The

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 1,00 ...

for "black" ( 𓆎) in

Gardiner's sign list Gardiner's Sign List is a list of common Egyptian hieroglyphs compiled by Sir Alan Gardiner. It is considered a standard reference in the study of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Gardiner lists only the common forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but h ...

is numbered I6. Its phonetic value is '. The ''

Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache The ''Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache'' (''Dictionary of the Egyptian Language''), abbreviated ''Wb'' in bibliographic references, is a large German-language dictionary of the Egyptian language published between 1926 and 1961 by Adolf Erman ...

'' ('Dictionary of the Egyptian Language') lists no less than 24 different terms of km indicating 'black' such as black stone, metal, wood, hair, eyes, and animals, and in one instance applied to a person's name. The most common explanation for the hieroglyph is under the

Gardiner's Sign List Gardiner's Sign List is a list of common Egyptian hieroglyphs compiled by Sir Alan Gardiner. It is considered a standard reference in the study of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Gardiner lists only the common forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but h ...

, section I for "amphibious animals, reptiles, etc" is a crocodile skin with spines. Rossini and Schumann-Antelme propose that the ''crocodile skin'' hieroglyph actually shows claws coming out of the hide. Besides 'black', the alternate use of the hieroglyph is for items terminating, coming-to-an-end, items of completion, hence a reference to charcoal, burning to its ending.

''km.t''

Ancient Egypt is commonly referred to as 'km.t' (one variant: 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖), believed to be a reference to the black Nile Delta earth. '𓊖' (the determinative O49) is used to designate the term for 'country, inhabited/cultivated land', called the niw.t (a political designate). It is a circle with a cross which represents a street, 'town intersection'.

The 198 BC

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

uses the Black (hieroglyph) three times to make the name of Egypt: km.t. Of the 22 placename uses for the "name of ancient Egypt", 7 are for another name of Egypt as iAt-M17-G1-X1:., signifying the soil of Egypt, N30: X1*Z2-N30:N23-X1:Z1, which is the Greek form of "Egypt", signifying it as "the (divine) place of the mound (of creation)" and the fertile black soil of the land after the Inundation. (Note the doubled hieroglyph, ' 𓈇', Gardiner N23, is used as the ''Two Lands'', (Upper Egypt, and Lower Egypt), and the common use of "Ta-Mer-t", and additionally uses of '' 'Horus of the Two Lands' ''.)

In the

Demotic (Egyptian) Demotic (from grc, δημοτικός ''dēmotikós'', 'popular') is the ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of hieratic used in the Nile Delta, and the stage of the Egyptian language written in this script, following Late Egy ...

text of the Rosetta Stone, the demotic for Egypt is '' 'Kmi' ''. There are three uses of the actual Kmi, but 7 others referenced as Kmi refer to iAt in the hieroglyphs. Other euphemistic references to Egypt in the Rosetta Stone include "Ta-Mer-t", which has the meaning of the 'full/fruitful/cultivated land', hr-tAwy, the 'lands of Horus', and tAwy, the "Two Lands." :'' ''Kmi''—spelling-"Egypt" ''—(22 places, synchronized, Demotic–Hieroglyphs) :*''demotic''—''hieroglyphs'' *#–Kmi—Ta-Mer-t *#–Kmi—Ta-Mer-t *#–Kmi—rsy.t + mHt
(i.e. South and North)(''lands'') *#–Kmi—" Hr tAwy" *#–Kmi—''kmt''-(restored) *#–Kmi—Ta-Mer-t *#–Kmi—Ta-Mer-t *#–Kmi—iAt *#–Kmi—''kmt'' *#–Kmi—" Hr tAwy" *#–Kmi—Ta-Mer-t *#–Kmi—iAt *#–Kmi—iAt *''demotic''—''hieroglyphs'' *14.–Kmi—XXXXXX-(omitted from text) *15.–Kmi—rsy.t + mHt
(i.e. South and North)(''lands'') *16.–''Bki''—iAt *17.–''Kmi''—''kmt'' *18.–Kmi—iAt *19.–Kmi—tAwy *20.–Kmi—iAt *21.–Kmi—iAt *22.–Kmi—Ta-Mer-t *-- *-- *--

Egyptian word examples, ''conclusion, completion'', kmt, km iri

Coming to a conclusion, or completion is one use of the km hieroglyph in the words kmt and km iri ('to make an end'). The discussion of the biliteral states: ''The conclusion of a document, written in black ink, ending the work, has the same semantic connotation.''Schumann-Antelme, Rossini, p. 140. (as km for 'concluding') The Rossini, Schumann-Antelme write-up states that initially the word comes from "shield", ikm, and thus the original association with the crocodile.

