vertically, ,u; again$\" h orizontally. Th e Egyptian scribe was usually keen to ensure that the most aesthetic al wngement of sif,,'lls was used, even if this meant placing them out of the ir logical o rder. Thus it is frequently almost impossible to deCipher such a royal name from first principles, witho ut fa irly extensive backgrountl knowledge. In the fo llOW ing tables, the most common or characteristic forms are given , although it sh ould be noted that in the Ro man Period the variety of spellings increases to such a n extent th m it is diffic\J!r to pin tlown a single writing. Rc,lders interested in a comprehensive listing of known royal names should consult the Handhuch d.er iigyptische Konigmamen (The Handbook of Egy ptian King-Names), von Becke rath, 19B4/ 1999).
I
•
-
129
130
THE HIEROGLYPHS OF ANC I ENT EGYPT
THE HlERO GLYPHIC NAM ES O F THE KINGS OF EGYPT T he lists below give th e hieroglyphi c fo rms of the principal names of so me o( the more importan t kings. Some rulers llseJ a wiJc variety of spellings; thi s li ~ t a nem. pts to give the most characteri sti c or straight(orwarJ vcr~ i un.
DYNASTY
X III
(0A¥)( )';;N~1 ( 0~~ J( ~e;' 1 ~:'.:';
I
DYNASTY
CONT.
Sobkhorpe II Ilor
Amenemhm VII Wegaf
t
(0 1Pu lC.2.Jl1 (0 P';:::::~? u J( ~., ~, 1
,
Khcndjer Imyr()!l1csho
iny()tcf IV Ah
AJjih
Den
Djet
Scmcrkhct
Qaa
Seth(y)
II
DYNASTY
Sohkhotpe III Neferholpe I ,.-t ,
Sobkhorpe IV
Sobkhotpe V
Reneb
Hmcpse-
Scncd
Nincljcr
Pc ri hscn
khclnwy
DYNASTY TTT
DYNASTY
~ 1 ~( V<
(P~~- > ~1
~nt<> .(~ a~ 1
( 0~ "'-
>1Djoser ~~ ::.~ (,-"u1 Sa nakhrc ~ Ll4 0"))31
Sek hemkhet Huni
(~~"= ~
(0el
V
(1P ~ 1
Use rbf
I
IV
Seneferu
i
Aya
XV
Khrlcfrc
A popi
Menblure
DYNASTY
S hepsesk:-tf
DYNASTY
XVI
VI
Ojehllty
(0Lu l( uuQ ]
Nefcmbce
~
Teri
NHlserre
(0 \ QQ 1@ID
I'cpy I
Un",
( 0\ !W~QQ l
Khyan
S"h",,,
c....J P1
bib
Djcdcfrc
(0 1ll. ~ 1
Iscsi
(0h,J( fQJG 1
DYNASTY
1 Khufu
(0 ....... uu U ~A (APP.U 1 o
DYNASTY
1
Kha:-.e khemwy
Sobkhorpe VI
Nebiriau I
(0 '"~'?M",_~~ 1( to. ~ i ""' .A~ {0 ! U] CG!.ID _
Dy NASTY
XVI I
Mer"...... nr" R3hotpe
I'epy II
Sobkemsaf I
DYNASTY ~H(~
(01=)
:""1
Q
]
Cffi)
( 0M li\l( ]ij~0' ] I n yotcf II
lnyotd V In yorefV I
Sobke lll srtf II
Monquhotpc II
i
( 0P~ u 1 f= . ,
DYNASTY
(0~ W' '"'"
XI
Monquhotpc III
XII
Kalllo:-,e
DYNASTY
XVllJ
ATnenemhHt I
Scnwosrct I
Amcnernhat " Scnwosrc{ I [ Scnwo:-,rc r III Amcncmha t III
Amenemhat IV Sohkneferu
DYNA STY
Ahmosc
.::'::: (.~. li\u1(~!T!P) ( ,0 .. 1i\ :;:{ ~ !T! P
H 1
(0,.......'1i\ 1(~!T!P) ( 0 ~ u ) (~ ~:::?~<=2i)!l) : :::~
Alllenholep I
Thutmose I ThurTnOSC II
Thutmose III H:.H.~hcrsllT
Ame nhotep II ThulllIose IV
XII I
Amenhotep III Sohk ho tpe I
AkhenHten
Alilenemhat V
Nefernefe ruate n
Qemau
Tutankh3mun
Amenemhat V I S ineJjh i ryotcf
(0 1i\Ii\i § 1(b ~ ~ ~~Iff1 (2}1i\ i":: W~~ W 1.
Ay Il o remheb
DYNASTIES AND C HR ONO LOG I ES
DYN ASTY
XIX
DYNASTY R ;Hn c<;{~S
XXIV
I
Selb y I R ;'I IIlCSC S
nakenrenef
IJ
MereTlptClll
DYNASTY
Se rh), II
A lIIenl1le~ SC
Tawo:.re t
XXV
(0P!6)@m)
PI ( ..H1kh)y
( (:)! u
Sildhak(l
]( 7'5 )\jj U 1
Shabamka Taharqa
DYNASTY
XX
Tanuramun
Scthn
II I
DYNASTY
XXVI Psa metik I
Ramese:. V Amenhirkopshef I
Nebu II
Rdmest!:-. VI Amenhirk opshef II R(l11Ie~es
VII I tamun
R :-lIneses V II! Sethhirkopshef R :-lIllCSCS
Psametik II
IX KIl(lc[1JW
Wahihre
(0 ()~ )
Ahmme II
(0¥U) \.::L
PS
R:-ullt!ses X Amcnhirkopshef III
Rameses XI Khaennvase r II
DYNASTY DYNASTY
XXVII
XXI Dal'ios I
Nesibaoebdjed
Xerxes 1
Pinudjem I
A rt;:lxcrx('~ I
Paschkhanu I Amcncmopct Osorkon the Elder
DYNASTY
S iamUll
XXVIII
j'aschkh:mu J I
Amcl1miIs
DYNASTY
XXII DYNASTY
XXIX
Shoshenq I O,:<,orkon I Takelo [ I
Osorhm II
(0:.itm J( 't QQ~
0'85)
Nayfarud I
~>
Shoshenq III Shoshcnq I V
Pi may
DYNASTY
Shoshenq V Pedubas( II Osorkon IV
Djedhtlr N "kh tiHlrilel,
DYNASTY
XXI I I DYNASTY OF MACEDON IA Takclm II
A lex
OsorkOll III T
A iex,mJer IV
131
132
THE HIER OG LYPH S O F A NC IE N T EGYP T ,
DYNA STY OF PT O L EMY Pto lemy I Soter
Ptolemy II
Phd'llld phll~
I'w lcm y lllEucrgete> Ptulemy IV Phrlo!,a"" Pto lem y V EI" phanc, Pwle myV ll'h.t ometm Ptol emy V III Euergete< II
(&~~,, ::
i
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I
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xv K(ll,aro~
ro r:I~ r:l
( gf\ fi'~~ P¥ ~2J ~ ) d'il ( ~9 ~£1J '"' -111&~ t¥ H£1, f\ }B5~~p¥ 3L1 '-?2) 1\:i (~d bd ~ £1,~ '"' ·1u &~ t¥ ) (,9, f\ P'~~P¥ 3 £1,~ ~ ) ~ ~ ( 1~ 1 ~£1,La,!""jfr ~~~ H £1, (9'$~~p ~£1,~ ~ ) (l fu 1~ £lJ !",,~2 &f1 ~ H H£1, f\{9'$~~ P¥ 3£1,~ ~ ~~ ] ~. :;
11:S'~
,
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¥o) (£1, f\ {9'$~~P¥~ g~~ T'9 ]
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( ~:l~1 ' 'ila£1,~ !,,:: 1 t>,fIf ~ ++ ~ :~i
Pto lemy XII Neo> Dio ny,o,
Kleopau3 Vll Phdop
':I,~I ~~I
=-
Ptolemy IX S
ii
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ROMAN EMPERORS: PRENOMINA Auwkmt()r
A uro kraro r
JUllO - CLAUDIAN DYNA STY
K Ol I ...,mJ't
FLAVIAN DYNASTY
A u g U ~ l U:'
Ti hen us
Ti l US
Cai igu la
D(Jlninitian
Claud ius
Ne ro
HRONOLOGY AND THE KINGS OF ANCIENT EGYPT A N ote on Egyptian Chron ology The sch eme used by modern sc ho hus for struc turin g the ch ro no logy of h istoric an c ient Egy pt is ba sed upo n one d rawn up by th e Egyptian pr ies t, M anetho , aro und 300 Be. He divided the success ion of kings into a seri es of numbered 'dynas t ies', correspond ing to our id ea of roya l 'h o uses ' (e.g. Plantage net , Windsor, Bo urbo n, Hapsburg, Hohenzo llern) . Th ese broadly fit in with our knowledge of changes in the ruling family, but in some cases the reason for a sh ift is unclea r. Hi storians of ancient Egypt have refined th is structure by grouping dynasti es in to 'Kingdoms' and 'Periods', during which constant soc io- po liti ca l themes can be ide n tified. A ncient dating was by means of regn al years, rathe r than the kind of 'era' dating used today (e.g. BC, AD and A H). Thus, abso lute dates, in terms of years BC , have to be established th ro ugh various ind irect methods. Some reigns can be fix ed by relatio n to eve nts linked to betterdated cultures, while others ca n be placed by reference to mentions of va rio us as tro nomi ca l pheno mena. Th ese allow other reigns' extent to be calcu lated by dead-reck-
oning. Neverth eless, th ere remain man y areas of un certa inty and, whi le dating is solid back to 663 BC , margins of erro r be fore rh en may run in excess of cenrury. Another area of unce rtainty is caused by th e fac t th at a num ber of kings were crowned in (Illva nce of the ir fathers' dea th s, ro se rve as the ir co- regents; in some cases the y d ied before the elder king. In most, but not a ll cases, th e yo unge r king employed his own regn a l yea rs in parallel with those of the senior monarch . During the Middle Kingdom we have a few double-dates , which allow us to work out how the two dating systems relate to one ano th er. H oweve r, the majority of co- regenc ies lack such guides, and in at least one case debate still rages over whether a co- regency las ted one or twelve years. As much of Egyptian ch ro no logy is based on th e counting back of known regna l years from a fi xed po int , such unce rta in ties magnify th e ex isting problems.
