Treasure of Egypt - The Enigmatic Symbols of Ancient Egypt - Part V - the Unknown Symbol of Ancient Egypt

The Unknown Symbol 

Of Ancient Egypt

I love a mystery! A real ancient-world mystery? Even better!

That is why I think the hieroglyphic symbol that symbolically represents sound is so intriguing to me. The image itself has yet to be identified. . . . It is classified as “Unknown”.

“nd”

That’s easy you’re saying—it’s obviously a microphone. LOL!

If this were a modern symbol it may indeed be one, or something radioactive, but the real question is what did this symbol mean to the ancient Egyptians? It looks like a torch.

To better understand what this symbol may be, let us first begin with the triangles surrounding the oval at the top. In several of the hieroglyphs this denotes energy radiating outward.

Heat from a brazier as shown above or light from the sun’s rays as shown below.

“ḫʿ”

If it didn’t represent sound I would think it was a burning torch, but since it does the three triangles coming out of the top of the symbol are obviously meant to be the sound radiating out. The mystery then is what the stick with the oval on top characterizes. Below is the hieroglyph to ask, or inquire.

You may think that the key to this is the person pointing to their mouth, and you would be right.

The hieroglyph above is for eat, speak and emotions, however, this is also used to denote ownership of the verbal action taken.

This is the hieroglyph for voice.

Yet this one is to bequeath.

And this means favor.


To help us get at the answer to this puzzle we need to understand how the ancient Egyptians used body parts to express ideas.

“b”

The foot expressed movement.

“d”

The hand and the arm are used in reference to doing something depending on what it is holding.

If it holding a reed it is for writing, whereas, a loaf of bread signifies an offering, and a stick represents action or even violence.

“r”

The oval is also used as a symbol for a mouth and to infer voice. Keep this shape in mind.


The sideways facing head

”tp” upon or hence.

Literally everything from the hair on top of your head to the bottom of your foot was used. What is not as well-known, however, is the ancient’s use of internal organs to express an idea.

Yes, you read right—internal organs! LOL!

 “imɜḫ” or veneration.

Take the hieroglyph above of cow’s ribs with the issuance or marrow above. 

The ox tongue “ns” overseer.

The heart or “ib”. 

The symbol which sheds the most light on to what may be the true meaning of the symbol for sound is the hieroglyph for “nfr” and represents beauty.

This symbol is the heart and windpipe. Please note the long stick that is used to denote the windpipe.

”nfr” perfect, wonderful, good, beautiful. The horned viper “f” or “nf” and the mouth “r”.

“nfrw” perfection, splendor.

To the ancients the seat of the soul was the heart and therefore was used in this manner to signify beauty. Even Nefertiti, one of the most beautiful queens of Egypt, utilized this symbol in her name repeatedly.

The hieroglyph below is for protect and although we have the hand with the reed implying there is writing involved, such as the type written on the tomb walls that protect the Pharaoh in his journey through the underworld, there is also the symbol for sound. So what is making this noise? Is it an instrument of some type? I believe so.

The most powerful form of protection written on the walls of the tombs was to know and invoke the name of a god or goddess. Much like the ancient Celts the ancient Egyptians also believed that by speaking the name of the deity aloud it summoned them to their aid. Even in the story of Isis gaining the upper hand over Ra, she did so by knowing his real name and using it. Interestingly enough, this scenario plays out rather evenly across the ancient mythologies of the world.

So what musical instrument is being used?

I propose that the oval depicts an open mouth and the stem a windpipe (much like the one in beauty) which has sound issuing forth. I believe it’s the human voice. Music, singing, or a spell chanted was clearly a powerful tool to the ancient peoples of all lands. Either that, or it's and ancient weapon which emits high-frequency waves, using sound as a powerful blast. . . but that would be in a different story. LOL!

Thank you for your readership.

To read the first chapter click here: Treasure of Egypt Sneak Peek

To view Treasure of Egypt's Amazon book page and start reading today!

For Amazon.com click here

For Amazon.de click here 

The adventure awaits!

To read the previous articles on The Enigmatic Symbols of Egypt, click below:

Part I - The All-Seeing Eye

Part II - The Origins of the Sphinx

Part III - The Misidentified Symbols of Ancient Egypt

Part IV - The Lost Symbol of the Sun and The Wings of Isis

Part V - The Unknown Symbol of Ancient Egypt

Website: www.barbaraiviegreen.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/barbaraiviegreen

Email: barbaraiviegreen@aol.com

Treasure of Egypt - The Enigmatic Symbols of Ancient Egypt, Part IV, the Forgotten Sun Symbol and the Wings of Isis

The lost symbol of the Sun 

and the Wings of Isis

The true identity of this ancient symbol, used to denote the regnal years of the king, has become lost over the years. I know what you are thinking . . . it’s obviously a chocolate chip cookie. Hahaha! Actually, it is thought to be a threshing floor, but I believe this too is incorrect.

