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Gardiner's Sign List is a list of common
Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1, ...
compiled by Sir
Alan Gardiner Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner, (29 March 1879 – 19 December 1963) was an English Egyptologist, linguist, philologist, and independent scholar. He is regarded as one of the premier Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century. Personal life G ...
. It is considered a standard reference in the study of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Gardiner lists only the common forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but he includes extensive subcategories, and also both vertical and horizontal forms for many hieroglyphs. He includes size-variation forms to aid with the reading of hieroglyphs in running blocks of text. In contrast, for example, the Budge Reference has about 1,000 hieroglyphs listed in 50 pages, but with no size variations. Gardiner does not cross-index signs; once put on the list, other significant uses may be overlooked. One example of this is G16, nbtỉ, the ideogram for the
Two Ladies In Ancient Egyptian texts, the "Two Ladies" ( egy, nbtj, sometimes anglicized ''Nebty'') was a religious epithet for the goddesses Wadjet and Nekhbet, two deities who were patrons of the ancient Egyptians and worshiped by all after the unificati ...
, goddesses
Wadjet Wadjet (; egy, wꜢḏyt "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; grc-koi, Οὐτώ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep. It became part ...
as the cobra and
Nekhbet Nekhbet (; also spelt Nekhebit) is an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology, who was the patron of the city of Nekheb (her name meaning ''of Nekheb''). Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron ...
as the white vulture. These are the protective and patron goddesses of the separate Egyptian kingdoms that joined into ancient Egypt, who were both then displayed on the
uraeus The Uraeus (), or Ouraeus (Ancient Greek: , ; Egyptian: ', "rearing cobra"), ''(plural: Uraei)'' is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt. Symbol ...
of Wadjet when the unification occurred and afterward considered jointly to be the protectors of Egypt and the pharaohs. This ideogram is listed only in the bird list (G), and overlooked on the deity list (C) and the reptile list (I). Other subcategories included by Gardiner are abbreviations and personalized forms, and also a complete subset, used on
papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to ...
, specifically for the ''
Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' ( egy, 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, ''rw n(y)w prt m hrw(w)'') is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom ( ...
''.


Categories


A. Man and his occupations

56 signs in Gardiner (1957:242–247), with A59 "man threatening with stick" inserted after A25 "man striking with left hand hanging behind back", and two variants A14* "blood interpreted as ax" of A14 "man with blood streaming from his head"; and A17* "child sitting with arms hanging down" of A17 "child sitting with hand to mouth".


B. Woman and her occupations

7 signs in Gardiner (1957:448).


C. Anthropomorphic deities

11 signs in Gardiner (1957:448f.) with the addition of five 19th Dynasty signs, C12 Amun, C17 Mont, C18 Tjanen, C19 and C20 Ptah.


D. Parts of the human body

''Expected quantity:'' 63


E. Mammals

''Expected quantity:'' 34


F. Parts of mammals

''Expected quantity:'' 52


G. Birds

''Expected quantity:'' 54


H. Parts of birds

''Expected quantity:'' 8


I. Amphibious animals, reptiles, etc.

15 signs in Gardiner (1957:475f).


K. Fish and parts of fish

''Expected quantity:'' 7


L. Invertebrates and lesser animals

''Expected quantity:'' 7


M. Trees and plants

44 signs in Gardiner (1957:478–484).


N. Sky, earth, water

42 signs in Gardiner (1957:485–492). N3 is an Old Kingdom variant of N2. N11 "moon" has vertical (''increscent'' and ''decrescent'') variants, N12 is a 19th-Dynasty variant of N11.


O. Buildings, parts of buildings, etc.

51 signs (with variants, U+13250–1329A).


P. Ships and parts of ships

''Expected quantity:'' 11


Q. Domestics and funerary furniture

''Expected quantity:'' 7


R. Temple furniture and sacred emblems

''Expected quantity:'' 25


S. Crowns, dress, staves, etc.

''Expected quantity:'' 45


T. Warfare, hunting, and butchery

''Expected quantity:'' 35


U. Agriculture, crafts, and professions

41 signs.


V. Rope, fiber, baskets, bags, etc.

40 signs (38 in Gardiner 1957). V39 is the ''
Tyet The tyet ( egy, tjt), sometimes called the knot of Isis or girdle of Isis, is an ancient Egyptian symbol that came to be connected with the goddess Isis. Its hieroglyphic depiction is catalogued as V39 in Gardiner's sign list. In many respect ...
'' or "Knot of Isis". V40 is the numeral 10 in dates.


W. Vessels of stone and earthenware

25 signs.


X. Loaves and cakes

8 signs.


Y. Writings, games, music

8 signs.


Z. Strokes, signs derived from Hieratic, geometrical figures

11 signs.


Aa. Unclassified

31 signs in Gardiner (1957).


Unicode

These hieroglyphs have
unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
code point In character encoding terminology, a code point, codepoint or code position is a numerical value that maps to a specific character. Code points usually represent a single grapheme—usually a letter, digit, punctuation mark, or whitespace—but ...
s and so, given a suitable
font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a " sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mo ...
, can be displayed or printed. The block starts at U+013000 for A001.


See also

*
Egyptian hieroglyph Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,0 ...
s * List of Egyptian hieroglyphs * Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian * List of cuneiform signs


References


Bibliography

* Budge, Sir E.A.Wallis, ''An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, in Two Volumes,'' Sir E.A.Wallis Budge, (Dover Publications, Inc. New York), c 1920, Dover Edition, c 1978. (Large categorized listings of Hieroglyphs, Vol 1, pp. xcvii–cxlvii (97–147) (25 categories, 1000+ hieroglyphs), 50 pgs.) * A.H. Gardiner, ''Catalogue of the Egyptian hieroglyphic printing type, from matrices owned and controlled by Dr. Alan'' (1928). *A.H. Gardiner, "Additions to the new hieroglyphic fount (1928)", ''The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'' 15 (1929), p. 95. *A.H. Gardiner, "Additions to the new hieroglyphic fount (1931)", ''The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'' 17 (1931), pp. 245–247. *A.H. Gardiner, ''Supplement to the catalogue of the Egyptian hieroglyphic printing type, showing acquisitions to December 1953'' (1953). *A.H. Gardiner, '' Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs''. 3rd Ed., pub.
Griffith Institute The Griffith Institute is an Egyptological institution based in the Griffith Wing of the Sackler Library and is part of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, England. It was founded for the advancement of Egyptology and Ancient N ...
, Oxford, 1957 (1st edition 1927), pp. 438–548
pdf
. *Wilkinson, Richard, ''Reading Egyptian Art, A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture,'' Richard H. Wilkinson, with 450 Illustrations, (Thames & Hudson Ltd, London), c 1992.


Reading list

*: A primer based on Gardiner's sign list, focussing on major signs in seven categories.


External links





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