N B , Parentheses indicate co-ruler only PREDYN AST IC PER IO D Bad a ria n Cu lture Naq aJa I (A m ralia n ) Cu lt u re N aq aJa II (Ge r, ian ) C ulture
';000-4000 4000- 3500 3500·3 150
fl('
IlL B('
DY],(AST1ES AI\Ll C ll RONOLOG1ES
r.C'RL~
I'ROTODYNASTIC PERlOD Na(/ada 1II Culture Ij~~l(l ~
TH"O~~
(:t','JL
I
"~.L
THRONE N,'\ME
3 1 50-~OCO Be ,:(lNjl(':I'IP,1
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l)R
133
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IU: ;"",L
YEAR"
,
l"d('rk~h'Jr
,
l""(",L" ,,
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Kdnk
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uHi11
ARCHAIC PERIOD
Q.lbr<: \'(.ladJbre
I hI
,
Dyna!<>ty I lInn" \I~nl1l'r
:'-Jderk a uh,lr :'-J('I('flrbre
I-:hlllh,qw
,
,
4
H"II" AI,·, HI'ru' Ojl'!
Ittl
Dynasties TX/X
Horu. Djet Hom, lkn Horu~ AJlib Horu5 ~emerkhel
lu
l\ Inyiht\.· l'\d," k 'fl'
Horus Qaa Dy n a~ty
~t:\IL[I
.\ ICTplhi
11) 1 \
,
:--'d"r\.:" r~ ""Ierv... (Vnnous)
Akht'll' Jl I
Akhltl)' J\
, ,
M('r)h~l h nr
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'\T il,,"! ) ' ,
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2.'111-
,,
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(V:1ri"",)
R .unl';jcr
,
,
'IX'l'IKI-:
,
,
,
IIIIlCII..,r t.\;hh
J I,),,,, J lmer.'ekhemwy
2160
\X.'al,lurc·
I
11
,
/\k hr"y I
W 4C
:--'~ncJ
Dy nasty Xl"
Koru, Sekhcmlhl
:)e[h l'enbsen
, ,
Penhen
- 2709
'..:derk " re
;-.; ~'f" rk d', ,k.! r
,
2~N-27C I
,
, Huru, anl! Stoll! Khas-... khelll "'Y
2 7(' 1_2fl9!.~
, II
Horu, lernl H,m]> Sehcrtrm'y II
\Vfl.hankh
M'llltjuh,'lpe I
2 I f,t"-
-2 121
In,)"r..! I 111)',, 1"111
211 l_!l17 4
ill)'lll'i III
1..'74-2l166
:"4d,!terClre
1\'\,11\tJlIh'lj-': lJ
20M ·2JI4
:'~1l1kh\.:.a re
l\1'ln!J"h"fj'f'lll l\1onTJllh,,!]'t, IV
20 14-2,"11,) I
Ilnn ls N Ikhl1ll-j'll],udu
1\ II "''') lll' ll'j' III, 'tl' r
17
MIDDl.E KlNGDOM
OLI) KINGOOM L>y nastv Xlb D ynasty 1Il 11" "er
Iloru.\ ?'JerJerkhc[ I h,rus Snnnkhi
;-'-el,k,)
1 I,)(u' Sekhemkhet
n l' ;'C!, tr
H"ru'
KI Hlh~
H"rll~ Q.l l l(~ IJf't'
2661 2641 264126,J 21';11-2626 21i2f.--262.1 2621-2::;97
T,'I;~
II",,;
t9 9
:'-Jcbwwyrc
l'
D y n"~ty
,
14
~r 11l'1,-pi h,,-
~ l\l'khaurl'
Horus :-Jebmael
Hortl., ~l eJJeJu l1nm' Khepc r H,)ru' t J..;(·nll
:::5.,;72')47
50
",' "1'
",
Khutu
_)
JlJ~ddrc
L)~
2'i I 1'-2491
Huru" Kakhl'l
Kharfr,l\!.-1\Lnl1l'
Huru~ ~hq.,.>.... ~khl'l
:::)'l l'......"lA
2475-2.171
I
"'1-
_)
"I'"
_)
2 49J -247~
21
" 4
Dynasty V Horus IrimOll;r Horus j\.e "k h~u I\efertrkare Sherse;;kare I [OniS I\eferkhi'lu
l ""rl;lf ::, ,Ihur~ l..:.;1l:11
Ni",,'rrf'
111 i 1k..I1I,,,,,
M"l1b"h,lr Djl'lilarl' H()ru~ \'(.laJiww~
1471-1464 2 464-245~
245~
h'\."1
244Z Ht~ 24}) 2435 24J:! 24 U-2"Z1 2421-241 ') 241')-2'8)
lnl'
23~'i-21,;)
h! I\dc rctre
DynasLY VI ! lel m s Sehet.epraw\
Tefl
N rfcr~:lhnr/Mcr)'rc
Pen 1
l\'I,'I\'nr" Ncfl'rbrl'
1"\1'1'01,,'111':'(
Pq'l II
2355 2:'·13 2}'11-2297 J1.97-ll9C 229C-219G
M.:r.:rHl~ t
Nl'rr!l\'~'rma( [I
1196-2195
I
FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD DynaSl Y VI VVIll NelJerLuc
Menkilre? Nrff'rk/l(('
NI.'fnk",,· DJ\.'Jbr" Nekrkarc Mcr<:nhor N .bre N~f~rbre
, , N"I" Sbl'lIl II' KhenJu
, Tcr"ru
2195
1
" 10
1 1 It
Khakllcperrc Kh,lkaure :"4lmaetre
, " 40
I
IW4-1964 1~74 1~29
.. () " 1,9' I"".)1900 Hi&:! I AA I- I f'.4(~ IR4' ,17'14
~1aekhcrure ~oll kb,('
S..,I ,kr ll'fl- fl.
17')8-1iSS 17t1'> IItll
.;;.,t,kho:re 1
lidl
"
4'
,."
10
41
4' I'
4
XII J
Sl' k11\.'r llR,-l-hutawl S<:khnrli.:aR
,
::'ek h"ml-'ITe Seh('tcrrhre
Am('nemhM \' Qem,.u
S~nl-h l brc
,, men k... re
Aml'nrmh,;1 VI N,+nllll;
J Imcplhrc
Illt,'n; ;;j I" 'n \\.J]I, iry, 'ld
,
}..eJjemihe Kh,lJnkhre ~e\.: hemrc- kh )lt~ WI AUlhrc
I I
':-i< 'n he t
'Jnik.. fl
::: .... ~\\.ljbr"
t1
AIl,,·[1t'1I1)" 11 I s..'ll\\_'~n.1 I Aillencmll.1t II :;';n\\v'rct 11 Scn'I'LNcl III Am,'n,'lh;l! III Am,"l, nh" l IV
D y na ,~ ry
,
,
XII
KI1l']1I.l l an.'
Dynasty I V
1((\1_1'1'1..
.. "I '
I
,
,
:-Xlrkh"rre II
R,' n 1")111,,, I I"
I
~{'d)c(abtl,
AlIIl'Ill'lulia!
KI,,,! a,,,,\\:
\V;:~a(
VII
,
I :" ,Lm-/ N ild wr Hlll;U: l rc Smcnkhk.lfe
Kh"ndl<:r
~ch\,tl:pkar"
lnyotel IV
Merylhre
~r h (l\
Sekhcmre-swnJJwwl
S.,f,kh"!j'" 111
Khn,ck henlTc MenwndJrc Kh ,l IW{f'IIl'
Net. 1 h"I1'" I :--1;il'III,,'I
Im\'rl1me~hJ
, • ,,
,I
,
~1" th'J! q' r"
:--1"j,k!u 'q'l.' I V Suhklw l]'<' \'
Kh .. h\.lljlrt.
;:-,(,f,khorf".' VI
W,lh lhr"
Lith
I,
Mernd erre Merhelepre
AI.l
~I
1111
,,
, ,
,
134
THE HIER OG LYPH S OF ANC I ENT EGYPT
n
Hn RL:-. ( )R
I' ER~I..)~
THRO'E 'A.\tE
\:A\!E
HORL ::- ()R
rER~ l"
THRC" £ '\ -\\1£
'\ -\"E
Sankhcnrc \\cr. .ckhcmrc
ScwtlllJfu
Dynasty XIX
I nf;;'Li
SewadJkare
HllrI
Menpehtirc Mcnm,lcrre
Sethy I
Mcrkaurc
~\lhkhlltpe
U~t:rt1lrlel re-~el penre
R
~ Icr"hcr,>c,>rc
II'\!