This hieroglyphic is used to denote the regnal year. In Ancient Egypt, time was kept by recording the years the pharaohs ruled. A ∩ denotes ten years, while a straight line I indicates one. A rule of twenty eight years would look like this.

It also phonetically represents the sound sp, or, in this case, rnpt-sp (regnal year).

So why is threshing floor an incorrect interpretation? Although the pharaoh was tied to the prosperity of the land, and this does make a connection with the harvest – and, accordingly, the threshing floor – somewhat believable, this symbol is actually associated with time, which IS a designation that the sun and its symbols DO represent.

Take the hieroglyphic phrase for “repeatedly”

or the one for “eternity”

or for “daily course”

“day”

“daytime”

etc, etc, etc. You get the picture. :O)

All of these have two things in common. The sun symbol , Ra, and a reference to time.

Now take the phrase for “a moment”

and “never”

(the arms represent the negative meaning “never will there be a moment”.)

These symbols represent time as well, casting new light upon what this symbol actually is.

Just as Ra is representing one day, I believe the speckled disc in question represents the solar calendar, with each dot representing the years in the lunar cycle.

So why was the meaning behind this disc lost to antiquity? I came across something while researching my book Treasure of Egypt that may answer that puzzling question. Perhaps it was, in part, due to an expungement long ago. Much like the moon’s symbols being misidentified due to religious controversy, it appears as if the speckled disc fell out of favor and was rarely used by the Priests of Amun after the rein of Pharaoh Akhenaten.

If you look, you will find the symbol among many of the writings chiseled into the Telatat blocks from the Aten Temple that was dismantled after the pharaoh’s death. So why was it used so prodigiously during Akhenaten’s reign, yet was almost strictly relegated to denote the regnal year henceforth?

I believe it had much to do with the Heretic King’s closing of the Temples of Amun during his reign and the subsequent efforts of the priests to wipe out the symbols Akhenaten had used to promote his worship of the sun after his death. This once auspicious symbol of the sun has been reduced to what is now thought to be a threshing floor.



The Wings of Isis

There are many sun symbols in the ancient hieroglyphs.

The aten above – a disc with long, streaming rays, the circle with a dot in the middle that represents Ra the sun god, and even Khafre the dung beetle – in a strange association where life springs forth from decay – represent the rebirth of the newly risen sun and the idea of becoming.

It should be noted, however, that the hieroglyphs including the dung beetle are also associated with being or becoming, and not time.

. . . BUT I do not believe that the Wings of Isis is among the symbols that refer to the sun. If you have read my book or the previous articles you know that both Isis and Hathor were associated with rebirth and the moon – not the sun. Another reason that this harvest moon may have been confused with the sun is the moon’s ability to travel across both the day and night skies.

Thank you for your readership.

To read the first chapter click here: Treasure of Egypt Sneak Peek

To view Treasure of Egypt's Amazon book page and start reading today!

For Amazon.com click here

For Amazon.de click here 

The adventure awaits!

To read the previous articles on The Enigmatic Symbols of Egypt, click below:

Part I - The All-Seeing Eye

Part II - The Origins of the Sphinx

Part III - The Misidentified Symbols of Ancient Egypt

Part IV - The Lost Symbol of the Sun and The Wings of Isis

Part V - The Unknown Symbol of Ancient Egypt

Website: www.barbaraiviegreen.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/barbaraiviegreen

Email: barbaraiviegreen@aol.com

Treasure of Egypt - The Enigmatic Symbols of Ancient Egypt Part III - the Misidentified Symbols of the Moon

The misidentified symbols of Ancient Egypt

Some of the greatest misinterpretations of the ancient hieroglyphic symbols concern those representing the moon. Previously, I have explained the origins of the Sphinx and the All-Seeing Eye as they pertain to the ancient Egyptians’ beliefs.

I discovered that there were several additional symbols which had seemingly been overlooked. The heavens played a large part in the ancient Egyptians’ beliefs, yet the moon and its symbols seemed scant, at best. To be one of the largest heavenly bodies, it has been largely ignored. One of its iconic symbols, that of the crescent, was used only rarely. The moon, it seems, was sadly neglected, or was it?

While researching the origins of the Sphinx and the All-Seeing Eye, it came to my attention that several symbols had been mistaken for other things, especially those that linked the role of the mother goddess to the ancient Egyptian’s belief in the afterlife.

The moon has symbolized the feminine in almost all of the world’s various ancient religions and mythologies, so why, then, is it so rare to run across it in the ancient Egyptian writings?

The five-pointed star, the Egyptian symbol of the priesthood (sacred knowledge) and adoration is shown here with half and full crescents above it. These symbols represented the half and full months on the lunar calendar.

And yet another, with what is thought to be the sun cradled within the moon’s embrace although this too I think could depict a new moon, eclipse, or lunar node.

Were these slim depictions, used sparsely at best, all that the moon merited?

