The ancient Egyptian Pick hieroglyph, Gardiner sign listed nos. U17, U18 is a portrayal of a 'pick upon the side view of a block'; it is in the Gardiner subset for ''agriculture, crafts, and professions''. In the

Egyptian language The Egyptian language or Ancient Egyptian ( ) is a dead language, dead Afroasiatic languages, Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large Text corpus, corpus of surviving texts which were made acces ...

, the ''pick hieroglyph'' is used as an

ideogram An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek "idea" and "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarit ...

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 ...

for ''grg'', the verb "to pick through", or for other related words.

Verb: to settle, found, establish; (also dismantle)

Though the ''pick hieroglyph'' shows: 'use of a pick, upon a surface', the verb "to choose" is not implied. The

verb for 'to pick or select' is used by "to choose", the commonly used ''stp'' hieroglyph, an adze, or specifically the ' adze-on-block (hieroglyph)', Gardiner no. U21, U21, also in the Gardiner subset of ''agriculture, crafts, and professions''.

The pick hieroglyph in Budge's two volume dictionary has twelve entries, the final three dealing with "lies" and using the

of the sparrow (hieroglyph), for 'bad', 'evil', Gardiner no. G37 G37, (and ''not'' a swallow hieroglyph, virtually identical). The main definition of the ''pick hieroglyph'' seems to be ''to pick at (earth)'', implying use of the pick as a tool for creating a townsite, and 'constructing'; it translates as a

verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...

, ''to found, establish, settle''; also ''to make ready to be habitable, equip, furnish,'' and ''prepare''. Budge's dictionary sources are c. 150 authors, and c. 200 sources:

papyri 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 a d ...

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

s, literature,

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

s, etc. For ''grg'', "to settle", "to establish", etc. he uses: 1. funerary texts of

Pepi I Pepi I Meryre (also Pepy I) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, third king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled for over 40 years at the turn of the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, toward the end of the Old Kingdom period. He was the son of ...

, (and 2. texts of

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 ...

), 3. texts of King Teta, 4.

Gaston Maspero Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper. Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia. ...

's 1880 ''Recueil...'', vol 1. (in progress), 5. an ''El-Bersheh'', London document-(undated), 6. and "A. Z.", German ''Zeitschrift fur...'', 1863, vol. 1, (a work in progress).

Example usage: 24th century BC, Palermo Stone

From circa 2392 BC (24th to 23rd century BC), the Palermo Piece-(obverse) of the 7—piece Palermo Stone contains two uses of the ''pick hieroglyph''. They occur as a pair in Row IIISchulz, Seidel, 1998. ''Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs,'' photo: ''Palermo Piece''-(obverse), p. 24. (of VI rows) for a ''"King Year Register"'' for Pharaoh, King

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' ...

They are used above 2 rectangular blocks, with the names of cities inside, and the determinative for

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

: O49. They are similar to the symbol for "Horus in a Chamber", Gardiner no. O10, O10, but replaced by hieroglyphs that name the 2 townsites.

References

*Betrò, 1995. '' Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt,'' Betrò, Maria Carmela, c. 1995, 1996-(English), Abbeville Press Publishers, New York, London, Paris (hardcover, ) *Budge, 1920, (1978). ''An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary,'' E. A. Wallis Budge, (Dover Publications), c 1978, (c 1920), Dover edition, 1978. (In two volumes, 1314 pp. and cliv-(154) pp.) (softcover, ) *Schulz, Seidel, 1998. ''Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs,'' Editors, Regine Schulz, Matthias Seidel, Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne, English translation version, 538 pages. (hardcover, {{ISBN, 3-89508-913-3) Egyptian hieroglyphs: agriculture-crafts-and-professions

Verb: to settle, found, establish; (also dismantle)

Example usage: 24th century BC, Palermo Stone

See also

References