·•
~ ler. .e\.,hemre
Ncfc rhorrt: II
•
15 lmknoU'71 kings] ~Icd ... lrc ~I('rkhcrcrn! ~Ierkare
:\l
l
("IH
}\-\I
( -\ n_~
REt i'.-\!. Y£'<\RS
VII
,
, ,
,
H.amc~c~
l
I'H:
T
Al
I
121)h 12\)6
Sekhat:nre/ Akheperre
A 111cn 111e.~~c Siplah
Sitre-merenamun
Tawosrer
Scthnakhte R,lIl1e ..l:':-O III Ramc ..c~ IV
1187- 11 81 1181- 115J 11511146
II Mcrcnpwh Seth), II
Dynasty XX
SC\\,ilJJarc
!··,Ime"re
~1~mquhorrc
,
U:-.cnn,H!1re-lllcryalllun
1···Jmaclrc
Ib,
I... 1\\I.+~nre
Hod .. 1
Sel·lbrc
U'IcrkhJurc
\'
User/! iC4Jmaerre•
lhenll.lel ft.!
Sankhrtahi
Sekhaenre
II,
~e\\'ahenre
Scnehmiu
-~ekheperenre
N c hmact rc· me ry
U::.ermaeue-
SECOND INTERMEDIATE PERIOD Dynasty XV
Neferka re-setpenre
Sem4en!
:\~cnenrcl Au::.erre
,
6
4) 6
,
,J! I
Amenhlrh)r~hd
-
I
11 4611 41
II
Rame::.e::. Viliramun
1141-llll Ill) 1125
R,l11!e:-.c:-. VIII
1125- 1121
-
1123 1104 11l14-IO'J4
19 10
1094 106-1 1071-1069
30
)
Raml'''(':-' VI
~c [pc nrc-me ry amLln
USeflll,1t:tre-.t k henal!1llll
Scu::.ercnre Nehkhcrc,hre/
R
AIlH.~nhlrh)JI:-.hcf
Saklrhar
17 67 II
~('trcn
,
Schcq,lcnrc
RHi'Al
nAn ..
1296-1279 1279 1212 1212 · 1201 1201-119\ 1200-119" 11951189 11~9 1187
l3anenrc U"crkhcp('rll rc (Mcnlll In.'-~e{renn:
• •
Al
K he rx' nnat'f n ..... crrc n rc
• •
KIl\<11l McnllldClre-~el l1t':np l ah
Aror l
15b51545
KlldmuJ\
1545-15~5
40
( Ilcmnctj('rrcpyenamun
Selhh i rkl)p::.hd Ramescs IX Khacl1l\\\bC[ I [{,mll':-'CS X Alllcnhirk0I' .. lld III Rame-,e:::, XI KhaCIll\\a::.cl II Hnh{)r
)
6)
THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD Dynasty XVI
,
,
St.!k helllre-~menrawi Sekhem rc· scwoscrr a WI Sckhclll rC-.,l!an khl
Ujchuty Sohkholpt:! V III Neferhotre III
S('m(!nn~
Seuserenre
D ynasty XXI
1(i50-
•
•
•
Il cdJkhcp(,rrc·sctpc nrc
Ne~ I klneh..IJ('d
·•
Nt:(erk(lre-lle4
A II lei 1t:llllle:-.u
( Kheperkharesctpcnnmun
Pl11udjcm I
·•
A khcpcrrt:-sci pt:1lalllU[ I
U::.ermaell'e-se tpennmun A khepcrrc.scrpenre
1034 981 ')e4 n4
5)
• •
Pa:-.t:hkhallu [ Amcnemopc( ()s()rknn rh" 1~I(lcr
()7 4-()6K
6
Net Jerk Ilel )t::rre-
SialllUl1
968 948
20
~t()ntjuhntcrl
Nehlr1<1u I Nebiriilu II
,
·• •
Se khc mrcshed W;J 'Ie t
,
l}Jcdhnrcrrc
Dedumose I
• •
DJcdneferre DJedankhre
Dcdumo:-.t~
•
~ 1/ lnl Jllellb<1f
~1emnkhrc
~t{JnlJuhotre
Scneferibre
S('nwo:-.rel IV
1064-I01H Il138 1034 104') 1026
4 23 )
10
meryalllun II
( Tyetkheperure~setpenre
941 940)
Dynasty XXII H eJ j k he pe rre-::.ell-"\(' n re Sck tWill khcperre-
VI
1590
Sho:;.henq I Chllrkllli I
948 927 927-1192
(Ilcqakhcpcrrc-scrpcnrc
Shnshenq II
H eJjk llcprre -~t:lpe nr e
Takdol I
U::.ennaetre-:;e tpennmun Usc rm act r(' -sc rp(' n rc H e( IJkI 1t!1)t! rrt!- St! l pc n rt: U:-.ennaet re-set penam un Akheperrc
Osorkon II
H9)-II9\) 892 877 877el8
Sho"hcnq III
HlH- 7~H
ShlJ:-hen4 IV
Sc hcrcplhcnre Akhcperre-..,ct penai liun
Pt:duhil~t
[I
O~orkon
IV
798 786 786 7~O 7HO-74l 74 J- 7ll ilJ 715
ZI )5
~et l )t: I 'rt:
Dynasty XVII Sekhemrc-wah khau Sckhctn rc ·~hcd, Hwi
Sck Ilcl1lre-wepmaet Nubkhcpcrrc Sckhcmrc· hcruh innrlel Sekhemre.waJj khau Senak hrenre Seqcnenrc Wi.lllJk hcpt!rrc
Reholpe Sobkem::.af I Inyotcf V Illyotef V!
15~\ -
•
•
Inynref VII
Snbkemsaf 11 Taa I
T<1<1 II
1558 1558- 155l 1\51-1\49
5
I'imay Sho,hcnq V
15 j9
40 I2 6
17 10 18
4
Dynasty XXIII
NEW KINGDOM Dynasty XVIII lchpchure OJe~erkare
Akhcpcrkarc Akheperenre Menkheper(en)re (M
Akhcperure Menkheperure Nchmactrc Neferkheperure- waeme
Ahmo::.e I Amenhorcr I Thutmn::.e I
Thutmo::.e 11 Thurm/he" I Habhep:;ut Amcnhotcr II Thmmose IV AmenhlHcp III Amcnhotcp IV! Akhen
(Ankhkhcrcrurc Nehkheperre Kheperkhcpcrure DJc~crkhcpcrure
..etpenre
R67-h17
10
84 1-815 810- 799 b15813) 799-769 774-7\9 759- 719 7l9- 714 714- 724
26 30
R
nakenrenef
711-721 72J 717
HcdJkhcpcrrc-
Smenkhkare! Neterneferu
1549-1524 1524- 1503 150)- 1491 1491-1479 1479 1424 1472-1457) 1424 IJ98 1398 1)88 I 188-1 14R
,-
- )
21 12 I2 54
~Clpenamun
Il edjkhere rre ~setpenre
Usermac rfc-C;Ctpc namun (! Use rma er re~setpc n amlln
Uc;c rmacr rc Use rmaet re-::.etpenamun
26 \0
Takelol II Pcduh.hf I luput I O:-.orkon III T~lkcl()t III Rudamun In y
Ncfcrkare
Peft J
30 15 W \
10
40
Dynasty XXIV 1160 I J4 J 1146-I14J 11411llJ \l ll- I 328 I 120-1298
17
Shcp'Ic .. rc Wahkare
Tefn,lkllle
6
3)
Dynasty XXV
\0 5
Seneferre
Pi(ankhh
i5! 717
30
Neferkare
Shabaka
717 701
35 14
O L OGIE'
DYNASTIES AND C llR O
HORe ;.; OR
[,f-R"."~I
TIIRl)'...;E
" \\IE
1\;:\~IE
n)s IECTL"R:\L 1)-\11";
RHj'-\1. YE.\R";
IIURl)S
~) R
1'1
lHIH)'\1 ~AMl:
I{";{
)S·\l
l:l)')lL
L R '\.
r "'it"....
:-"A.\1f-
135
H -.;"
.. E ".F>
I waennt:1Jt:rlilenckhnct ·
DjeJkare Khuncfcrtumre Babre
Sh;lh" t
703 690
TaharY
69LL 664
IJ 26
664- 656
~
jcrc{ mery mul e~neJjt: l '
SC[1cnrrah -mcrymae trese kheilldnk !l
Pwiem) IX SOler II
116 110
6
Pwl{,IllY X Alexander I Plolemy IX ('.g,l1n)
11 0- 109 109 107 107-il8 88-80 80
I
19
80-58
"
SAlTE PERIOD IW
Dynasty XXVI Wahinre
Wehemtnre Ncfcnhrc Haaibre Khncm dxc Ankhb{cn}rc
AhnHN: II
664 610 610-595 595-5R9 589 570 570-526
P. . alllCflh. II I
)-
P"',lIllcnk I Nl'Lm II P"uneuk II \'V;lh I hrl'
- '6--') - )
\4 15 6 19 I
, ,· •
Kamhy~e"
(Kemh itJct) n;lrh)~ I (lntlr)"(hh) Xcrxe~ I (Kh,hh",lr . . h;l) :\naxerxc'l I
'"7'" ') - ' ) - ''")1 )--
511 - 486 4b6-465 4(,5-424
•
Ptolemy IX (:1!!; lIn ) Pwlem) XI
(!
