quote:Originally posted by Myra Wysinger: I thought his name was on it. Their belief system was deep.
Stela of Queen Amanishaketo Can you read this one? I like to pick your brain. You are so kind about it. I might have to blow it up for you which I can do later tonight for I am at work.
Stela of queen Amanishaketo. Reverse
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I will try to read the stela. I will tell you now that the decipherment is tentative because it is hard read the Meroitic letters. In the future some of this decipherment may have to be done over.
Transliteration
1. nišheto qo-ne qo
2. n-ne he ñk e li-ne ml o
3. ps e o-ne a r-i te
4. k-ne a ine rm i l-ne t d b e šo
5. sli n0 tene q en ne-n
6. te ši-ne ht nk tone n h-ne
7. tek ……ok…….nm…..n h n om-ne
8. hl[e]…. O h p ne š m r
9. m ……. Te r h tl k-ne l tene
10. [………….. ……]
11. h ne m e ter h te m n š nel l
12. w-ne q š-ne l h mete o om-ne
13. sl lne tek nei h r tne š
14. k ñh d ne ate h te ši kne
15. r-ñ h ne-ñ kne ane e-m bo
Translation
1. Anishkheto noble and good restored
2.Manifest the external spirit now; command the transmittal of the sould to commence.
3. Give guard the accession (of the) apparition—may it go forth.
4. The Object of Supplication and Good [Anishkheto] goes to witnee [a new] existence. Arrange to leave a legacy [and] blessed life.
5. Leave to set in motion now the Rebirth. Act to command Good to manifest.
6. The propitiation to pour out. God ignites and manifest the abstract personality of man.
7. To investigate…….a new…..reverence and Good the offering’s only acquisition.
8. Reverberate…….initiate the offering a good pray[er] [for] the patron’s luck
9. m… …. ..te indeed the blessings to elevate the Object of Supplication’s rebirth.
10. [……….. ….. …. … …]
11. The abstract personality of man to unlock indeed the great holy place (of) good (to) merit existence
12. The Commander acts to uplift Greatness, unlock from a distance (its) acquisition.
13. Set in motion (her) existence to investigate benevolence (and) dignity. Lay Good (on) the patron.
14. It (is) obligatory at this time to leave a legacy at this moment dispensing (your) satisfaction.
15. Certainly her abstract personality of man to manifest the Object of Supplication’s spirit much favor (and) increase.
The inscription on the edge
Transliteration
1. ah
2. e k p
3. k h
4. š ne nek e
5. [………..]
6. [….. …… ]
7. […. …… ..]
8. a šne
9. š
10. [… ….. …..]
11. [….. ….. ….]
12. [… ….. …. ..]
13. ñ l li
14. l d
15. b ene
Translation
“The blessed dead [Anishkheto] prays (for) nourishment (of) the obligatory offerings…..to merit……patron……retire exalted. (Her) lasting legacy is abundant almsgiving.”
quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters: Myra could you blow up the front of the Stela of Queen Amanishaketo. I would like to see what is written in hierglyphics. The smaller picture of the tablet has a lot of shadows which make it difficult to read.
I was suprised that companion was not mentioned in the text.
This is a pretty good close up. Notice the three ritual scars on the face of the goddess Amensemi.
Note:
An observation from Derek A. Welsby from his book Sudan Ancient Treasures, 2004, page 181:
"Not only does the text keep its secrets, but an important historical question also remains open: why and how was a stela of Queen Amanishakheto, dated about sixty years before Natakamani and Amanitore, donated to the Temple of Amun at Naga, a structure not yet in existence during the lifetime of this queen? Do we have to rethink the sequence of Meroitic rulers?"
What does he mean? Can you clarify for me?
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters: Myra could you blow up the front of the Stela of Queen Amanishaketo. I would like to see what is written in hierglyphics. The smaller picture of the tablet has a lot of shadows which make it difficult to read.
I was suprised that companion was not mentioned in the text.
This is a pretty good close up. Notice the three ritual scars on the face of the goddess Amensemi.
