Scribe equipment (hieroglyph)
The ancient Egyptian Scribe equipment hieroglyph ?, or its reversed form ?, portrays the equipment of the scribe. Numerous scribes used the hieroglyph in stating their name, either on papyrus documents, but especially on statuary or tomb reliefs.
The hieroglyph depicts the 3 major components of a scribe's equipment:
- tube case - for holding writing-reeds
- leather bag - for holding colored inks
- wood scribal palette - with mixing pools;
Language usage
The scribe equipment hieroglyph is often used as a determinative for items relating to writing or the scribe. Combined with the determinative for person ?, the hieroglyph is read as zẖꜣw, probably pronounced ' or ' in Old Egyptian, and ' or following the changes in pronunciation of z in Middle Egyptian and of ꜣ in Late Egyptian. By the Coptic stage of the language, this had lost its glottal stop and ending, reducing to ⲥⲁϧ '.
Often the transliteration "sesh" appears, derived from the mistaken reading sš propagated in the dictionary and books of E. A. W. Budge. This reading is found as a phonetic complement using the signs for z and š, leading to the misunderstanding. However, Old Kingdom Egyptian lacked a distinct sign for the ẖ sound and the Coptic descendant shows that the original second consonant was indeed the palatalized fricative ẖ not the palatal sibilant š,.
When used as the verb zẖꜣ, the hieroglyph has a variety of related meanings: to write, to draw, to make a design, to do into writing. As the noun zẖꜣ, it means: writing, inscription, written roll of papyrus, book, copy of a document, & handwriting. In plural usage: writings, letters, books, documents, archives, decrees, handwriting, the columns of a book, papers, title-deeds, registers, and literature.