3 \)
2I 41
(Art'lk h c~hc.;)
(, (!
Xerxe, II l ),Irio~ I I
424 42l--lL'S
Dynasty XXVIII
,
Ptolemy X (aga in)
Iw
Dynasty XXVII
,· ,·
scncnankhenamun
H
LATE PERIOD
MC'iU(lrl' Setutrc
setrenprah . irimaet fe -
I 18
Amcll1rdl'1
404
Wl)
,-
NJ) taruu I P,hhermur Ilaka!" NayfaruJ II
N9-Nl 393 393-180 JRO
6 I I3 I
Prolemy XII Nem I )lOny'iO~ Ptule111} XII (ag,l1n) Klcoratra VII Phdoratnr Ptole11l Y Xll l Pwlemy XIV
-
»- 5 I \ I 30
( Iwaenpanetjere ntind lCll1o;(·trcnptah-irime ryre~c kI H= 1 11; lnk hamlin Plole111) XV K.lh,lnh
, -
,
I)
, ~I
II - 57 47 44
4)
41 30
II\
\)
Dynasty XXIX Bacnrc-mcrynetjcru U,:,e rre-~el pe llplah
Khncmmacrre
, ·
Dynasty XXX 380-J62 362 360 360-J42
Nakhtnehcf Khcpcrkarc Tell:'. Irimaelenrc Scncdjemibre-se[penanhuJ N"khtIH)rhch
Dynasty XXXI Art;lxerx(''1 III Ok h'h
142 33B
Ar~e~
118-116
1 ),lrio~
lli- ll2
III
18 2 18
,,1
HELLENISTIC PERIOD
ROMAN PERIOD
Be
30- 395
AI)
BYZANTINE PERIOD
395-640
ARAB PERIOD
640- 1117
OTTOMAN PERIOD
I 5 I 7 180,
KHEDEVAL PERIOD
1805-1914
BRITISH PROTECTORATE
1914- 1922
MONARCHY
1922 \9,1
REP U BLI C
1951-
Dynasty of Macedonia Sc rrcnrc.mc ryamull Setepkae nre-meryall1ul 1 Haalbre
Alexander III Pllllipp()'1 Arrhh!.Il")" AlexanJer IV
112- J2J l23317 117-lI O
9
Ptole111Y I Sotl:r Pwlem) II PhilaJell'ho'l
J 10-282
28
281-246
36
246-222
24
5
7
Dynasty of Ptolemy Sct pc nr('~ m e r)'am un
U'iC rk a( e n )rc-me ryamlln I waenneljerwy:.enwy· set pen re -~e khema n k he I \amun I w
I
•
Eucrgctt:~
Ptotemy I II
I
Altern ate fo rms of Pha raoh 's names As menti oned in Chaplc r I, there me various \\'ay~ of Ir,lI1 . . crihmg n.l\"al namc". both hased o n rhe original Egyptian, and IIsing the Greck (orm ... Il',t!,l hy C lassical author~, Some nf the mO~l CUIlllllon cquivalences art gl\-l'll hell)\\": H ll ru~
17
P(lllclll) IV Phll()par(u
Pwlemy V
Ep i r h dne~
Ptnlemy VI Phdometor
Ptolemy VII I Eucrgcrc, II Ptolemy VI (,Ig;.tln)
Pwlemy VII NClh Philnparor Ptolemy VIII (,lgilln)
205-180
180-164
170- 163 163-145 145
25
16
7 18 I
Na rmer
Khllfll Khaefre
Kheop> Kherhren. Rekhacf
Mcnkaure Amene mhat Senw()sret Ahmu:>c Ame nh o tep Thllrmose
Myccrmlls
29
Ammeneme~ SCSl)SfnS,
Senusen
An1o:>Ol:>O, Ami:l~ls A mcn nph I!) Tuthmosls
Sethy Nesihanehdjed P",chkhanll
Seth,». SCli
Bakcnrcnd W ahibre N :-lyfa rud
Bokkho",
Pa~hcrlTlut
145- 116
Ml'lle:o-.
Il akar Nakhrnehef Nakhlhorheh
Smendes P!)Uscnne-. Arne ...
Ncrherttes Teo> Akh,,,,s Nck'aneh" I Neh"Jlch" 11
136
TilE 1111: IHX1 LYPH S OF Al"C IEl" T EGYI'T
HERE TO SEE HIEROGLYPHS Egy/Jtian collections are to be found allarmmd the wurkl. Thi.1 1i.1! gives " sel~ctio n of some of rhe more imfJurtlllIl co//cCtlom . /)llrricll/ariy Ihose rich In ilLlcrihed irem.l. AUSTRIA VIENNA Kunsth isrori,chcs Museu m
DCR HAM O ri enta l Mu
or
Ul1lvcr~ity Cullege
BELG IUM BRUSSF.I s Musees RuvlIux d'Art et d'Hisrn ire , CAN ADA TORONTO 11.01'8 1 O m8rio Museum
MANCIIESTER :Vlancllestl'r MuscullI NOR\'iIICl I Castle Mu>cullI OXR) RD A shmolean Museum C",nwall M,l>cUIlI T RURO Royal , FRANCE MARSF.Il.LF. Must'e d'A rchenlngie Mediterranccnne PARI'; Musee -i u Louvre
DENMARK C()j'EN I fAGEN Nalill nal mll ~ee r
(;( li'
EGYPT Al.EXA:-JDRLA Grcl'U- RUm811 Museum A,,\'iI/IN Nubian Museu m C>IIRt1 Egyptian MUSCUlI) Luxt 11( Luxor MuscullI PORT , All) Port Sa id Museum
tier U n ivcrsi l;:il
HILDESH EIM Pe Iizaeus-M useulll LEIPZIG Agypt i,chen Mu,cull1 der U niversiret MLS ICII Staatliche Sallllll lu ng Agyptischcr Kunst T UIIIl\(JEN Agyptischc Salllllllung dcr U ni versitat
ENGLAND B I RM I NG H"\~I
Ciry Museums and Art Gallery &1LTON Museum " nd Art Ga llery, BRISTOL C ity Museum and A rt Ga llery C."'~I BRIDGE Fitzwililmn Mu,e ullI
HUNG ARY f\U Jl/I l'~SI Szcpmlln:szcti MCI:CUlll IRELAND IJIII1I IN No tl on"1 Museum ITALY I30LOONA Museo Civ iC<) A rch eolngicc) FLORENCE Mu, eo Egi Zio MI LAN C iviche Raccolte Archeo logiche e Nurn b matidll' PISA Cullcziuni Egillologiche di Ato l1 eo T URIN Musco Egizio
-.
,
NETHERLANDS A~bTE R DA M Allard Piersun Mu,culI1 LEI1 1EN Rijksmu,cul1l van O cdheden
•
,
POLAND
r He "l:c()"n rYR,4, M:n -\T <> 17 A.