Note:
An observation from Derek A. Welsby from his book Sudan Ancient Treasures, 2004, page 181:
"Not only does the text keep its secrets, but an important historical question also remains open: why and how was a stela of Queen Amanishakheto, dated about sixty years before Natakamani and Amanitore, donated to the Temple of Amun at Naga, a structure not yet in existence during the lifetime of this queen? Do we have to rethink the sequence of Meroitic rulers?"
What does he mean? Can you clarify for me?
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The hieroglyphic writing is just the names : reading from the center to the left
Center Inscription a m i n sh h to qo
Translation
Amanishkhato the honorable
Left inscription
a m e se m i q[e]
Translation
Amesemi the Creator
He is just saying that Queen Amanishakhato came after Natakamani and Amanitore, but this stela is dated before this couple.
It is clear from the text that the obituary on the stela was written for a certain Anishakheto. It is clear that she was a royal given her title "qo" 'nobel. Maybe the solution to this contradiction is that Anishakheto is not Queen Amanishakhato.
Posts: 13012 | From: Chicago | Registered: Jan 2006
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how do we get in touch with you? We believe that we have discovered Narmer/Menes real name. His name is Amen Heru. we base this off our revisiting the serekh facade, were you see heru standing on the three-column building. We have published this in our book called The Origin of the Word Amen. What do you think? We have much more....
-------------------- jahi issa Posts: 9 | From: elizabeth city | Registered: Feb 2007
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how do we get in touch with you? We believe that we have discovered Narmer/Menes real name. His name is Amen Heru. we base this off our revisiting the serekh facade, were you see heru standing on the three-column building. We have published this in our book called The Origin of the Word Amen. What do you think? We have much more....
Hi
This information sounds very interesting. I can't comment on the issue because I have never researched the issue. I am sorry to say I have not read your book. Is there anyway you could post the artifacts denoting this name on this site and explaining their significance.
Great research.
Posts: 13012 | From: Chicago | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters: This genetic evidence relates to 25,000-60,000 ybp. How does this genetic evidence relate to the period between 3000-1200 BC, when the earliest urban cultures and civilizations appear in the Sahara and spread to Ethiopia?
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Well Clyde I must admit I have always had a feeling that the sahara held onto more secrets than it has revealed about the beginnings of human civilizations. The problem is that the sahara being that it is a desert, constantly shifts and may have covered coverd up much of any evidence that exist or may have existed.
Maybe the problem is that we assume too much based on the few facts we have about the past. Such as thinking that because: We found 10,000 yr old article A in site X And We found 6,000 yr old article B in site Y that some culture in site A is the oldest culture. This doesn't take into account that we haven't excavated site C yet.
Clyde do you know if any archeological work is being done around the lake chad region or any of the dry lakes or rivers in the sahara?
Posts: 167 | From: usa | Registered: Jul 2004
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Clyde do you know if any archeological work is being done around the lake chad region or any of the dry lakes or rivers in the sahara? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some research is being done but much of it is published in French.
In the Sahara archeologists found a beautiful monument to Seth which indicates his early worship in this area. We discussed this piece last year on this form but I can't remember the thread now. Maybe when I am at home I may be able to find it.
-------------------- C. A. Winters Posts: 13012 | From: Chicago | Registered: Jan 2006
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"As far as royal iconography goes, the panther skin that was the special garb of the sem priest, became an important element of regalia in Napatan and later Meroitic art". (Charles Bonnet, 2007)
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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A glazed terracotta figure from the Royal Baths at Meroe, in the shape of the head and forepaws of a lion, probably the lion-god Apedemak. The lion wears a crown and crouches on a crescent moon. Crescent moons and lions' heads were common Meroitic decorative motifs and are normally found together on vessels. (Liverpool Museum - 03/061)
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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Present location: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden Leiden, the Netherlands Inventory Number: F 2000/6.1/2 Dating: 25th Dynasty Archaeological Site: Upper Nubia (Sudanese site) Category: Leg Material: Wood; Ebony? Bibliography: Christie's New York, Antiquities, 9/12 1999, 100-101, lot nr. 403.
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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A writing system only conveys the sounds of the language.
