User:Rktect/RAHayworth

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The uploader, Rktect describes 3kr.jpg as 3kr the personifed god of the land itself. The Manuel de Codage clearly recommends that ɜ should be transliterated as 'A' but Rktect (and Steve Whittet) obstinately insists on using '3'. If we treat it as 'A', it suggests the god Aker for which Wiki has an article, but sadly no picture. It describes Aker as the deification of the horizon … originally depicted as a narrow strip of land (i.e. a horizon), with heads on either side. Which does not quite fit Rktect's description nor does it fit image 3kr.jpg.

3kr.jpg is derived from part of the Narmer label Abydos but it can be called original research simply on the grounds that 3kr.jpg is a long way from being an accurate reproduction of the original.

Rktect also references the right hand image of these two which we also have in the Narmer article. He is presumably referring to the creature extracted in the image on the right here.

But the difficulty is that he has not actually produced any independent evidence that these are images of Aker! Nowhere in either of the references or in the pages that link to them or in the Narmer article, do I see Aker mentioned. It is simply Rktect's original research.

"Transliteration of ancient Egyptian

A table of common transliteration systems for ancient Egyptian is given in this article. In the field of Egyptology, transliteration is the process of converting (or mapping) texts written in the Egyptian language to alphabetic symbols representing uniliteral hieroglyphs or their hieratic and demotic counterparts. This process facilitates the publication of texts where the inclusion of photographs or drawings of an actual Egyptian document is impractical."

It should be emphasised that transliteration is not the same as transcription. Transcription seeks to reproduce the pronunciation of a text. For example, the name of the founder of the Twenty-second dynasty is transliterated as ššnq but transcribed Shoshenq in English, Chéchanq in French, Sjesjonk in Dutch, and Scheschonq in German.

[transliteration]

[transcription]

None of what I contribute is original research. If you don't already know this, most of what you find online is just there to give you a starting point and mention some terms you can go look up.

From what you describe your article about the horizon is actually about the aten which is not quite the same thing. "3kr an earth god" is on p 550 of Gardiner's "Egyptian Grammer". "3kr n, div earth god Aker pyr 796 Urk V, 205, 17 the earth itself pyr 325; pl earth gods, pyr 393 det. G7 2202, TY 59,3,det. I14 hf3w det. king hm majesty is on p6 Faulkner "Middle Egyptian".

The point to emphasising the pronunciation is that it gives you a much better feel for the fact that the Egyptians are people like us. Their ideas are subtle and sophisticated. Transliteration has a hard time with the implied vowels in consonant only languages. Aside from that even an ugly picture can be worth a thousand words if cooler heads prevail. Wikipedia could be a lot better place without all the attitude.

Its ok that you don't know the difference between transliteration and transcription but it bothers me that you are among those who are contributing speculation and opinion in place of knowledge. If you desire to know more about things Egyptian you can always try phrasing things as a question and then maybe in the process of discussion you can teach me how to write a better article. Failures to communicate like this one leave me rather dissappointed in my experience here thus far.

The point of tying an image of the god of the land itself to a discussion of some of the early palettes of Narmer and Scorpion is that they show us how the first kings gained control of the land by controlling the water that irrigated it. Irrigation ditches were the first infrastructure.

Rktect 01:29, September 7, 2005 (UTC)