An integral element of hieroglyphs was the use of signs which in themselves have no phonetic value. Their purpose was to convey the sense of a word by an image, vividly enhancing inscriptions with a whole new repertoire of pictures. Egyptologists call these signs “determinatives” and they are written after the hieroglyphs which have sound values. We have to admire the ingenuity of the scribes in inventing these signs.

Some determinatives, of course, are obvious, such as in the word meaning to “bow down”, where the picture of a man performing a gesture of deference leaves us in no doubt of the sense.

Similarly, the last sign in the word meaning a “chariot”, could not be clearer in conveying the meaning of the phonetic hieroglyphs. But how can you draw a picture of an “hour”? Well, since detailed calculations of time were made by priests observing the procession of constellations in the night sky, scribes chose the symbol of a star to get across the notion of an hour. You are probably wondering why the script really needed determinatives. Well, since hieroglyphs did not indicate vowels there could be ambiguity in just having consonants for words. For example the same consonants could mean a “boat” or the “taste” of food. So scribes drew a picture of either a “ship” or a “tongue” to suit the sense.

Sometimes the hundreds of gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt wore on their heads the hieroglyphs of their names as a kind of indicator of their identity. So the great goddess Isis wears the hieroglyph of a “throne” above her crown of cow horns and a sun disc whereas the goddess of truth has the hieroglyph of an “ostrich feather” to give her the name of Maat.

As you might expect, great care was taken with those hieroglyphs concerned with royal names and titles. They had to reflect the elevated status of the Pharaoh, considered to be a god, and emphasise his authority. The earliest title used for the pharaoh dates back 5,000 years and identifies him as the falcon god Horus, above, in his other form.

Originally, the kingdom of Egypt comprised two states. So royal titles show hieroglyphs depicting the vulture goddess of the South and the cobra goddess of the North, who acted as guardians of the Pharaoh. These are the goddesses you can see on the beautiful gold mask of Tutankhamun in Cairo Museum and also on the miniature coffin which protected some of his internal organs removed during mummification which is on display at the exhibition in the O arena.

The most common descriptions of the Pharaoh, found for example on temple walls and obelisks, were his throne and birth names enclosed by the ovals called cartouches. Each cartouche was introduced by a crucial title, calling the Pharaoh either “king of Upper and Lower Egypt” or “son of the sun god, Ra”.

Conventions in writing royal hieroglyphs observed by scribes which involved transposing the order of the signs to indicate the importance of paramount gods mean that names can be confusing at an initial glance.

So, although the hieroglyphs for a god precede all the others, the name of the young Pharaoh, who perhaps met his early death through complications following a riding accident, was read as TutankhAmun, meaning “living image of Amun”.

George Hart is an Egyptologist, formerly of the British Museum

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