I’ve been lately working on my second book which relates to ancient alphabets and numerals and while looking at the ancient Egyptian numerals I stumbled on some correlations. The hieroglyphic symbol for 10 was a semi-circle or “Heel bone” or «Cattle Hobble» or «Yoke». On the other hand the same symbol in hieratic was something like the Hellenic lambda letter (upside down V).

Since in Egypt as also elsewhere a decadic numbering system was used we can consider one “1” as the smallest number and ten “10” to represent the largest number or symbolically infinity. Is this the reason for the decans? From wiki:

“The Decans (Egyptian bakiu) are 36 groups of stars (small constellations) which rise consecutively on the horizon throughout the 24 hours of the day. The rising of each decan marked the beginning of a new decanal "hour" (Greek hora) of the night for the ancient Egyptians, and they were used as a star clock beginning with at least the 9th or 10th Dynasty (ca 2100 BCE.) “

Since stars represent very far away object – relating thus to infinity it makes sense to use 10 to divide the 360 degrees of a circle. This reminds us of the Pythagorean notion mentioned by Aristotelis of zero plus infinite equals 1 or “peperasmenon(finite)” plus “in-finite” gives the whole(one [EN]).

Returning to 10 we need to keep in mind how it relates to the tetraktys. This because the sum of the first four positive integer numbers equals 10:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10

But if we add up the square of each one of these numbers we get 30:

1x1 + 2x2 + 3x3 + 4x4 = 30

On the other hand the arithmetic value of the letter lambda is 30(it is the 12th letter). At the same time the gematria value of deka(ten in Hellenic is also 30!

DEKA = 4 + 5 + 20 + 1 = 30

It thus seems that there is a correlation between number characteristics, the decans, the Egyptian numerals, and the creation of the alphabet – by who? Now returning to the semi-circle – dome shape of the ten symbol we notice that if the diameter of the virtual circle it forms is the height of the GP (280 units), then roughly it’s perimeter is 440 units – the base length of the GP. Well one will surely think coincidence, is it? I took a look at the name for ten in Egyptian. The problem is that in wiki I was only able to find the masculine and feminine gender – not the neutral one – which I would think is more suitable when referring to numbers as “things”. I copy:

mudaw [mdw] (masc.)
mudat [mdT] (fem.)

I know nothing about the grammar of Semitic type languages like ancient Egyptian so can anybody inform me if a neutral gender existed? It seems to me that from the above we can derive a root:

mud [md]

Thus using the Hellenic alphabet we can compute it’s arithmetic value:

MD = 40 + 4 = 44

So ten is equal to 44, and 10 times 44 gives 440 – the length of the semi-circle – hieroglyphic symbol for 10! But even if we go to the Hieratic lambda form we notice two sides of an equilateral triangle. Thus equating 10 to it’s geometric length one has each side equaling 5 (5 + 5 = 10). But wait a minute, what’s the arithmetic – isopsephia value of the Hellenic name for five?

PENTE = 80 + 5 + 50 + 300 + 5 = 440

Anybody have any idea of what archetypal or theologic concept led the Egyptians to choose the 10 symbol? Was it nut holding the sky? If so wouldn’t this also relate to the stars and the decans (decadic subdivision)?




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2010 12:30PM by Ogygos.