Harpoon (hieroglyph)

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Harpoon
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The ancient Egyptian harpoon, (archaeological, single-barbed type), is one of the oldest language hieroglyphs from Ancient Egypt. It is used on the famous Narmer Palette, of Pharaoh Narmer from the 31st century BC, in an archaic hieroglyphic form.

Ancient Egypt ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa

Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in the place that is now the country Egypt. Ancient Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Menes. The history of ancient Egypt occurred as a series of stable kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age.

Egyptian language language spoken in ancient Egypt, branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages

The Egyptian language was spoken in ancient Egypt and was a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Its attestation stretches over an extraordinarily long time, from the Old Egyptian stage. Its earliest known complete written sentence has been dated to about 2690 BC, which makes it one of the oldest recorded languages known, along with Sumerian.

Narmer Palette Egyptian archaeological artifact

The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC. It contains some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. The tablet is thought by some to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the king Narmer. On one side, the king is depicted with the bulbed White Crown of Upper (southern) Egypt, and the other side depicts the king wearing the level Red Crown of Lower (northern) Egypt. Along with the Scorpion Macehead and the Narmer Maceheads, also found together in the Main Deposit at Nekhen, the Narmer Palette provides one of the earliest known depictions of an Egyptian king. The Palette shows many of the classic conventions of Ancient Egyptian art, which must already have been formalized by the time of the Palette's creation. The Egyptologist Bob Brier has referred to the Narmer Palette as "the first historical document in the world".

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Language usage of harpoon

The hieroglyphic equivalent of the harpoon is wꜥ, and means "1", a single item, and it is one of the 102 Egyptian biliterals; its use is extensive throughout the language history, and hieroglyphic tomb reliefs and story-telling of Ancient Egypt.

The Biliteral Egyptian hieroglyphs are hieroglyphs which represent a specific sequence of two consonants. The listed hieroglyphs focus on the consonant combinations rather than the meanings behind the hieroglyphs.

Rosetta Stone usage

Front side usage of harpoon-(left photo), Narmer Palette. NarmerPalette ROM-gamma.jpg
Front side usage of harpoon-(left photo), Narmer Palette.

In the 198 BC Rosetta Stone of Ptolemy V Epiphanes, the harpoon hieroglyph is used only once, in line 8: "crowns, 10...with uraeus on their fronts, on one every among them."("on each among them").

Rosetta Stone Ancient Egyptian stele with inscriptions in three languages

The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele, found in 1799, inscribed with three versions of a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic script and Demotic script, respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. As the decree has only minor differences between the three versions, the Rosetta Stone proved to be the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs, thereby opening a window into ancient Egyptian history.

Ptolemy V Epiphanes fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt

Ptolemy V Epiphanes ; 210–181 BC), son of Ptolemy IV Philopator and Arsinoe III of Egypt, was the fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty from 204 to 181 BC. He inherited the throne at the age of five, and under a series of regents, the kingdom was paralyzed. The Rosetta Stone was produced during his reign as an adult.

Uraeus stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in Ancient Egypt

The Uraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt.

See also

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Townsite-city-region (hieroglyph) hieroglyph

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Arms-in-embrace (hieroglyph)

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Bull (ka hieroglyph)

The ancient Egyptian Bull (hieroglyph), Gardiner sign listed no. E1, is the representation of the common bull. The bull motif is dominant in protodynastic times, and also has prominence in the early dynastic Egypt, famously on the Narmer Palette. Its phonetic value is kꜣ.

References

Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East. He made numerous trips to Egypt and the Sudan on behalf of the British Museum to buy antiquities, and helped it build its collection of cuneiform tablets, manuscripts, and papyri. He published many books on Egyptology, helping to bring the findings to larger audiences. In 1920, he was knighted for his service to Egyptology and the British Museum.

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.