The term ancient Egyptian cryptography describes hieroglyphic writing systems in Egyptology , which deviate from the usual form of representation and can only be understood by a small group of Egyptologists due to the difficult reading . The assumption that reading should also be made more difficult for the Egyptians is only occasionally documented in religious texts, but can be ruled out for the other cases. The main distinguishing feature of the different epochs is the rare use in the third and second millennium BC. BC, while the system was frequently used in late Egyptian monumental orthography and led to the further development of its own sub-cryptography.
The older cryptography occurs on the one hand in short and simple inscriptions and on the other hand in longer religious texts. While simple use has mainly decorative and innovative character traits, there are fixed systems for religious texts that use a significantly reduced set of characters and - as far as can be determined - have no decorative use.
In comparison with cosmological representations, an almost identical use appears. It is therefore assumed that the information should be encrypted specifically for these texts. This shows further differences between the systems of underworld books (with the exception of Amduat ) and sky books .
. Since the set of characters is otherwise strictly defined and economical, the frequent use of these hieroglyphs is particularly noticeable. In the Amduat, Nutbuch and in the books of the day and night, however, the grasshopper does not appear, the plant symbol only sporadically and irregularly (sporadically) and the fabric hieroglyph only in the amduat. The system of the underworld books appears partly in independent texts, for example in the underworld book of Tutankhamun , or is only sporadically documented (33rd scene in the gate book, court hall of Osiris ).
Sounds "r", "l" and "d"
The spelling of the ancient Egyptian "3", represented by the hieroglyphs, falls particularly in the areas of the shadow clock and in the groove book
, for the sound value "r". This cryptogram is based on historical phonetics . On the one hand, this spelling was used in the Old Kingdom to reproduce the sound "d", on the other hand, the ancient Egyptian "r" was near the "d". The spelling is the first in the Middle Kingdom
used to reproduce the Semitic "d". Conversely, the Semitic “d” was used for the ancient Egyptian “r”. This handling explains the sound similarity of the hieroglyphs used. In the outlaw texts , the ancient Egyptian "3" also served as the exclusive spelling of the Semitic "r" and "l". With the beginning of the New Kingdom after the Second Intermediate Period , these spelling variants ended in the New Egyptian language .
Jan Assmann : On the aesthetics of the secret. Cryptography as calligraphy in ancient Egypt. In: Susi Kotzinger (Ed.): Signs between plain text and arabesque; Conference of the Konstanz graduate school "Theory of Literature" organized in October 1992. (= International research on general and comparative literary studies. Vol. 7) Rodopi, Amsterdam 1994, ISBN 90-5183-728-3 , pp. 175-186. ( online )
John-Coleman Darnell: The enigmatic netherworld books of the Solar-Osirian Unity. Cryptographic compositions in the tombs of Tutankhamun, Ramesses VI and Ramesses IX. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-53055-2 .
Alexandra von Lieven : Floor plan of the course of the stars - the so-called groove book. The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies (among others), Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 .
Individual evidence
↑ Alexandre Piankoff: The shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon . Pantheon Books, New York 1955, pp. 120-131.
↑ Alexandra von Lieven: Plan of the course of the stars. Copenhagen 2007, p. 32.