Which would apply to Meroitic script [and Kharosthi], and hence, no need to look to far-off corners of the planet.
quote:Clyde Winters:
The meaning results from reading the words.
...which you couldn't do in Meroitic, because you don't understand Meroitic language, and since Kushana is neither the same language as Meroitic, nor is its script the same as that of Meroitic, it cannot be used to read Meroitic. The only way you can possibly come close to reading Meroitic using Kharosthi script, is if you had bilingual texts in Meroitic and "Kushana" uncovered in Sudan, for which you have no shred of evidence.
quote:Clyde Winters:
Using the Kushana language you can read any Meroitic text.
How? Kushana [which comprises two or more dialects] isn't Meroitic language. They don't have common recent ancestry, much less share specific relatively culture-free basic & standard lexicon cognates. You'll have us believe that a measly collection of pseudo-lexical correspondence supposedly in 'signs', terms like 'queen', 'agent' et al., and toponyms, allows you to 'fully' translate two very distinct languages belonging to different language superfamilies.
Recap of Clyde's supposed lexical cognates, that allow him to *fully* translate Meroitic script, whose alphabets are strinkingly distinct from Kharosthi script's:
kadke / ktke # queen 0 katak # master of the house
0 ato # water 0 ap #
0 s # 'race' 0 sah # 'man'
0 wide # youth 0 wir #
0 qor # monarch 0 oroce # 'the grand king'
0 parite # agent 0 parwe # 'first'
0 apote # 'envoy' 0 ap # 'father'
Neither of the supposed word comparisons of Ato vs. ap, s vs. sah and wide vs. wir, show lexical correspondence.
Too specific cultural terms like 'king' or 'queen', which are rarely used for comparative analysis, are supposed to be represented by the dubious affiliation of qor vs. oroce and kadke vs. katak.
The only terms above that Clyde openly admits to not having lexical correspondence are supposedly parite vs. parwe and apote vs. ap, yet he still parades them around as part of the already weak lexical cognate collection.
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posted
Clyde Winters: Could you please tell us in detail, on which specific lexical, morphological, syntaxic, phonemic, etc., Tokharian/Meroitic similarities you did rely on to do your previous translations?
Thanks in advance.
Posts: 307 | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Please call me MIDOGBE: Clyde Winters: Could you please tell us in detail, on which specific lexical, morphological, syntaxic, phonemic, etc., Tokharian/Meroitic similarities you did rely on to do your previous translations?
Thanks in advance.
This site is reserved for Meroitic artifacts and inscriptions. I have already discussed points of my decipherment earlier in this thread so I will not discuss these issues here, they have also been discussed elsewhere see the following:
posted
I understood that, but what I'm requesting is an example of a detailed translation explaining step by step which phonemic, semantic, morphological and syntaxic aspects of Tokharian language allow you to provide translations of any of the Meroitic inscriptions you posted above.
quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters:
quote:Originally posted by Please call me MIDOGBE: Clyde Winters: Could you please tell us in detail, on which specific lexical, morphological, syntaxic, phonemic, etc., Tokharian/Meroitic similarities you did rely on to do your previous translations?
Thanks in advance.
This site is reserved for Meroitic artifacts and inscriptions. I have already discussed points of my decipherment earlier in this thread so I will not discuss these issues here, they have also been discussed elsewhere see the following:
posted
Meroitic period (270 BC-350 AD). The deity figure with a Atef crown, holding the Ankh symbol in his right hand, the Was scepter in his left. Above the scepter two columns of hieroglyphs (now unreadable).
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Please call me MIDOGBE: I understood that, but what I'm requesting is an example of a detailed translation explaining step by step which phonemic, semantic, morphological and syntaxic aspects of Tokharian language allow you to provide translations of any of the Meroitic inscriptions you posted above.
My decipherment of Meroitic is based on the Kushana theory.
The Kushana theory is that a group of “East Indian” scholars introduced the Meroitic writing system to the Meroites.
The Kushana hypothesis was based on the following evidence, 1) no African language has been found to be a cognate language of Meroitic 2) the Classical literature says that the Kushites lived in Asia and Africa; 3) the Gymnosophists, or "naked sages" of Meroe came from India.
