Chris Tedder Wrote:
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> Nut is written with the sky determinative N1, a
> long narrow rectangle with right-angled triangles
> at each end - this combination of pure geometric
> forms represented the sky - the place where the
> king was to spend eternity. This same sign
> supported by was-scepters standing on another long
> rectangle with rounded ends, N17 (tA), the
> hieroglyph for 'land', represented their cosmos.
> This same 'land' sign was also the determinative
> for eternity (Dt).

My little book doesn't go that far into the signs, but I see other squarish and rectangular signs (like the one for canal) that, while geometric in shape, surely didn't represent their concept of canals.


> The king's 'House of Eternity' was his tomb - in
> the OK it took the form of a pyramid - one of the
> purest geometric architectural forms ever invented
> - four triangular faces on a square base - the
> epitome of minimalist geometric design.

Uhm... I don't get why it's such a pure form, or any more pure than (say) the perfect square or the perfect rectangle or the perfect sphere (or any of the other Pythagorean solids.) Did they have that kind of concept of perfection?

> The offering slab in the sun-temples had a
> circular stone block in the centre of a square
> formed of rectangular stone blocks shaped to
> represent the hieroglyph for 'altar' / 'offering',
> R4, 'loaf on a reed mat'.

My little book has a hieroglyph of a table (not mat) and two loaves ad a jar on it. I do see the loaf-on-mat (F11 in my little book) as "offer" the verb, but F14 (dbht-htp) as "ritual offering." A number of subsets of "squished oval" are shown for the verb oering... except where there's a "voice offering" which seems to be combined with house and things from the F14 sign.

Anyway... my little book is hardly comprehensive. I see the hieroglyphs as more cartoon form (the simplified essence of the thing, derived down to its most basic elements) but not necessarily geometric.

What book are you using? I've got Collier & Manley's HOW TO READ EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS which is a nice start but not the deeper material needed for better research.