'The hieroglyph [egg] and the Origin of 'the Sun god inside his disk' iconography', in: W. Grajetzki & G. Miniaci, (eds.), The World of the Middle Kingdom Egypt (2000-1550 BC), MKS I, London, 2015, 309-324ff. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Functions and Meanings of the Egg Determinative in the Egyptian Writing System
The attestations of the hieroglyph ‛egg sign’ in the Egyptian writing system reveals many of its significant functions and meanings. Often, there is a specific significance that is adapted for the egg sign in words, where it is attested as an ideogram, determinative or as a phonetic complement. In this paper, I wish to assess and collect the Egyptian words where the egg sign is attested. I will then classify and interpret the functions and meanings of the egg sign within these words. The egg is used as an ideogram and/or signifier for Isis as well as other Egyptian goddesses. There are several other uses of the egg sign in the writing system, for example, the egg sign is attested as a determinative in words that share some of the significance or features of an egg. This may return to physical, physiological, mythological or cosmological connections with the egg. These multiple uses and meanings explain the numerous metaphoric connections of the egg, which will be examined further throughout this article.
Seen Not Heard: Composition, Iconicity, and the Classifier Systems of Logosyllabic Scripts. Ed. Ilona Zsolnay , 2022
This article examines ancient Egyptian techniques for encoding the cosmic symbolism of the akhet hieroglyph as a guiding principle in both the architectural and decorative layouts of certain royal burial chambers during Egypt’s New Kingdom. This discussion focuses on a group of cosmological scenes, the iconography and underlying symbolism of which may be described broadly as relating to the solar horizon, or point of transition from day to night and/or night to day. After a brief overview of the broader, cosmological genre in which these scenes appear, it examines how heraldic symmetry, horizontality, and verticality were employed to draw focus to important moments of transition during the sun’s mythological voyage through the divine world. These scenes of transition functioned as integral elements in what may be termed a “hyper-logogram,” which I define here as a unified architectural-decorative program, within which the walls and ceiling were intended to be read in cyclical fashion—west to east, and east to west, according to the internal directionality of the monument—as an elaborate, three-dimensional expression of the akhet-concept.
Birmingham 10th Egyptology Symposium 2023 - 'Works in Progress in Egyptology'
“The eastern door of heaven is open to you. Nut has embraced you. She whose hair is long, and whose breasts hang down”: The Embracing Arms and the Heaven’s Doors , 2023
In the ancient Egyptian religious texts since the Old Kingdom, the sun god and the deceased are mentioned to have been embraced by mother goddesses to guarantee their rebirth after death. This idea appears in the concluding tableaux of the New Kingdom Netherworld Books which portray the solar deity elevated from the netherworld into the morning sky by pair of arms, while in tomb scenes and on the Third Intermediate Period funerary papyri and coffins, the sun disk is shown embraced by two pair of arms at its rising and setting. Despite of being attributed to deities like Nut, Shu, Nun and Tatenen; in most of the attestations, the identity of the owner of the embracing arms is kept anonymous. In fact, the depiction of the arms embracing the solar deity are associated with his Perpetuum Mobile across the eastern and the western horizons of the sky, and thus also related to his passage through the Doors of Heaven that gives access to these two horizons. Given to their protective role and secretive nature, the Doors of Heaven were almost concealed rather than appearing as mere portals, while their existence was denoted to in various themes, among which is the embracing arms. The research shows how the embracing arms are not only associated with the opening of the Doors of Heaven, but also substitute them in their role of separating between the different realms of the universe. Furthermore, the paper investigates the identity of the owners of these embracing arms, either deities or gatekeepers, and how through embracing the solar deity, they evoke the primeval moment of creation that entails his emergence from the Unified Darkness; a course repeated with every solar rising.
XIIIth International Congress of Egyptologists 6–11 August 2023 in Leiden, the Netherlands
Presentation: Hieroglyphic Palaeography of the Sun-Disc Sign in the Amarna Texts (1352-1327 BC). The reign of King Akhenaten from the 18th Dynasty resulted in many changes in religion, art, and philology. The changes in philology include innovations in syntax, such as the verbal system. It also features new ways of shaping hieroglyphic signs, which include both signs and determinatives. One of the most significant features of the language is the way of writing the sun-disc, which is written, according to the primary exploration, in many different ways. It is represented via four words: wbn, HD, sHD, and stwt, both in royal and non-royal sources. This research examines the sources of the Amarna texts and uses contemporary sources from texts from Thebes and Saqqara to (a) figure out the extent to which hand-written hieroglyphs are similar/different to standard hieroglyphs, and (b) offer insights into the organization and methods of the makers of hieroglyphics texts. My paper will tackle this sign to assess the type of material on which it was engraved and painted, focusing on the aspects that affected the forming of this sign. This study aims to examine why the sun-disc sign is attested in the Amarna texts in some instances with a hand, while in other examples it is written in a classical way? Do these types have the same sources and/or are the same words as those found outside of Tell el-Amarna? Are they different from the ones which are represented outside Tell el-Amarna?
Morra L., Bazzanella C., Hieroglyphs and Meaning, in eadem (a cura di) Philosophers and Hieroglyphs, Rosenberg & Sellier, Torino, pp.7-32. , 2003
This volume collects the proceedings of the international workshop I filosofi e la scrittura egizia -Philosophers and Hieroglyphs, held in Turin, Italy, on December 6 th and 7 th 2002 and organised by the local Departments of Philosophy and of Anthropological, Archaeological and Historicalterritorial Sciences.
A New Osirian Solar Epithet in TT49? Considerations about the nocturnal sun in the chapel
SANEM 5 -Rethinking Osiris International Conference. Florence, Italy, 26- 27 of March 2019., 2021
The preliminary results of the study of the iconographic program of TT49 , as well as the reconstruction of the funerary ritual are being analyzed. The activities developed in the project are founded on documentation (photographic and graphic) of the chapel (pillars, niche of statues, pilaster, walls), digital drawing of epigraphy preserved on decorated surfaces, and primary study of hieroglyphic inscriptions and comparative analysis of iconography in situ. These materials were processing to create an exhaustive documentary base for the study of scenes from a comparative point of view. This includes the inscriptions that were copied and partially published by the Egyptian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of New York at the beginning of the twenty century. It was also made the translation of unpublished inscriptions, when they were legible enough. In this context, the cleansing of the face (b) of the Southwest pillar has shown an osirian new epithet -HkA THn-, an hápax which could be explain since a combination of 1) the relationship between Re and Osiris, 2) a history of Egyptian religious ideas, and finally 3) the dynamism of the New Kingdom Books of the Underworld.