In the year 391 A.D., Emperor Theodosius banned pagan rites throughout the Roman Empire and closed the non-Christian temples. Thus began a systematic purging of the ancient beliefs within all of the conquered lands. The lengths that the Roman Catholic Church went to in order to suppress these religions have been well-documented. Because of this, the Egyptian hieroglyphs remained silent until Jean–Francois Champollion deciphered the famous stone from Rosetta. Not all the symbols came to light, however. In 1827, when Champollion went to Egypt as part of the Franco-Tuscan Expedition, he was under an edict not to expose anything that may have been in conflict with the Church’s teachings at that time.

Not only did he not translate the dates on the Wall of Kings, but these restrictions also caused some rather unique labeling of some of the Egyptian symbols. It is my belief that Jean-Francois knew exactly what most of these hieroglyphs actually represented (due to the rather comical misidentification of some). Not wanting to open that can of worms, I believe he worked around them so as not to bring attention to something the Roman Catholic Church had so long tried to suppress, especially during a time of renewed interest in everything Egyptian.

Take the symbol of a half-circle, for instance. This hieroglyph represents the sound “T”. Champollion described this symbol as being a bun, and it is used to denote the feminine, or daughter. Could it be that this is, in fact, a half-moon?

Were any other symbols of the moon overlooked? The rising sun had a symbol that was very close to it. Why was this not a hot bun?

To better understand the ancient Egyptians’ hieroglyphic writing, we need to understand that the symbols not only phonetically, but also pictorially, represented a word. For instance, the symbol for life is the ankh.

The oval on the top represents woman, and the stem at the bottom man. The cross expresses the union of the two. Thus, it is man and woman together creating life.

The word itself is spelled by using the symbol “N”, a zigzag line, and a round circle with lines across it, which sounds like “kh”. Together, they not only phonetically sounded out the word “n-kh”, or ankh, but they also pictorially held meaning for the symbol of life.

The jagged line “N” represents water, in and of itself life-giving. The Nile’s sacred waters gave life to the land. The terms ebb and flow are still used today to describe life.

This symbol, a circle with lines running through it, is one that has been misidentified. When Jean-Francois Champollion translated the ancient symbols, he described it as being a ball of string, or a placenta. Oddly enough, the second suggestion is more correct, as far as its association with life is concerned.

This ball of string, however, represents something much larger. It does, in fact, depict the moon in all its phases.

The new moon is symbolic of birth, the waxing of the moon, youth. A full moon, our maturity, and the waning of the moon, our old age and eventual death, followed by rebirth. This connection with resurrection is why I believe its true meaning has been lost for so long. In many ancient cultures, the goddesses were worshipped for this most auspicious gift that included not only birth but also rebirth. This symbol of the striped ball is also quite prominent and is used in many cartouches, quite the honor for a little “ball of string”, wouldn’t you say?

There is one more symbol of the moon that illustrates the true meaning of the misidentified symbol above, the waning moon.

 I think it’s easy to see the similarities between the “placenta” above and this half-ball of string . . . I mean, waning moon.

Another symbol whose ties to the moon have been misidentified is the horns of fertility around the sun disc.

There is a tale of Seth killing his brother Osiris and scattering the pieces of his body. Isis, his sister/wife, gathered the pieces and, with the aid of Anubis, wrapped his body back together, missing only one unfortunate member, which she fashioned herself. Through her magic, Isis brought her husband back to life and was able to become pregnant with Horus.

The story illustrates the goddess’s role in the resurrection of the dead, which leads to yet another symbol that has been misidentified. The horns of fertility wrapped around the Uraeus, a symbol of royalty, was worn by Isis and Hathor, as well as the head priestess of Amun.

As pointed out in Parts One and Two of the Enigmatic Symbols of Egypt article series, Isis and Hathor share much the same place in the Egyptian Parthenon.

Understanding the many feminine associations with the moon—fertility; birth and rebirth; the goddess Wadjet and her connection with the Uraeus and the moon—it is easy to see that there could be a link of the disc to the harvest moon, full, ripe and potent. Yet another association of the disc within the horns may also be that of a comet. What is most definitely certain is that it is not the sun as has been postulated

To read more about the symbols of ancient Egypt, or to just enjoy a humorous action adventure/romantic comedy that has been described as being much like the new versions of the movies Sherlock Holmes, The Mummy (without the walking dead guy), and Indiana Jones, please click on the book.

-Author Barbara Ivie Green

Thank you for your readership.

To read the first chapter click here: Treasure of Egypt Sneak Peek

To view Treasure of Egypt's Amazon book page and start reading today!

For Amazon.com click here

For Amazon.de click here 

The adventure awaits!

To read the previous articles on The Enigmatic Symbols of Egypt, click below:

Part I - The All-Seeing Eye

Part II - The Origins of the Sphinx

Part III - The Misidentified Symbols of Ancient Egypt

Part IV - The Lost Symbol of the Sun and The Wings of Isis

Part V - The Unknown Symbol of Ancient Egypt

Website: www.barbaraiviegreen.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/barbaraiviegreen

Email: barbaraiviegreen@aol.com