A flake of limestone (ostracon) inscribed with an ancient Egyptian word list of the fifteenth century BC turns out to be the world's oldest known abecedary. The words have been arranged according to their initial sounds, and the order followed here is one that is still known today. This discovery by Ben Haring (Leiden University) with funding from Free Competition Humanities has been published in the October issue of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies.
The order is not the ABC of modern western alphabets, but Halaḥam (HLḤM), the order known from the Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Arabian and Classical Ethiopian scripts. ABC and HLḤM were both used in Syria in the thirteenth century BC: cuneiform tablets found at site of ancient Ugarit show both sequences. Back then, ABC was still '-b-g ('aleph-beth-gimel). This sequence was favored by the Phoenicians who passed it on to the Greeks, together with the alphabet itself. Thus a-b-g found its way to the later alphabets inspired by the Greek and Latin ones.
The ostracon was found over twenty years ago by the British Egyptologist Nigel Strudwick in an Ancient Egyptian tomb near Luxor. The text has never been understood, however, until it was deciphered by Ben Haring, a Dutch Egyptologist working at Leiden University. Haring made his discovery in the context of a research project on Ancient Egyptian identity marks funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
The text is an incomplete list of words written in hieratic, the cursive script used in Ancient Egypt for some 3,000 years. To the left is a column of individual signs that appear to be abbreviations of the words. Very possibly they even render the initial consonants of the words, which would make them alphabetic signs.
The hieratic script and the related hieroglyphic script were not alphabetic themselves. Yet the Ancient Egyptian scripts had an important position in the earliest known stages of the alphabet. Inscriptions in the Sinai Desert and in Southern Egypt show signs that are thought to be the earliest known alphabetic characters, and the forms of many of these characters were clearly inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs. Most of these inscriptions still resist decipherment. Some of their characters also figure in the left column of the word list deciphered by Haring. The list is therefore a key piece for the reconstruction of the earliest history of the alphabet.
This ancient Egyptian word list of the fifteenth century BC is the earliest known example of a list arranged according to their initial sounds. It gives a vital insight into the earliest known stages of the alphabet.
Source: http://phys.org/news/2015-10-earliest-abecedary.html
Showing posts with label Ostracon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ostracon. Show all posts
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Museum Pieces - Funeral Ostracon
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| (Photocredit: The Manchester Museum) |
| Accession Number | 5886 | ||||||
| Object Name | Ostracon | ||||||
| Description | Ostracon of limestone, from western Thebes, probably of New Kingdom date and donated by Sir Alan Gardiner. It bears a unique ink sketch: a scene of a funeral. The sketch shows a tomb shaft – of the type known from Deir el-Medina – with a group of female mourners gathered around it. Within the shaft a man is seen descending, and within the chambers of the tomb itself the burial party carry a coffin into place. A striking detail is that one of the party has a jackal head. Given the informal medium, the sketch is likely to show the burial as it happened, albeit in schematic fashion. The implication is that one of the party is wearing a jackal-headed mask. A famous example in Hildesheim may represent such a mask, used for the impersonation of Anubis, the god of mummification. | ||||||
| Height (cm) | 16.0 | ||||||
| Primary Materials | Limestone | ||||||
| Period/Dynasty | New Kingdom | ||||||
| Earliest Date | 1539 | ||||||
| Latest Date | 1075 | ||||||
| Site Name | Africa, Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes: West Bank | ||||||
| Acquisition | Gardiner, Sir Alan H. (Donation, 1913) | ||||||
| Bibliography |
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Sunday, May 19, 2013
Museum Pieces - Artist's Sketch of Pharaoh Spearing a Lion
Artist's Sketch of Pharaoh Spearing a Lion
In this lively hunting scene, an unidentified Ramesside pharaoh is represented symbolically slaying the enemies of Egypt in the form of a lion. The hieratic text reads: "The slaughter of every foreign land, the Pharaoh—may he live, prosper, and be healthy."
This ostracon, a limestone chip used for sketching, was found in the Valley of the Kings during excavations conducted by Howard Carter on behalf of the Earl of Carnarvon, who received the piece in the division of finds. Although many of the figured ostraca discovered in this royal cemetery were clearly trial sketches made to facilitate an artist's work, this scene is not found in royal tombs, nor do the figures conform to the strict proportions of a formal rendering.
The scene was drawn with great economy of line by the confident hand of a skilled artist who required no grid lines as a guide. It may have been done for the amusement of the maker, or it may graphically represent the artist's hope that the ruler should be a strong protector of Egypt.
Excavated by Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, 1920. Acquired by Lord Carnarvon in the division of finds; Carnarvon Collection, 1920–1926. Purchased by the Museum from Lady Carnarvon, 1926.
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| Photocredit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
- Period:
- New Kingdom, Ramesside
- Dynasty:
- Dynasty 20
- Date:
- ca. 1186–1070 B.C.
- Geography:
- Country of Origin Egypt, Upper Egypt; Thebes, Valley of the Kings, Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV 62), debris near the entrance, Carter/Carnarvon 1920
- Medium:
- Limestone, ink
- Dimensions:
- h. 14 cm (5 1/2 in), w. 12.5 cm (4 15/16 in), th. 1.5 cm (9/16 in)
- Credit Line:
- Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926
- Accession Number:
- 26.7.1453
In this lively hunting scene, an unidentified Ramesside pharaoh is represented symbolically slaying the enemies of Egypt in the form of a lion. The hieratic text reads: "The slaughter of every foreign land, the Pharaoh—may he live, prosper, and be healthy."
This ostracon, a limestone chip used for sketching, was found in the Valley of the Kings during excavations conducted by Howard Carter on behalf of the Earl of Carnarvon, who received the piece in the division of finds. Although many of the figured ostraca discovered in this royal cemetery were clearly trial sketches made to facilitate an artist's work, this scene is not found in royal tombs, nor do the figures conform to the strict proportions of a formal rendering.
The scene was drawn with great economy of line by the confident hand of a skilled artist who required no grid lines as a guide. It may have been done for the amusement of the maker, or it may graphically represent the artist's hope that the ruler should be a strong protector of Egypt.
Excavated by Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, 1920. Acquired by Lord Carnarvon in the division of finds; Carnarvon Collection, 1920–1926. Purchased by the Museum from Lady Carnarvon, 1926.
Source: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/100000277?img=0
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