Bone-with-meat (hieroglyph)

Bone-with-Meat in hieroglyphs

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The ancient Egyptian Bone-with-meat hieroglyph is one of the Gardiner's sign list glyphs listed under Parts of Mammals. It is one of many – (52) in the category, as concepts were also presented by the body parts; for example hindquarters, and forequarters, represented things behind something, and alternatively, things at the forefront. The 'bone-with-meat' hieroglyph represented: ancestry, also inherit,^[1] (presumably bodies-souls, after death).

The Ancient Egyptian language usage of the hieroglyph means, isw, iw' (inherit, etc.);^[2] a determinative for the femur, (iw');^[3] and swt, for the tibia.^[4]

Slab stela of Nefertiabet, with proto-typical form: as a meat section (spare rib-2 curved bones).

The Old Kingdom usage on slab steles, from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, shows the proto-type form of the hieroglyph as a 'cut of meat', much like the spare ribs or beef ribs of the present era. The slab stela shows the bone as a multiple of two curved bones, much like the spare rib.

Cartouche usage

Cartouche relief, Temple of Edfu.

An example of a wall relief scene from Edfu at the Temple of Edfu shows a cartouche with the joint of meat hieroglyph. Another less common hieroglyph pictured within the cartouche is the vertical standing mummy hieroglyph.

Rosetta Stone usage

The 196 BC usage in the Ptolemy V Rosetta Stone addresses the power of ancestry. In the Rosetta Stone, line R5, the joint of meat hieroglyph precedes a 'list of reward "qualifications" for the Pharaoh Ptol. V'.

".... As a reward-(i.e. ancestral inheritance), for these things have given him (Ptolemy V) the gods and goddesses: victory, might, life, strength, health, (AUS) and everything good to the fullest possible extent of them;..."^[5]

See also

• Gardiner's Sign List#F. Parts of Mammals

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  The Nectanebo II obelisk face speaks of erecting the obelisk; the joint of meat hieroglyph is used at end of text. (High Res photo-(click on photo))

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  Old Kingdom statue, Giza, 5th Dynasty

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  (front view)

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  Cartouche at Temple of Edfu

References

• Budge. The Rosetta Stone, E.A.Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), c 1929, Dover edition(unabridged), 1989. (softcover, ISBN 0-486-26163-8)
• Kamrin, 2004. Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide, Janice Kamrin, c 2004, Harry N. Abrams, Publisher, (hardcover, ISBN 0-8109-4961-X)

External links

• High Res Photo-(click on picture)–(Photo also contains a "Libationer-Priest hieroglyph".)