Before I began work on Meroitic, other researchers had already falsified the African theory for Meroitic's cognate language. Meroitic is not related to languages spoken in this area. Griffith and Haycock tried to read Meroitic using Nubian and failed. K.H. Priese tried to read the Meroitic text using Eastern Sudani; he also failed.
The fact that not even Nubian, a language spoken by a people who were engaged in constantly conflict with the Meroites , failed to be the cognate language of Meroitic made it clear that we must look elsewhere for the cognate language spoken by the Meroites.
The evidence presented above provides internal and external validity for my theory based upon the sources I have cited previously. The sources I have used are impartial, to disconfirm my hypothesis someone needs to show that my propositions are not fully informed[i.e., there were no Indians North Africa and Kush when the Classical writers maintained they were] and present rival explanations based on the evidence. The fact that the claims made by the Classical writers issupported by the Indians themselves if further strong confirmation of the Kushana hypothesis.
The hypothesis based on the classical literature, was enough to support the original Kushana Hypothesis. The predicting power of the original theory, matches the observed natural phenomena which was confirmed elsewhere by cognate place names, ethononyms, lexicalitems and grammatical features, indicate that my theory has not be falsified.
The ability to reliably predict a linguistic relationship between Kushana and Meroitic, was further confirmation of the Kushana Hypothesis, because the linguistic connections were deducible from prediction. I controlled the Kushana Hypothesis by comparing the statements of the classical writers, with historical, linguistic anthropological and toponymic evidence found not only in Africa, but also India and Central Asia [where the people also used Tokharian as a trade language to unify the various people in Central Asia]. I constructed three testable hypotheses in support of the Kushana theory, and it seems only fair that these variables must be disconfirmed, to falsify the Kushana Hypothesis.
Hypothesis 1: If the meroites used a writing system of non-African origin a tradition mentioning this fact will exist. (Hypothesis confirmed. Classical literature mentions Indian scholars in ancient Meroe.)
Hypothesis: 2. If the classical literature mentions Indians who lived in Egypt influencing the Meroites their should be historical evidence relating to this tradition. (Hypothesis confirmed .Classical literature mentions a King who left his country is mentioned in the Jaina text called the Kalakeharya-Kathanaka.)
Hypothesis: 3. If Classical literature is true about the Indian origin of the Gymnosophists Indians will be found living near the Meroites around the time the Meroitic inscriptions appear. (Hypothesis confirmed. Artifacts and coins with Indian inscriptions have been found in Egypt and Ethiopia.) Failure to disconfirm this theorem, implies validity of myprediction.
My confirmation of the above , and 1) the presence of Kushites in Africa and Asia; 2) Asoka sent many Buddhist missionaries to Egypt who wrote their scriptures in Kharosthi and Tocharian; 3) a Blemmya--native to the Meroitic empire, is mentioned in numerous Buddhist Pali text; 4)the presence of Kushana sages in India who may have migrated to Meroe;5) cognate lexical items; 6)cognate verbs and 7) cognate grammatical features; indicates systematic controlled, critical and empirical investigation of the question of Kushana representing the Meroitic cognate language.
As a result of these facts we can now use Tocharian or Kushana to read the Meroitic text. The historical evidence make it clear that the Meroites were probably not strangers to Kharosthi literacy since the Gymnosophists had been in Upper Egypt and Meroitic Empires hundreds of years.
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Maurice Pope in THE STORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DECIPHERMENT, has made it clear that before an unknown language can be deciphered you must have the right theoretical structure to base your inquiry upon. Pope found that in the historical decipherments of ancient languages three preliminary conditions must be met:
1) confidence that a script can be deciphered; 2) location of proper names must be determined; 3) the grammatical rules of the target language/ script must be found .
We were able to read Meroitic because these preliminary conditions were met, and we were able to develop new hypothesis based on historical evidence to determine the cognate language of Meroitic. Conditions number one and two were met by Griffith when he deciphered the Meroitic script in 1910, and his discovery of the proper names of the Meroitic gods and individuals in Meroitic text. Griffith also discovered the direction the Meroitic writing was written.
