Deserts and Mountains on the Walls: Hieroglyphs Related to Desert Areas and Foreign Countries in the Pyramid Texts

Andrés Diego Espinel

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9 Deserts and Mountains on the Walls: Hieroglyphs Related to Desert Areas and Foreign Countries in the Pyramid Texts

In: Signs, Language, and Culture: The Semograms of the Pyramid Texts between Iconicity and Referential Reality

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Andrés Diego Espinel

Andrés Diego Espinel
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 392–456

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004721043_011

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Abstract

Foreign and marginal regions out from the Nile Valley are seldom attested in the Egyptian Pyramid Texts. When mentioned, they are usually classified by a reduced number of hieroglyphs. In the following pages, some of these signs (N18, N25 and N26) are analyzed mainly as classifiers that can provide information on the ancient Egyptian perceptions of and ideas on the desert and foreign countries, and on some precise uses of these hieroglyphs by Egyptian scribes when describing the physical features of other different regions. The study shows how diverse and different were the use of Egyptian classifiers, notwithstanding the restricted temporal and thematic range of study (Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts) and the relatively scarce number of occurrences of these hieroglyphs in such religious compositions. Moreover, despite this circumstance, in some instances it is possible to perceive the use as classifiers of these signs as “expressive” marks that emphasized or qualified the meaning of some of the words they accompanied.

Résumé

Les régions étrangères et marginales de la vallée du Nil n’apparaissent que rarement dans les Textes des Pyramides égyptiennes. Lorsqu’ils sont mentionnés, ils sont généralement classés par un nombre réduit de hiéroglyphes. Dans les pages suivantes, certains de ces signes (N18, N25 et N26) sont analysés principalement en tant que classificateurs pouvant fournir des informations sur les perceptions et les idées égyptiennes anciennes tant sur le désert et les pays étrangers, que sur certaines utilisations précises de ces hiéroglyphes par des scribes égyptiens lorsqu’ils décrivent les caractéristiques physiques d’autres régions. L’étude montre à quel point l’utilisation des classificateurs égyptiens était diversifiée et différente, malgré les domaines d’étude temporels et thématiques restreints (Textes des Pyramides de l’Ancien Empire) et le nombre relativement faible d’occurrences de ces hiéroglyphes dans ces compositions religieuses. En outre, malgré cette circonstance, il est parfois possible de percevoir l’utilisation de ces signes classificateurs comme marques « expressives » qui soulignent ou nuancent le sens de certains des mots qu’ils accompagnaient.

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Signs, Language, and Culture: The Semograms of the Pyramid Texts between Iconicity and Referential Reality

Series: Harvard Egyptological Studies, Volume: 26

Cover Signs, Language, and Culture: The Semograms of the <i>Pyramid Texts</i> between Iconicity and Referential Reality

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004721043

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 09 Apr 2025

Subjects
- Ancient Near East and Egypt
  - General
  - Linguistics

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9 Deserts and Mountains on the Walls: Hieroglyphs Related to Desert Areas and Foreign Countries in the Pyramid Texts

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Signs, Language, and Culture: The Semograms of the Pyramid Texts between Iconicity and Referential Reality

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