28 July 2006

What does Amenhotep's name mean?

This is a cartouche of one of the Amenhoteps (Amenhotep I, II, III, IV - Akhenaton). These kings ruled during the New Kingdom. The cartouche contains their birth name (nomen) which was introducted by "son of Re" (sa ra) title.

it is transliterated: imn htp
translation: Amun is content

words:
imn - Amun (god) (i and n uniliterals, mn - biliteral, n is phonetic complement of mn)
htp - content, pleased (htp - triliteral, t and p uniliterals)


More about the kings:

http://touregypt.net/featurestories/amenhotep1.htm
- Amenhotep I, the Second King of Egypt's 18th Dynasty

http://touregypt.net/featurestories/amenhotep2.htm
- Amenhotep II, 7th Pharaoh of Egypt's 18th Dynasty

http://touregypt.net/featurestories/amenhotep3.htm
- Amenhotep III, the Ninth King of Egypt's 18th Dynasty

http://www.touregypt.net/18dyn10.htm
- Amenhotep IV, Akhenaten

Digital Egypt Website


Take a look at this wonderful new website! It has amazing Quicktime panoramas and photos of Giza and Luxor.

http://egypt.ebeling.ee/

(to see panoramas you need QuickTime and Macromedia Flash plug-ins)

21 July 2006

Why some female names don't end in t?

(this question was asked in one of the comments)

Why female names like Isis, Hathor, Nephthys, and Qetesh don't end in t as other female words do? Every female name in ancient Egyptian is ending in t. Just that some of them we now know by their Greek version.

- Isis was called by ancient Egyptians most probably Aset (could have been pronounced Iset, Ast. Eset, Auset...)
- Het-Hert (-house of Horus-) is the Egyptian name for Hathor (Greeks called her Hathor).
- The Egyptian name of Nephtys is Nebt-Het (-mistress of the house-) - Nephtys is a Greek version too.
- Qetesh was originally a Syrian deity, so this is a foreign name/word

17 July 2006

Write a word - Egypt

Ancient Egyptians called their country kmt (Kemet), which literally means "black land".



kmt




km (tail of a crocodile), biliteral, code I6


-m (owl), phonetic complement, G17
-t (loaf), X1




is a determinative for town/city/nation (niwt), O49



more info:

Tour Egypt article: The Origin of the Name, Egypt
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/kmt.htm

10 July 2006

Phonetic complements

Phonetic complements are alphabet signs written after biliterals or triliterals to help with reading and sometimes for estethic reasons (or filling up the spaces left). They are not to be read.

Example:

nfr (good, beautiful) is usually written with three hieroglyphs - first is triliteral and then come f and r as complements.




- "A uniliteral sign following a biliteral sign is almost always a phonetic complement and not an additional letter".
-great number of biliterals use complement for their second consonant.
-alphabet signs can sometimes precede 2lit. or 3lit.

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