This recognition by Griffith of the solubility of the Meroitic text was reinforced in 1978, with publication of UNESCO's The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Decipherment of the Meroitic Script. This was an important publication because it provided researchers with up-to-date information on the status of Meroitic.
Condition number three for the decipherment of Meroitic was met in 1979 when Fritz Hintze published his Beitrage zur meroitischen Grammatik . The research of F. Hintze (1979) and I. Hoffmann (1981) have made it possible for us to find the cognate language of Meroitic: Tokharian (Winters 1984 ,1989). The work of Griffith and Hintze fulfilled all the requirements for the decipherment of the Meroitic writing. The comparative method was used to find the cognate language of Meroitic. Using this method Meroitic scholars have compared the "known" Meroitic terms to vernacular African languages to establish morphological cognition between Meroitic and an African language. Up to now these linguistic comparisons failed to reveal the cognate language of Meroitic. Researchers working on the Meroitic language do not believe that it was a member of the Afro-Asian group. Griffith and Haycock tried to read Meroitic using Nubian. K.H. Priese, tried to read the Meroitic text using Eastern Sudani; and F. Hintze, attempted to compare Meroitic with the Ural-Altaic group. Recently Siegbert Hummel, compared the "known" Meroitic words to words in the Altaic family which he believed was a substrate language of Meroitic. These scholars failed to find a match between Meroitic and the vernacular languages of Nubia and the Sudan. This made it necessary to turn to the historical literature concerning the Kushites to form a new hypothesis related to possible sources of the Meroitic language. The historical literature of the Kushites comes from Egyptian and classical sources.
LINGUISTIC SUPPORT
The classical literature supported the view that we might be able to find the Meroitic cognate language through a comparison of the Meroitic terms and Kushan lexical items. To test the Kushana hypothesis we had to then: 1) find agreement between Kushana and Meroitic terms; 2) compare Central Asian and Egypto-Sudanese toponomies; 3) compare Kushana and Meroitic grammatical forms.
Hintze's (1979) grammar of Meroitic provided the necessary material to compare Meroitic with other languages to find its cognate language. Hintze (1979) recognized three approaches to the study of Meroitic: 1) philological, 2) comparative, and 3) structural (i.e., the morphological-syntactical). The philological methods of Hintze (1979) were informed guesses based upon context.
In the comparative method the structures of two or more languages are compared to determine the relationship between languages. Hintze's (1979) discussion of the Meroitic affixes provided us with the linguistic material to compare Meroitic successfully with Tocharian. Linguist to determine the relatedness of languages, and to reconstruct earlier language states uses the comparative method.
The comparative linguist looks for patterns of correspondence, i.e., the isolation of words with common or similar meanings that have systematic consonantal agreement with little regard for location and/or type of vowel. Consonantal agreement is the regular appearance of consonants at certain locations in words having analogous meanings.
Using the comparative methods proposed by Hintze we have found that the Meroitic inscriptions are written in Tocharian, a language used as a lingua franca in Central Asia by the Kushana or Kush people. The Kushana people ruled Central Asia and India. Linguist prefer to call the Kushana language Tocharian, after the Sanskrit term for Kushana: Tu-kara.(Winters 1984,1989) There is structural, morphological and toponymic evidence which support the view that Tokharian is cognate to Meroitic (Winters 1984,1989).
There are many Central Asian place names that agree with toponomies in Nubia/ Sudan. Below we list a few of these common toponomies:
Central Asia Sudan
Pap Pap Karnak Karnak Kukushka Kurush Shaur Sarur Kandi Kandi Urban Borgan Khara Kara- Kupuri Gabur, Capur
These placenames cam be compared with the maps of Central Asia and the Sudan supplied me by Dr. Vamos-Toth and attached hereto.
