I recently acquired a collection of minerals and fossils; wherein I found this old shard. Since the individual that owned this item has long passed, I did not have an opportunity to ask him about the origins of this piece...
Thus, I was wondering if someone could help me identify what language is inscribed on this clay-esque (I have not had the opportunity to test the material) fragment? Any additional information would also be greatly appreciated!
It would help when you tell us where you found it. In England, in the Middle East? Enlighten me.
I wish I knew more information about the origins of this piece, so I could give you guys more information. Unfortunately, that is exactly the reason that I have made this post on RG.... If I had to guess, this piece originated from the Levant; as the previous owner was interested in collecting artifacts from that region. Nevertheless, it would be nice if somebody could support this hypothesis by identifying the characters inscribed on this fragment... Would additional photos of the front & back help?
If anyone of you guesses that it has anything to .do with the Orient, i.e. Middle East, I can tell you that it doesn't. Have asked many friends in middle eastern languages, if this helps a bit.and they told me:Forget it!
Here's some new photos of the artifact. I have also included some simple outlines of the characters on the fragment; which were created using images and up-close inspection of the item. Let me know if you guys have any new hypotheses?
These appear to be incised Egyptian hieroglyphs.The first and second images you have illustrated in the second post provide the correct orientation. On this example, they should be read from R to L (from the direction that animals and people are facing). Only the upper line is "clear" = water = (n) over a pintail duck (?) = (biliteral for sa?); foot = (b); possible seated human figure (?) = a determinative indicating the kind of person (?); possibly a water symbol (?) = (n) over a horizontal line (possibly a "pool" = [sh] ?)- or - the gameboard biliteral =(mn); over another water symbol = (n). I can't make out the glyphs on the second line. The photo makes this look like a sandstone. It is unclear if this is genuinely ancient. You'll need an Egyptologist who can read hieroglyphs to get any further. Sorry, not my forte.
Noting that the Ancient Egyptians did not write vowels only consonants. Given the position of the first character the first word could be the preposition 'n' meaning 'to' or 'for' or the genitival adjective 'of'. The next word is made up of three characters, a bird, a leg and a god determinative and is the name of the earth god Geb. The next word could be any of several starting with the letters 'mn' , of which there are many, made up of the characters mn+n. One option is the war god Montu. On the next line there could be a variant of the name of the god of the dead Osiris but also possibly the sun god Ra. As it is incomplete the last two readings are tentative. There are only a few examples of hieroglyphs written on clay. These are mostly from the Dakhla oasis. If you have any questions please let me know.
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