Dave: "This: "Nekhebu carried the measuring rod (mAt)" You are now saying that the word 'mAt' is indeed measuring rod? (or mAwt?) Is there a possibility of a relationship with Ma'at there....? There seems to be an awful lot of ideas coinciding around all these..."


I mentioned the 'measuring rod' (mAt) in another thread [www.hallofmaat.com], but I still have not tracked down the determinative used in this Dyn 6 example of mAt, so any connection with 'measure' / Maat / Aa11 / 12 is still unclear to me.


Faulkner's examples are also unclear - his one example of mAt has a determinative that has the appearance of a vertical rod with 2 strokes near the top. In the mAwt example, the plain vertical 'rod' without stokes could represent a 'shaft of spear' or 'stalk of corn' and this is how the word is translated.


The similarity with mAat is only in the partial pronunciation of the word, but as in English, similar sounding words are not necessarily connected - 'wood', 'would' for example - its the determinative sign in AE written language that makes clear the meaning, and in the Aa11 / 12 case, it might seem unclear what the determinative represents, although Allen has 'platform' for Aa11 / 12.


The later example of Aa11 / 12 has a bevelled edge at one end, but AFAIK, this is not like a typical cubit / measuring rod that has a bevelled edge along the whole length of one side, so again any 'true' / 'measure' connection between mAat and mAt seems tenuous. Have you seen an example of a cubit / measuring rod with a bevelled end?


The 'forearm' sign D36 (a), included as a phonetic complement with the biliteral sign U1 (mA) in the word mAat, can easily be confused with the 'forearm with palm down' sign D42 (mH, 'cubit') - this possible mix up of the signs may have given additional impetus to the idea of a connection between 'measure' and Maat, especially as the long narrow rectangle sign Aa12 (mAa) resembles a cubit / measuring rod, although it more likely represents a 'platform'.


CT




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2008 06:28AM by Chris Tedder.