The ancient Egyptian Hand hieroglyph is an

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...

ic hieroglyph with the meaning of "d"; it is also used in the word for 'hand', and actions that are performed, i.e. by the 'way of one's hands', or actions. (Used as a

determinative A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may ...

Iconographic usage

Also used in iconography. Pharaoh

Den Den may refer to: * Den (room), a small room in a house * Maternity den, a lair where an animal gives birth Media and entertainment * ''Den'' (album), 2012, by Kreidler * Den (''Battle Angel Alita''), a character in the ''Battle Angel Alita' ...

of the 1st Dynasty used the hand as part of his name: ''"d + n"''. An even earlier usage of hand can be compared to the sister hieroglyph: Hand-fist (hieroglyph). Five fists are held onto a

rope A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...

bordering a hunt scene on a

predynastic Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt span the period from the earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period around 3100 BC, starting with the first Pharaoh, Narmer for some Egyptologists, Hor-Aha for others, with ...

cosmetic palette Cosmetic palettes are archaeological Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, originally used in predynastic Egypt, predynastic ancient Egypt, Egypt to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics. The decorative palettes of the late 4th mill ...

. The damaged

Bull Palette The Bull Palette (French: palette célébrant une victoire) is the fragment of an Ancient Egyptian greywacke palette, carved in low relief and used, at least in principle, as a cosmetic palette for the grinding of cosmetics. It is dated to Naqada ...

from

Hierakonpolis Nekhen ( egy, nḫn, ); in grc, Ἱεράκων πόλις Hierakonpolis ( either: City of the Hawk, or City of the Falcon, a reference to Horus or ''Hierakōn polis'' "Hawk City" in arz, الكوم الأحمر, el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit=the ...

is notable since each hand forms the base of a

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

en vertical standard, with god-like animals, one standing on top of each!

Rosetta Stone usage as word: "hand"

The Hand as hieroglyphic also forms the word for 'hand' in the Ancient Egyptian

hieroglyphic 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 1,00 ...

language: "ţet." In line 13, (R-13), one of ten ways for honoring the Pharaoh

Ptolemy V egy, Iwaennetjerwymerwyitu Seteppah Userkare Sekhem-ankhamun Clayton (2006) p. 208. , predecessor = Ptolemy IV , successor = Ptolemy VI , horus = '' ḥwnw-ḫꜤj-m-nsw-ḥr-st-jt.f'Khunukhaiemnisutkhersetitef'' The youth who ...

was to: :....''"and let be engraved the Rank:'' ''"Priest of the god appearing-( epiphanous), lord of benefits -(eucharistos-Greek)"'', ''upon the rings worn on their hands-(hieroglyph)."'' In the 1st half of the Rosetta Stone, (the

Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy V) The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancien ...

), supplied by the

Nubayrah Stele The Nubayrah Stele is a mutilated copy of the Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy V) on a limestone stele. The same decree is found upon the Rosetta Stone. From 1848, it was known that a partial copy of the Decree was on a wall at the Temple of Philae, b ...

, line N-22, there is use of the Hand-hieroglyph as part of an important word that ''implies'' the use of 'hands', or 'action'. In speaking of the district, or town that defiled Pharaoh, and had to be defeated, the town is referred to as: ...(the rebels) ''"they led astray-(Hand hieroglyph: ''seţeman-sen'') the nomes."''Budge, ''The Rosetta Stone'', p. 146.

The Egyptian hieroglyph alphabetic letters

The following two tables show the

Egyptian uniliteral signs As used for Egyptology, transliteration of Ancient Egyptian is the process of converting (or mapping) texts written as Egyptian language symbols to alphabetic symbols representing uniliteral hieroglyphs or their hieratic and demotic counterparts. T ...

. (24 letters, but multiple use hieroglyphs)

References

*Budge. ''The Rosetta Stone,'' E.A.Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), c 1929, Dover edition(unabridged), 1989. (softcover, ) *Wilkinson. ''Reading Egyptian Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture.'' Wilkinson, Richard H., c 1992. Paperback, c 1994, 2000. Thames and Hudson, (softcover, ) Egyptian hieroglyphs: alphabet-vulture-a-to-cobra-dj Egyptian hieroglyphs: parts of the human body {{AncientEgypt-stub

Iconographic usage

Rosetta Stone usage as word: "hand"

The Egyptian hieroglyph alphabetic letters

See also

References