Some of the alleged Meroitic terms, but not all have being verified by my decipherment. What you must remember though, is that most of the alleged Meroitic lexical items were simply guesses by the researchers themselves. These Meroitic terms could only become valid when they can be read in all the Meroitic text and have consistent meaning. I found that some of these terms are homonyms, while other terms "discovered " by Griffith and others were good guesses that do not prove valid given our discovery of the cognate language of Meroitic. There are several recognized Meroitic words they are not of Egyptian origin (Hintze 1979). The following words correspond to Tokharian words:
Meroitic Tokharian
0 kadke / ktke # queen 0 katak # master of the house 0 ato # water 0 ap # 0 s # 'race' 0 sah # 'man' 0 wide # youth 0 wir # 0 qor # monarch 0 oroce # 'the grand king' 0 parite # agent 0 parwe # 'first' 0 apote # 'envoy' 0 ap # 'father'
Around 57% of these terms show agreement. This made it highly probable that Meroitic and Tokharian were cognate languages.
The grammar of Meroitic determined by Hintze (1979) also allowed us to make comparisons with Tocharian to test the Kushana hypothesis for reading Meroitic. This comparison of grammatical structures showed cognition between this language and Meroitic. Hintze was sure that there were number of Meroitic affixes including:
p ye -te -to -o
B.G. Trigger in his "Commentary" (Hintze 1979) mentioned several other possible Meroitic affixes including:
-n -te -b
In addition , A. M. Abdalla in his "Commentary" (Hintze 1979) mentioned three possible verbal suffixes , including:
-n -t -y
The Kushana language includes all of these affixes. Recognition of analogous structural elements in relation to Kushana and Meroitic allowed us to divide the Meroitic phonemes into words. Griffith provided us with evidence for selected Meroitic nouns. Abdalla (Hintze 1979, 149) was sure that he detected several common verbs in Meroitic including: hr, the, tk, we, pl, do, mde and yi mde.
Following this lead we searched the Kushan language to determine if it possessed any verbs that might match the proposed hypothetical verbs of Abdalla. A comparison of Kushan and Meroitic proved to be successful. We now know that he was absolutely right about his interpretation of possible Meroitic verbs. Below is the interpretation of these Meroitic verbs:
hr to have dignity the to move tk to set in motion, to investigate w-e to give escort pl to boast, to praise m-de measure the offering y i m-de go make (full) measure of the offering
Recognition of these Meroitic terms as verbs gave us any more confirmation that Kushana was probably the Meroitic cognate language. This discovery of Meroitic verbs and nouns, and cognate toponomies in Central Asia and Upper-Nubia-Sudan proved that Meroitic could be read using Kushana lexical items.
The discovery that Tocharian is cognate to Meroitic has led to the full decipherment of the Meroitic script. We can now translate Meroitic using Tokharian. This allows us to obtain new information about the Meroitic civilization. My research into Kushan or Tokharian has led me to recognize that this language was probably used as a lingua franca or trade language in Central Asia by the diverse peoples living there in an intense bilingual environment. C. A. Winters (1991) has illustrated how the Greek and Slavic terms in Tokharian were loanwords, absorbed by Tokharian after the Greek conquest of Bactria. This borrowing pattern was consistent with the spread of the Greek language into Bactria by a small elite group of warriors.
To test this hypothesis at attepted to decipher an inscription from Mussawarat es-Sufra. The inscription included several Meroitic signs.
The picture associated with this inscription is a graphic depiction of a sexual experience.
Reading from right to left we have the following Meroitic words
Nem pkh ote
In Kushana these words had the following meaning in Kushana
Nam = tendency Pak = to aim Ote = Wonderment
This allows us to read the Musawwarat es-Sufra inscription as follows: "The tendency (is) to aim for the Wonderment of (sex)!
Once I had made this breakthrough in the decipherment of Meroitic I began to decipher other Meroitic inscriptions and learn more about the Meroitic language.
Meroitic Language
The classical and Egyptian sources make it clear that Upper Nubia and numerous tribes inhabited the Sudan. The possible early use of Kushan\Tokharian as a trade language made it an ideal candidate for use by the Meroitic elites who ruled an empire that was made up of many diverse ethnic groups as the language for literate Meroites.
Meroitic is basically a suffixing language. The funerary tablets are written in the third person.