Alternative glyph, X5 equivalent, items burning black to an ending

Since the origin of the 'black' hieroglyph, and relationships to other forms showing vertical flame-like rises on the end of a flat-triangular shape, there has been discussion of this hieroglyph. As stated above, Schumann-Antelme and Rossini explain the crocodile skin, but with claws. The text by Egyptologists Mark Collier and Bill Manley describes the same ''"crocodile skin"'', Gardiner I6, as burning charcoal with flames.

Skin, I6 entry in 1920 Budge "dictionary"

The 1920 Budge dictionary, which is actually a compilation of ~200 referenced works, and ~120 authors has the following breakdown of the km entry. It is listed under "K"-(gardiner V31),V31 a third of the way into K. A small summary of the entries, and their referenced works follow:

The last three of four entries ending the 27 entries deal with black stones, or powders and black plants, or seeds; (all small multiple, plural, grains-of, items). They are preceded by entries 21 and 22, a "buckler", or "shield", and "black wood". Entry 26 is an ''image'', or ''statue'', using the vertical mummy hieroglyph gardiner A53, ("in the form of", "the custom of"). These last six entries are unreferenced. The first 4 of 5 entries, kam, kam-t, or kamkam all deal with items coming to an end. (Entry four is untranslated and is from Pap. 3024, Lepsius, ''Denkmaler''-(papyrus).) The references for the others in the first five are: Peasant, ''Die Klagen des Bauern'', 1908., Thes.-(''Thesaurus Inscriptionum Aegyptiacarum'', Brugsch);. A. Z.-(twice); '' Shipwreck.'', 118-(''Tale of the shipwrecked sailor''); Amen.-(author: Amen-em-apt); and Thes. (again). Entries 6 to 20 deal with "black" or gods, or named items. Only 8 of these items reference black, but start by also referring to

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

. Entries 6, 7, and 8 refer to coptic "KAME", for 6 and 8; entry 7 to coptic "KMOM", "KMEM". For entry 7, ''to be black'', Budge also references Revue-(Rev.); for entry 8, black items, Budge also references T.-(King Teta); and N.-(

Pepi II Pepi II Neferkare (2284 BC – after 2247 BC, probably either 2216 or 2184 BC) was a pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom who reigned from 2278 BC. His second name, Neferkare (''Nefer-ka-Re''), means "Beautiful is ...

-(King Nefer-ka-Ra). The other hieroglyph word entries of entry 9 to 20, have about fifteen further references, all starting with the km hieroglyph. On the other hand, the works of Budge have not held up well in terms of recent hieroglyph scholarship since the 1930s. Even during Budge's own lifetime, many Egyptological scholars disputed Budge's interpretation of glyphs and texts. Today, no modern Egyptological scholar relies upon the works of E. A. W. Budge as evidence of proper glyph rendering, by either his translation or transliteration (his transliteration system was unique to Budge alone as most Egyptologists then (and today) relied upon the transcription and transliteration system developed by the Berlin School which issued the master compendium of Egyptian hieroglyphic language in 1926, ''Wörterbuch der Aegyptischen Sprache'' (7 Vols.), and which is detailed in the publication by A. H. Gardiner, ''Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs'' (1957)). As such, references to Budge's dictionary and ''within'' Budge's dictionary are considered highly suspect by most Egyptologists today, as they do not actually relate back to the terms as he defined them.

Shield

"Shield", ikm and another word with an approximate ''km'' cognate, '' 'khm'' starting with the vowel ( ' ), 'khm, meaning ''to put to an end'' are the possible words related to the origins of the crocodile skin, and the 'verb of action', of items coming to an end. The second word '' 'khm'' has nine entries in the Budge dictionary, shield, ''ikam'', has two entries.Budge, Ibid., p. 94A. File:Bas-relief at the mortuary temple of Ramesses III 4.jpg, The 4th cow is labelled, ''black''
(variant "triangle-hieroglyph" with "flames") File:Nectanebo II obelisk.jpg, Obelisk of

Nectanebo II Nectanebo II (Egyptian: ; grc-gre, Νεκτανεβώς ) was the last native ruler of Ancient Egypt, as well as the third and last pharaoh from the Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt. He reigned from 358 to 340 BC. Under Nectanebo II, Egypt prospered ...

(crocodile skin hieroglyph)

References