W ,AR--i:\\XI
WlusellITI N~rod owe
W HE RE T O SEE II I ER OU LY P I I S
•
137
•
J '" .. , •
•
I
,-
RU S SIA Mo sc ow Stu te Pu .ltk in Mu seul11 of Fine Am ST PETER5BUl\t; Hc rnw ag e Mmeuill
SC OT LA ND A BER DEEN Ma ri'Lltd Mu ,cul11 EDlN llLJ RGIi Ro va , l Mu seulll GLN,c;OW Burrell Co lle ction GL ASC;OW Htlntcrian Mu~('um
SP AI N BARCELu>. A Museu Egyip c i de Barcleo na MADRID Mu . l'o Ar qu co loglco Na c iomol
SW ED EN STOLKIIOLM Me de lha vsll1u,ec t lJI'PSAl ,\ Victori all1usl'ct
SW IT ZE RL AN D BA S[l An Lik en mu 'l'u m Ba .d un d '''m m lung Ludwig G CN l V/I Mu see d'a rt et d'l tbt oir e
'FI:( ~U:'\'f'ITr Fl L;u n f' 1'-1 " HE TH II'LI:. or R.-\ MI:.... b I I .·n \BY ! 'I( '-'
UN IT ED STATES OF AM ER IC A A NN ARBO R, Ml Kel sey Museull1 or AnCient and Med ieval Ar ch ae o logy A I LA:--:TA , GA Mi ch ael C. Ca rillS Museum , Emory U I1l versi ty Bi\LTI~IO I\f., MD W alt ers An Ga lle ry BOSTON , MA Mu seum or Fine Ar ts BR OO KLYN, NY Br lJu kl yn Mu seu m uf An C:HICAG(l , IL Ar r Instirure C:HICAGO, IL Field Mu seum uf N atu ral History C:H I C.~(;() , IL O rie nta l In sti tut e Mu se um C:L EVELAN D, 0 11 C lev ela nd Mu seum or Ar t DETR OIT, M I De tro it Ins titu te or Ar ts Lo s A NCOELES, C:A C(J UnL Y Mu sc'um of An MeMPH IS, TN Ins titu te of Eg yptia n An an d A rch ac o logy, Me mp his Un ive rsity N EWA RK, NJ Ne wa rk Mu seulll NeW HAVEN, C T Peahody Museum, Yule Univer< it\' NEW YORK , NY Me trop\)litan Mu seulll of Ar t PII I I..~D[lPH I.-\ , PA UniverSil y Mu seultl of Ar ch ae o lugy & A mh ropo logy S!\N JOSE, C:A Rosic ruc ia n Eg ypti an Mu s"ulTl
VA TI CA N VATICAN CiTY Mu . eu (Jr egu na n ll Egizin
WALES I HLTMn..,1:. II I 0\1 THE V II I'YLl"lN -\1 KARN ,\K
SWAN~f.i\
Egypt Ce ntre, Uni ve r,ity ,)f Wale, Swansee
138
Ti l E III EROULYPII S OF AN C I ENT EGY PT
GLOSSARY biliter"1 hi ero~ l l'rhlc sl!jn rer ref)cn ti ng com hi nation of [WO papyru s p~ pe r m R n l1 f~c tu red frc'm the pith o( rh e pRpy rus plant Pharaoh fl il, lica l ,'cr;i on of the EgyPt HlI1 phr::t!'le 111'-' J, 'great h OU:'l" ; originR ll y refe rred w rhe palace, hut from the Nell' Kingd" 111 was used as a mle tor rhe king; ncca>illlldll v
cnnsnn(lnrs
Boo k of the Dead c01l1 pih rion nf texr~ and imi-lges in tended (\) f{lcd ir;H c the 11l\)ve menr l) f the d e;:h~ p e r~(111 \ ,.,plri r II) rhe nex t \\'()rkl ca r touch e tWil l encln",u re w ith tl ('l[
ha l'
(I t
pne enli , enclnsing th e k ing's
prenomen .... nt! rh,.)n1 en; sometimes
fo und w rl rte n in a carl oLichc in the
u>ed (or queens and roya l chi ldren, ,md a bu It,r guds in the G recu-
Grl!ct),R,)man
Pt' ri~1l1
phil ology the >c ie!Ke L,f the stuJy of la nguage
RlU1 Wll 1\·ril11.. 1
Horll s name fj r>t na111e of the
Coffin Texts se t of r<:h~i(lu, texts
rOYd l fi\' I..·~ l d l d tiru lary, wr itten in
(lriginall y I n~( ri b~u un the interior
~e re kh and assoc lati n1,! rhe rul er
.:-uun ...l
of coffms uf the Middle Kingdum
with the fa lcon -god, 11,,,us Late Egyptian the ve rsion of the
pn;n umc n fl) Urrh name t.)f th e roya l l"iv t.'~(() I J Li llddry, wri tten in a
ancient Egyptian Idnguilge fi rst used fu r \vrittcn ,,,It)cutn el1ts in rh e N ew
C~lrt lluchL' , an d
J.S PL'c t
sCri pr la rge ly composed of greek
Kingdom lex icograph y rhe mRking !)f
leTter .. " with tl dm ixrure l )f some
di crh ) n ~r i e!'i
for
lie llll1ric. kn o\\'n (lS cop t iC c ursive writing dl, ne With ou t
Middl e Egyptian r1w ver
Pyramid Texts se r ,)f rel igious texts m igin ally insc nhed on the
consonant le tter uther than a ,'uwe! Coptic final variant Ilf the ancient Egyptian language) \vntten in a
li ft ing the pen IWlween len ers
:1
ph un ctk
o f" o r rqxt.!scn r ing
preceded hy
\'l lCa l
rt
tid e
tha t c'l\1phll, izes the king,h ips dual pronoun wurJ serv lI1q ;:IS i'luhstirute
\\'a ll ~
n oun
of 1he passages and
L h~Hn bl'r:,
uemo tic LlI r~ i vl.· !)Cripl J l' ri veJ (ro m hieralic. i nl n.)dLh.' ~d during Dyna~ty
Kmgdu ll1 an. . 1 retdillt.'d a~ a literary
of the pyralllllis of the- Uld
fnrm, e~ pcc ially fl..lr n..' ligiuu::; text::: .
Kin ~dl )m
XXV
un til thl' R l..llll:..ln l\:rit.)1..1
Uemotic the va ri ant of th e anci ent
Nebty name seco nd name u( the
EKypt L.tn l~lI1gLl ag(! \vritt l'n in the
r(Jy~d I"ivc·fu ld
delllutic bcripl
the rule'r wi th the tWIl gudde>ses, Eclju lind Nekhbet numen fifth na1l1e of the royal five-
se rek h recl :lI1gu ICi r fra lll t: with pRnelled I,)wer pan , u,ua ll y surmUll nted hy Ull i11l ~lgl' of the falC
determinative hieruglyphic , ign that u, ua ll y has nu phllnet ic value ,
ti tu ldry, a ~suciat i n g
hu t indicates the l1eneral mcanin 0o \)f gn)up of signs that precede it epithet word or co l1ecr ion of word;;;
and often preceded hy rh e titl e 'son of the su n-god'
rhar dec;;cri hes () r ch::! r::acreri:es
noun \vn rd u... ed a ... name of per:,on
~
;:a
fold titulary, wrirtcn
III
a cf1 rrouch e ,
nou n nr a name
or thin g
'Golden falcon ' nam e rhll'd name
O ld Egyptia n Ilw vc " inn nf tI",
,,( rhe
rov~ 1 ,
(Ive-fold
t i r ul ~ rv, .
of
ancie nt Egyptian I:':l nguage used
Ilhscu re slgnl fic;:ance hierati c curs ive scri pt de rived fro rn
d uring rhe O ld Ki ngdom ordinal roman n umeral placed
hieroglyphs, in troduced during the U ld Kingd0111 hicToglyph fi gure uf u bj ec t
afte r the ndme
~t;.lnd int; k)r ,l)ound o r wurd
ura IIH.Hlarch to
d i~ t i ngLi i s h Lhl..'lll (ro m earl ier
ur
heart' r" the ~a l1l (' nUIllL'; e,g. George V, Geurge VI
conson an rs
unilireral hieroglyph k sign re pre . . c=n t ing ~ ing le cU I\~on a nt!:l verb part u( spL'cc h L'xpress ing act ion , Uccu rL:I\CC ur being ver nac ular ~pl'<.:c h in common Lise
l,LOSSARY , l".flI1REVIATIONS, I1lflLIOCJRA P HY AND WEflSITES
139
AB BREV IATIONS RM Rri ti:-,h MUIlt:lHn, LmlJon. BM A HrPok l\'n MII ..,t::lIlll Art e M Egyptian MusC'um. r::m o EAE Ellc)dopedia of (he Archaeology of Ancient EIf.'J)(, e,i. hy K..'\. flarJ (London: Ro utl edge, IY99) Gl Gri ffi th Institutl' . .A"hmolctlll