Conclusion
In conclusion the multiethnic populations that lived in the Meroitic empire used the Meroitic language as a lingua franca. This would explain the inability of earlier researchers to find the cognate language of Meroitic in the Sudan, even though they might find some analogous lexical items.
As a result of the above, I believe that my decipherment of the Meroitic script is correct. You will find that these lexical items allow us to gain insight into the Meroitic religious and funerary world. I look forward to finding some historical Meroitic text, but up to now I have just found materials relating to funerary customs and the Meroitic religion. The Meroitic chamber inscription is interesting , but it also deals mainly with things funerary.
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This site is reserved for Meroitic artifacts and inscriptions. I have already discussed points of my decipherment earlier in this thread so I will not discuss these issues here, they have also been discussed elsewhere see the following:
This Stela dates back to the 2nd to 3rd Centuries. It is has a reddish-white undercoat. It comes from Grave 275, Karanog. The stela is located in Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE40229.
The couple Meteye and Abakharta stand under the inner wings of the sun disk. Meteye wares her hair with a topknot and cornrows. This man may be either Meteye’s husband or father. (I am uncertain because the words ab-a can be interpreted as ‘[her] father’. If this is the correct reading aba Kharta would mean ‘her father Kharta’.)
The grave was excavated by Woolley-Randall-MacIver at Karanog. The skeleton in the grave was of a woman. The pointed breast on the figure indicate that she was a young women. Standing side by side suggest that this man was her husband. Since the grave contained only one skeleton we can imagine that Abakharta was depicted on this stela to show his devotion to his wife.
There are three sets of inscription on this stela. There are inscriptions in front of Meteye and Abakharta, and an inscription between the legs of Abakharta.
Reading from right to left beginning with the inscription between the legs of Abakharta, then the inscription before Abakharta and finally the one in front of Meteye we have the following: Inscription between Abakharta’s legs.
P .. š ….o ….
“Pray for the patron to commence……”
Inscription in front of the man:
Wosi .. ne. Sore… yi-ne. Abkharta… ke ….lo …..wi-ne... a…kh…m…še..
“ Isis the Good. Osiris the eternal. Abakharta gives permission (for) the offering of this Object of Respect (Meteye) to acquire greatness (and) protection.”
“Isis the good. Osiris the eternal. Meteye , renew (her) honor down the path (to) abundant alms giving. The patron [Meteye] has commenced the Rebirth”.
posted
Check out my books: Meroitic Writing and Literature
Meroitic Writing and Literature is divided into three parts. The first part of the book explains how I used the Kushana hypothesis to decipher the Meroitic script. It will outline the Classical literature that informed my decipherment of Meroitic and how Buddhists early settled in Upper Egypt and the Meroitic Empire and spread their religion and writing system: Tocharian.
In Part two we outline the grammar of Meroitic. It will provide readers with a detailed overview of the Meroitic language and its grammar.
Part Three provides translations of key Meroitic text. These texts provide knowledge of the lifeway’s of the Meroites especially their religion and some historical data.
The Meroitic literature discussed in this book include : The Inscriptions of Tanyidamani; The Meroitic Chamber Inscription of Philae; and Meroitic Evidence for a Blemmy Empire in the Dodekaschoinas. These text were chosen because they include text written in archaic Meroitic (Tanyidemani), and other text written in late Meroitic.
Meroitic Writing and Literature, is the first account of the Meroitic language and literature. It will allow readers the opportunity to learn how to read/decipher Meroitic text, while acquiring an intimate knowledge of the Meroites as individuals.
The Meroitic Language, provides a detailed account of the language of the Kushites who founded the Meroitic Empire. In Meroitic Language, Dr. Winters explains his decipherment of the Meroitic language and provides an outline of the grammar of the Meroitic language.
Meroitic language provides readers with the necessary tools to read the Meroitic inscriptions.It also gives the reader key insight into the culture and religion of the Kushites.
Meroitic Language can be purchased at Scribd. Purchase the full version and... • Read the full version in your browser • Send to mobile device • Download as pdf (PDF) • Download as txt (Text file)
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