(lr
M I ISl!UIlI, Ull i \,t::r~ily
ut OXfOfLi IL N III,mrafed Londoll Ne,,'s (London)
JE )')lI rn,,1 d'E",ree ((:M) JEA jOllnwl of LIf.'P(I(1ll Arc/wenlogy (LunJnn ) KMT : A Modem ]())tnUlI of Egypwlog) (Sa n FranCl5co/ScbD"topo l )
MFA \1u~elltn of Fine Art;;, 130::.[011 MMA M d ropoi ildll tv1u"'e ulll 0 1 Art, New Ynrk HMS Ro\'~l \1usC'llln of ScntLmd •
SR SI'ec ;al Regi>ler (C~l) T R Tcm r"", ry Reg,,,,,r (C:~I) TSllA Ti-ans(1C(1ons of (he SO""(' of Biblical Arehaeolo~, (LonJ,m) TT Thch,1I1 Tnlllh (du.' 1lI11llht::rmg "Y::'[(,111
used fo r r\ri\'
UC Petrie Yiuseull1, C(l ll egc
Uni\'er~ ity
LUllJOIl
BIBLlOGRAPHY AND WEBSITES GENERAL ALDRED, C. I ~~8 . The EgYJJ!iam, lrJ t:!d il ioll . revised by A . Dndsol) ( Lond tHl: T hmlle'l and H U\.!::,t) n )
DAV IS, WV 1987. Eg)P(iaJ'
HiL'ro~lyphs
(London: Bri tish MU~lIlll Press)
DODSON, :\. 1996/2001. M()narchs of [he Nile (London: Rubicon Pre!:)s/Ca iro: Ame rl c.an lJnivl'r:-.iry In Ca if() Press) KEMP, 13.). 1989. Ancient F.gyJJ!: AJillfIJmy of a Cil'iliS(HrOIl (Ll)ndo n :
ROll tlc,lgc) MANLEY, B. I'i%. The ren!.'"i" Hi.l(()rical AcIas of Alleie", Egyp( (J_,mdnn: Pengui n , 1996) REDFO RD. D.B. 2001 k d.) The OX{oJrd EneyciopedIO of ;\Ilciem Egyl" (Nt!\\· York: Oxior\.i Univer::iiry Press ) SI IAW, J. (EJ ) 2000. The O xford l lis
C If APTbH I: THE ORIG IN S OF EG YPTIAN LANGU AGE fl.A INES, ). & ). MALEK 1980. Alias of Ancient Eg)pr (New York and Oxford: Facts on Fi le ) M os'( A NC I EK T E GYPT
ADAMS, fl. 1995. Aneic", NekllC" : Garsuln.£! in rhe City of l-flerakonl)()li~ (\lew MalJen: Sia Publishing) HOFFMAN ,M.A. 1980. Egyp( I3efore rhe Pharaohs ( Lnndo n: Rou tl eJ ge and Kegan Paul) MJ[)ANT·R EYNES , B. 201.10. The l'rehlSwry uf EIf.'/)( (OxforJ: BhlCk wd l) T HE
DAWN OF WR IT I NG
BAI:--JES,]. 1989, 'COlIlIllUIlUu i(a li on
:md di,'Ipl (l')':; th e in tegnuion uf t'ari y Egypti an art and wrirlng', AnriqJ./ ir)1 Cd:
471 82 fl.A IN ES, ). 1999. 'WtIl lllg, IIWenti"n
,h,
UI1i\'c r ~l t y
of C,liiforl1l ,-m Press)
DREYER, C. 19'i~. Umm el·O(uib I. Das prddynasfiche KiJlH~sgrab U·j lind .~eifiC fn;hen SchrjfL':.cHgllis.~c (Ma in::
Phi lipp \'o n 7ohem) DREYER, G. 1999. 'Ahydos Umm cl· 0,,',,1), EAE: 109- 14 IZA Y, ). D. 1986. 'The Emerg"nce of Wri l in~ in Egypt', World Archaeology 17/l: l07- 16 E t, YI'T IAN N AMES AN D T ITLES
BECKERATII , J. \'o n 19M/199'1. HalldbHCh dcr df!Yplischen K6ni,!!'sna.men (MUI1H:h: DL'l ltsc\ lcr Kl ll lsl vering/ Main:;:: Philipp vo n Z:l~l'rn) QUIRK E. S. 1990. Who were (he Phan.UJh.~ ! ( L(mJt)ll: Bn ti sll M u~e um Pre"s)
C HAPTER 11: T H E ANCIENT EG YPT I AN LA NG UAGE A LLEN, ). 1'. 2000. 1\1l1ddl, i::gYi>lwn: An IlHl'odtcnion CO lhe Lan,!!"uaR"i? and Ct4lwre of Hi"roglypll.l (C:alllhriJge: Cambridge Ul1IversHY Press)
COLLIER. M. ond 13. :"'l ANLEY 1998. How Lv Read ERYPLiclIl HiC?l'O.£!/yphs (Lond ~lJ):
Bri tish MlI'ICI IIII Pres:-.) DEPUYOT, L. 1999. l'ill1d<1l11enwls of Eg)p(ian Grammar (Parr I: Elemer1fs) (l'ortnn/Mcrkcn: Frog Puh ii:-h ing)
ERJv1,\N, /\. anJ I I. \ 92(j- )
l~ R :\I'OW
1. \'(/Drrerhudl Jc.! r ii~r:I}wt:ht:l l
~prache, 5vv
(Le'r:ig: I IcIl1t1ch,' ) GARDI" ER , Sir A 1957. E!r ,p(ian (Jnun1llaJ: brill.£! an ilHJ ucillrthJll IU rilt.? \ulily of hia(JglYJ1h~, 'rd ~·~hI H m (Ox ford: (J riffirh In"rlr1l rc)
FAULKNER, R.O. 1962. A ConCISe lJiCfionan of Middle EIr'IP(ian (OxfurJ: G riffith i mtl tlll c) ~""Iy oj IVTlflllg. re\', edn. (Chicago: Chicago Unl\'er'It\'
GEL13. I.J. 1963. A r r e~~)
LOf'RIENO. A. 1995. Ancienl Eg:I'lwn. A Lin~lli5 1 ic Itllrodllcrion ( Ca mhriJge: C::;'-JJlIh ri~lge U ll ive r~lIy Prt::~~) .
MOLLEI(, G. I 'lOY- I 2. Hi
CUi\ PTEH Ill: T HR EE MI LL EN OF WRITI NG flAI\lES. ). R. 19~1. 'Llferacy nl1J
IA
Ancienr Egypnan 50c l<., ty·, ,\..1an Ib:
572 ·99 CERNY.) . 1952. Pa/'eT "lid owl- ill Ancienr i.::gy/)r (L~md()n! ILK. Lcw!'" reprinteJ Chicago: t~re~ Prt:~~ )
D,A,VIES, N.M. 1958. Pic(l/Te W;riwlR Ancient F.gyJI1 (Oxiord: O,("r.I
III
Un iver5.iry Pres" )
GOEDICKE, H. 1972. 'Hier,)glyph (c !I\s<..: npt ion:- o(l.he O ld KIIH.!J olll ', III
Ten. s e' languages de ·F:If.'J'1e phamomqHC? Cenc cmqance ans de reclICrche.l (I 822 · 1972). H ommage if ] .' F. Clullllpollion (0"",: IFAO ): 1(,-~4 . I Ii\RRIS, ) .R. (ed.) 1971. The LeKaC\ 0f E~,p( (OxforJ: ClarenJoll Pre--) .
14 0
Ti l E III EROG LYPHS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
JAYlES, TG.I I. , 1 9~4 . Pharaoh's People (London: &,lIey I lead: New York: Ox rord
Cll i \'cr~ i l\'• Prt!~')
UC:HTHEIM, YI . 1971--<'0. Ancient EJ(!prwn Lil
MERT?, fI. 1978. Red Land, Black Land (Nell' Y0rk: Doeld, Meael & Co.) PA RKIN SON, R.B., 1991. VoiCeS from Egyjn (L() n don : Rriu li h MlI ~l'lI m Press)
A JlL: lcnt
SCl IAFER, II. 1974. Prindp"" of E!fYPlian An (Oxford: Oxford Unin: r,ny Pre,,)
SIMPSON, W.K. (cel.) 1972. The Lueracure of Ancic?1H EJ!Jp! (Ne w l lave n (mJ LonJn n: Yellt: C ni vers ily Prt:!l:") SMIT H, W.S., 19%. The An and i\rchieectllre of Ancient E10'pr. fe\' by
W.K. S illlp~on (;-..Jew H:1 \'c n: Yale l kl1Vl'fSirv• rr~'ss) WILKINSON , 1\.1 I. 1994. S,mbol and /v!a~e 111 E!fYplian An (London: Th mllt::-. and Hudson) INSC RIPTION S 1'01\ T il e GOD S
SCHAFER, B.E. (ed.) 1997. Temples of Ancient Eg)'/H (L()nd\m: LB. T luris) SCHWALLER DE LURe?, R.A. 1999. The Temples of Karnak (London: Th . IIHc,:,
anJ
I II'[ones and Mystenes of Man, 1988) C HRON ICl.E S
REDFO RD, D.Fl. 1 9~6. Pharaollle KingLiSts, Annals and Day-Books (Mis;')i~;')a uga:
Bt:nhcll)
EXPEDITI ON RECO RDS
AL BR IG HT, w.F. 1966. The PmwShwitic Insc.,-i/JthnH (lnd (heir Dwphennent (Camhriclge MA llarv::uJ Un ivers itv• Press)
GA RDINER, AH. 19 16. 'The Egyp1.i:.m O ri g in of rh c Se miti c Al pho het', )t:A 3: 1- 16 TEXTS O F MA G I
AND M W IC I K t
NUNN, J.E 1996. Aneienr Egyptian MedlCmc ( Lo ndon: Bri t ish .\tfuseulll Pre,,) IV: THE MY STERY O F THE HIEROG LYPHS HO RAPOLLO 1991. T he Hicmglyj!h, cs uf HUn/p()lIo, I'ransL-Jt('d an d in trodu ced by U. HeXt3 (Princeton: Un ive rsity Pre::.::.)
CIlAPTER
IVERSEN , E. 196 1/1993. The i\1Ylh of Eg) tJ! and its HierogiytJhs In Euru[Jean Tradition (CopcnhJg'cn:
Uadd!Pri ncem n: U n ive rll il ), Pre~:,)
V: DEC IPH ERMENT OF HIEROG LYPHS
C II AI"1 EH
DODSON, A. "IlJ S. IKRAM 2004. The Timlh in Ancient Eg)'/)( (London: T holnes & I lud'on) FAU LKN ER, leo. 1969. The Aneienr Egyp,ian l')rDmid TexIS (Oxford: LJ ni vc.:r~iI Y rre~s) FAULK~ ER,
R.O. 1994 T he Egyj)rian Booh of dte Dead (San Francisco:
C::h rll ll id~ B(}ok~) I I OR ~UNG,
E. 1990. Th" Valley of ,he Kings: Iionzon of Eterniry (New York:
Til llkt:tl
ruhl l:.. ll er~)
H OR~UN r;,
E., 1999. The Ancient E!fYprian Books of rhe Allerl,fe (Ithaca &
Londo n: C-.)rnell Cn iversiry Press) I KRI\~l ,
S. "nd A. DODSON 1998. The Mummy' In Ancient EgyJJ[ ( London: T hames and I ludson) SPENCER, J. 1982. Dearh in AncietH E&'YJH (H i-Irlllond . . worrh: Pe n gui n) HI STO RI CAL I NSCR IPT IOKS
FlREA STED, ]. H. 190, . Ancient RccurJ'\ of Egypr, 5\,\' (Ch icago: Chicago Un ive rsi ty Press; rerrimeJ Lo ndon:
::1
Co rrectio n ' ,
JEA 44: 12l DAWSON, W.R. and E.P. UPHILL 1995. Who \XIas Who III Eg) j)wlogy, 3rd ed irilln hy M.L. Blerhrle r ( London: Egypt Exploration Society) DEPLJYOT, L. 1999. 'Egypti"n (Iangu: tgc), dec ipherm en t of', EAE: 271- 4
GR IFFITI I, F.LI. 1951. 'The Decipllt:rnH;;lll {)( rh e H icf\ )glyp hs',
JEA li: lR- 4(, HALL, H.R. 19 16. 'Lertersof Champoll ion Ie Je Line allJ o( St:yffarrh
to Sir WilI i" //1 Ge!\', JEA 2: 76-87 IVER, EN , E. 1972. 'The Bo nkes Obelisk', /11 Ob
POPE, M. 1999. The S/Ory of Deeipilennenl. from Egyplion Hiemgly)[,hs to Maya Script, revised ed ition (London: T h ames & Hudson )
HuJson)
TilE TEXTS O F B URIAL
of lh~ Ro~cua S ronl':
ADKNS, L. ""J R. 2000. The Keys of E1,'YI": The Race to Read ,he Hieroglyphs. (London: I lorperColiins) ANDREWS, C. 198 1. The ROSella SlOne (LonJ on: Brilish MlI:,elllll Press)
m ; rx,E, E.A.W. 1R9l. 'Memoir oi SO lnucl Bitch' , TSBA 9: 1-43 BUDG E, E.A.W. 1904. The Decrees of Mmnpilj.~ and (;an()l)u.~, )VV (L
l\wl, Tren ch, T rlihned
BU LX3 E, EA W. 1920. An EgYPlian HiemglyJ)/t ic DicLi!J7Iary , J (I.orhion: Jo hn Mu rray): \·-Ixx iv
BUDGE, EAW. 1925. 'The Dec ipherme n l o( tltt: Egyp llrl n Hi cr
(C.llnbnage: Un iversity Press): 123- 64 COM MI SSION DES MONUMENTS , D'EGYPTE 1809- 22 . DC.\tT'j)(io" de /' f:g)'[He, (J U Rented des ubsen.,ations et des recherches qlli 0111 ere fa ires en E!fYple pcndcm ['expedition de /'anllt.!c frall~a is: AnriqHit6 (Planc hcs), 9 + lOvv (P;:u is: 1mprimc ric irnperiaie)
DAWSON, W.R. 1958. 'The Discoverer
RE~OUF,
Sir P. Le P"ge 1R19. 'Seyfi,," h :tnd LJhkman on E~yp t ion Hieroglyphics', A ,iantls 1859, 11/3: 74- 97, repr in ted in G. Masper
W.H RylanJ, (eas), The Life Work uf Sir Pe LeT U Page Renouf I (Pa ris: Ernest Lernux, 1902): 1-31 RENOUF, Si r P. 1862. 'Dr Seyrr" rl h and lhe A tl r1 ll 1. i ~ on Egyptol ogy' Arla",i.' III /G: .lO6-3~ , reprinted in Life
Work: 33- 80 SIMPSON , R.S. 1996. Demoric Grammar in ,he Ptolemaic Sacerdoral LJecrees (Oxtord: Griffith Ins titu te) VERCOUTTER,J. 1992. The Searrhfor Anciem F./..'YI)( (Lon do n : Tha mes &
Hudson ) U SEFUL W EBSIT ES 111.1 p:l/www.nc.:\\.[On .cam. ::le. uk/egy pt!
IIldcx.hrml h ttp://vv·ww.breaki ngtilt!c( ,de.Ct lIll h llP://WWW.fllSP
141
INDE X
IN DEX A
Asyu t 45, 71
abb reviations 139 Abercromby, Sir Ralph lOti Abu Sim bel 17,1 I I
3l1 t o hio g r ~phiC's
Ahusi r 60, 70, 72, 7f! i\bydm fe sti va l of OSlr i ~ 6b- Y
kmg. li sts 74
my,,\ tulllb(l 11. 15, 17, 23 lempie of Rarneses II 34- 5,
7j
B Rctdart ,ln Peri od 10, 14 I-b.kcnkho nsu, hi~ h p r ie~t -)0 B
112,118 l3
temple of Scrhy I 76, H6, 99, 127 Account of .wmle rt:cem I )i sc()1Iem~s in rhe HicrtJ!.(/YIJhiml Littw tH n: 112 aJ jcct i\"es 49 :1Jmln istr(Jtivt: d ocument::;
76-7 "~ r iculture
00-71
12-13, 14,30, j2
A hmose I 70
Ahm ose II 41 Ahmosc-Pcnnckhhct 70 ,A, hm o~c-~l- l bna
•
66-7,70
Akerblad, Johdn Dd\'lC1 109 :\Iex,mder the G reat 26, 90, 94
111,112 , 115 Hc ni Hasan, tomh j 54 Bt:rini ke, Illt:rogiyp h 107 , li Z Bt:rl in sdlool 12 2-4
biographies 58
chro nology 59
Budge, Wallis 122 Rurrol1 , ];:t!ll{':; 121 Ru rchmnlll1 , :;crihe W; Hyz::mnnc Period 17, 94, 111
C
Amc n messe 1H. 76
cd lellJdr
,A.mc ny -Qemau 27 Ammaniuli ~1 an.:e1l1l1 u ~ 96 Ammenemeli I 69 AllI fdli all c ui lure
Callun uf K i llg~ 122 CanoplI::', Dec tt"e uf 90, 11 0,
Inli lrucliom
u(80 :\ llk }lIIe~pepy,
Queen 74
Anu bi" ~ud 36, 127 A rdh Pe riod 95, 97, 135
Arahic 36,92,97, 109 A rc hai..: I~eri()d 11, 36,
58, 133
:\ swan 17,68, 69,78,98, 100
chctiomlry 124 grdllHlldr 122, 124
I ) i c ti()l1ll(lJ )"f' ((:h rim ro ll inn)
la n gudge/dt:velopll1t:nt Vi,
l) i od or\l ~ SICIlIIlS 1)4
46, 47, 3 1 37, 94, \35
cuI" 1 1,03,68,99 emsiv(' srripr 41, 102, 11R
121, 121 11H,12 1 Dit'im: Ltl.((lriull of M{m:~,
52
119, 121,127 carto uche 24, 26, 2/, 28, 128, 138 Ch'.lh<1s, Frlln \()i~ [22 Ch:1i rcmon 96 ( =ha mpol llol1 , JeR n -Frrm\-o b 105- 7, 110- 11 , 112- 15,1 18, 121 C hampoi llon-F igeac,
Jacqlle~
J"seph 115, 11 8 Chancellor 30, 87 C hrist ian ity 46, 51,90,94 6,
97 chron icles 74-5 ch rono logy 132-5 c iv il wnr 21 , 19, AI , 61 , 7 1
The:
::'I.rtbe 45, 85 Djoser, King 59 1\) mit i:1n 2i , 1('0, 102, 1\.....'3 l)u; nnu rcf
65
D Dah~hu r
14, 60 dates 52- 3, 132 de Guig nes, Jose ph 102 -3 lie' Rouge, [mm ~l11u(, \ 121, 122 tIC' S:1cy. R~1ro n A ntnineSikcsrrc [ 09, I I H death .~ee fLlI1Cf;-lrV, deci phermcnt of hieroglyph s Berlin se h oul 122-4
break through 112-15, 119 22 ch ronology 104 5 mod e rn dclxl t(' 124- 6 rh o nctic thenry 1 10, 11 3, Iii red i ~c( )very!i n t e rpret;1 tion
Amc nh mcp IV 26
An khe~hoshen q ,
Dietjannl)' of lltl? ElDPtian Lmguagt' (I)erliJ1 ~('h o{l\)
Dj hLL l U\\J~l"
lOG, 12 1, 136 Brug::.ch, Hei nri dl 122, 127
11 Anhu rkhdu 82-3
drc ir,hrrm r nr ~1 i d 110. 113, I 20- 1 definiti on [3 1')
Cnlln , \V<1lter 124
Bn t i ~h MlI~ellm
Amun-Re, tem p le o f ') 1, 72 anc it'nr Egypri,1n n:'lmec; ~ I ,
124
C o ptic
cuurt proceed ings 76, 77
h icf;-lrlC ~cnrt 47 Houch:·trd, Pi e rre. Fran~o i sXdVler 106
see ::..JaqaJ a I Amun, god 26, 3 1
DlCtiondry, Copt ic (Crum )
bird gods 24, 28, 32, 44 The nlind ing Tru th hy F;11 schood' 87 b,)::l r im8g(,fY 11 Bonaparte , I'dro lt:on 104, 106 Buok uf Cuming Furth h y Day (see Buvk u( th" Dead)
Book of the Dead
12~,
123
CU I-'lJC Pt:rtod
flJn ct ion 64 , 61, I ,)H
Amenhirkopshef, Prince 29 l\m e nh orcp " 26 Amcnhotcp III 26, 11 , (d
H-9, 10, I I, 17, ,6 /JI C!IOJ111r)' ( Ri tch) 12.[,
Birch, S amud 12 1, 122, 123
!\menc mh nh, Cicn cr:1 1 70
Amenemsaf, papy rus o f 65
CUI lIIll UIl nCllll es 33 cun :'Ullal1 Ls 42, 44, 138
dc w· lopnlt' nr of h i (' r ngl\'rh~
102 Djed, gr>d 33 Dje t, u. )llLb of 24
111, 111
Amcn cmh m V 27 Arnenemhdt V I 27 Amenemhdt, Vi zier 78
. .kterm inat i\·es 42--4 , 102, 138
re in lerp reldl iu l199- 1oo
alp habe t 38- 41 , 124
Amcnc-mh::n [/1 14
c lim:1f(, ch;:t nge:; 14 (:nffin Text, iii, 19, 64, 11R Collier, Mark 124 Co lonna, Fmnccsco 9')
}7,
de ciph erm e nt :'I irl 107, 1 [ 0,
Amc nclnh:u II 6 1
Dcscnplion de /' Egyplc 104, 106
bi ble"'\' 44,11 8
A lexander, hie roglyph I 12
Amene ln hnr I 69
Cbud iu:s 27 ,1 32 Ckm('nt nf" A l(,x~lJ1d r i ~1 96
92,9(J- 10> Rusella Stollt' 47, 90, 104-9 thoorio, 109- 19 decrees bilingual III Canopus 90, 110, 119, 12 1, 127 Chrl)11 l)],Jgy 58
E Edfl.l, lem pl e 32, 63
Edjo, goddl'::'s 23 Edw in Sm it h Su rg ical 88 Egyp r
( :h:1 mrnllil)n 's ('xl'lC'cii rioll 11:; civi l W:1 r : 1,59, 6 1. 6~, 71 Jccill1c 111 r owcr 73, 90,
94-5 fuu n Jation 10-11, 14,20
gt"oWaph) 10 12 geology 14, 17
mo n tl rch\', 135 N:1polC'{) nic cxpcdi ri nn 104,
106 l\uss i:1n ('x l",ditinn 119 Ropuh lrc 11 5 u nification 11, 20 as world powt:r 68, 72 Egypt ia n col lec tiu n ) 136--7 E,.t;)p!ill1l
Grammar 123
Egyptology. fir~l pro(e::,sor .. hw
115
Dcir c l- R:1h:1ti 79, HS, 9H Dc ir c l-Med in:'l 76, 77 , H2 - ~,
EI-Alll rll 14 EI- Knh 6('>-7,70
85 Jell" Valle, Pietro 99
1::1eph:'lnrll1c Isbnd 17
demoLic ~ctip L 138
dec ipher ing 106, 107, 109, 112, 127 dl:.'velopml:.'nL 37, 5[ last use 104 uscs 45, 47, 90 Den, to mb of 25 I)cndrlt'rl C)C)
Paryru~
epithet> 26-7, 28, ll, 11 ), 128,138 Enchsen, \\Iol ja 123
En rr arr, :,dul( 122, 123 ex pedi tloll recorJ~
i8-9
F Farouq, King 1)"3 f<) lh ('r~, name:» 27, 29
14 2
Ti l E HII' r( OCLY I'H S OF Al\Cl I-:l\T E(;Y I' T
I·, udk nt:r, 1\'1\'I1HmJ 12; ~ dYOUlll cuilurL'''t 14 fli ldll \'t,' H0 Il1I1\,1
Flr~ l
2i, 29
Int.:nnt.,d l
58. 13\ Fhwian dyn'h ry 132 Fort Julit.:11 lOn, 107 Fr,IIKt' (: h ,11l1 !~1) 1 1 i l m\ l'''PI>cI. li lH1
II\
N:lpnb.lnH.:
l'X P 0dlHtll1
1L14,
106 Pr~l ft'''''''I .f'.. hl l~ (l( Eg~Tll III \1.{)
L II
H\.'nll\.'~
Ill) l it
96 H\.'nncLLL Cllfl'U ) 96. l l' l 1 11(' r0 hlcrnglyp hlC C'll li \" lk nt~ 4cL 2. Ie! u'>t,,> 45, 47, 5~, 90 H i f!r(lR.I~lp IH C(l 96 7, 99 hicr(!~lyp h ~
I I5 hl~)J...,
~I?l'
47. 19, 64- '5 turH'r.u'\, {'h'l r e'l, b4, (Ii funcr.lry dnm,li n ... ')0 funerary tn-.cn r nlln .. (let, 62, (, i. (,4 I lJt)l'I';1 1)
also d('clphermen t tI t
of O~lrh H6, 1.)7 temp le uf 9C, 94. 112,114,
118
J
Ruse/lini
J;mellt, C ,lt,lldi l IS Jld li11l C I:l udi:m .IYll:ht~ 1)2
K
Natpda II (> ...1 11 . 60. t\i. 92. 9J, I I I
"'
firq 10
lot'/!
gr:lll1ll1:lI'
411-9. I II. 122,
gln:-;~ :1r V I ,I)
121-4.127
gold 24 (Jn ldL'n Fa lco n n :I1lH.! 24, 27, 56, 1)8 GlIoJ\\ Il l, Chi:Lrle.., 122
JnoJ ern 1..)2, n ew 1..)7, 1)1..)
G(lUllil.n(,I\,
gra ffiti 90
K;uniws('s 70 • K'1tn""C' 70
-
Cimr'~)\\',
"f,d i' k, Y~, 10 1. 101
Ed \\';l f.l 12 1
-. , 11 )-
f
chm111clc~ 7 4 -~
('iYc('k nam('~ 22 greek :;cnpt
expe..lt u \lI \ rel.:orJ ~ 7h-9 IIl~Ln \, 1101l~
COp tiC ha:-I:-. 47
dt'\..lpht' lmL·!H ilid 47. 96, I Ic bng"lI
72 3
ll llrapo llu 96, 97, 104 lIofdjl'def, Pri ncl' 80
I lnrl' mhch 14 I InnIs
hlr..! , ,ymh,1 24, 12, 44 cul t (If "}l) name 23, 24, 27, 28, ,>om· of 65
123. 12 5
1~ 3
.n,
1J~
b6, 87 temple ~ )( H. 63
ill ~tiJfle~
H h, lI hJ ~ \\ fi lte ll
te.'''' 45, 47, 58,
IO~. I l~
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144
THE HI ER O(";L YrH S OF AN(;IENT ECJYPT
Turin, Canon of Kin g~ 112 Tllmnkhrl1111ln 19 Tllrhm O"is 107, 113, 115
Gu,,-I'5 'X/ite 31 \Juhi ;l11 r1l1 " 71
StUIlt' Age 14 <"w n e q1l8 1Tl e~ 14, 78-9,98,
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94,
rldm inistr'tlt iH docume n Ts 70 ,goa of 27
lJpl'er Egyp t 14, 20, 30
64 .77, 111
\V:1rli Ibmm l l:df P
\Vilkimon, Sir Joh n (:; mrl ncr 115 , 121 wi sdom l i l~ralllrt' 80 \\'0111 (' n 32, 80, 84, 1 12 wor,1 signs 44 W'urterb uch Jef i:ifDtm~ che.n Sprach, 1ZJ, 120 wntillg sec Jemotic; gree k; hie ralic ; hi cru L:lyph~ \~'ri Li ng med ici 58
Vnlley of the Queens 29
rnndels 71, 87 tfnck 12, 17. hR, 72, 7R, R8 (r:111sl irf' r:ni o n I1H rri lir(' r:1 l ~ 44, 11K, 11K Tunah el Ot! hd YG
Teri 98 Thehes
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inscriptinl1 ;; 60, 62, 63, 64, 60
ob" Ii,k; 98 len:>es 48
Udjah()rrt!sller 70 U hl~ lllalln, Max 119
V
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64
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y YOllng, Th nln :JS 105, 106 10 , I I2
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101
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,
Egypt and the Ancie• nt Near East
\.. .
TURKEY
•
-
-=
• Boghaskol
HI TI IT E EM PI RE
e Athens •
MITANNI
GREECE
• Ashur
ugant _ ( 'rell.!
AL AS HI A (') I'RL'S
AS SY RI A
• (Jaaesh
iR AQ
Byb'os . TY'f! .
Meglddo e Jopp;'l .
! .
• Baghdad
Damascus
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BA BY LO NI A
Jerusalem Gala . e __
•
,
JORDAN
'anis
AJexandria h'
IVlemp IS •
•
SU M ER
(liil ()
EGYPT
1.0/..(' Va" sc, .
•
• \/1(
Cf
KEY TURAL')
SUDA N
or I Ir) 1,1
Modern City
MI TANNI
Ancient State
• Luxor • }.:l.l.J II f Ol ' ',I
Modern State
Archaeological Site l Ancient City
•
The complete history of hieroglyphs for everybody interested in the ancient Egyptian culture . • From the earliest marks on pottery, to the last known example, hieroglyphs are explored in fascinating detail • Authoritative, accessible text by expert Egyptologist Aidan Dod on • The intriguing story of how hieroglyphs were decoded and who made it possible • Highly illustrated with colour photographs of ancient site, • texts, artefacts and wall painti
, , •
..
.
hb
va
.. •
timelines and ch 89.952 Dodson, Aidan
The hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt
•
ISBN
REFERENCE/ EGYPTOLOGY
1 - ~5974 - ',
3275596875 020325 •
3275596875 Arhus Kommunes Bibl.
•
