pekher / deben confusion

Ancient Egyptian can be frustrating. And sometimes the scholars add to the confusion. 

rer

For example, Wallace Budge (EAWB) started off the confusion with the word rer.

Your researcher decided early on that this was unlikely, and transcribed the word as pekher.

The word notably featured the glyph <clip-R> F46 o. To modern eyes this sign looks like an office paperclip, and such an object has bends and turns and curves and folds, and changes in direction.

However, back to rer: there is a word rer, or reri, meaning ‘pig’, whilst rer means ‘time’.

rer or pekher: turn

However, EAWB claimed the word rer (or pekher) to mean ‘go round about’, for which the simplified English translation in the Nedj Nedj database was ‘turn’. Gardiner provides one of numerous examples of this word:

pekher — with <mouth> /r/

It transpires that there are around two dozen examples in the database featuring pekher, all with an underlying idea of circularity, whether direct or tenuous. Here are four examples: 

In fact the Euphrates (line 2) does meander; and frontier guards (line 4) move about, or circulate, while on patrol.

The first example (line 1, final column) spells the word out: p-kh-r —, rather than relying on the shorthand ‘clip’ of the next two examples for the purpose.

Unaccountable extras: pekher

How the following two examples fit into the picture is anyone’s guess. There is no obvious circularity connection:

deben — with <water> /n/

For an unfathomable reason, there is another altogether different word conveying circularity, deben; it is in almost all respects the same as pekher in appearance in hieroglyphs. Here are several examples:

These deben hieroglyphic examples are virtually indistinguishable from the pekher group, except for featuring the <water> /n/ glyph instead of <mouth> /r/. And it is these sound complements that are the key to distinguishing which word is intended.

Apart from indicating circularity, deben also was used for a measure of weight.

Unaccountable extras: deben

There might be a connection in the following examples to the weight concept, but hardly to circularity. The determinatives <ring> and <horncup> often denote minerals:

Scholars confuse

Why it was suggested that the scholars sometimes add to the confusion is that in the English–Egyptian vocabulary in Gardiner there is an entry under ‘circulate’ on p. 608. The entry reads:

circulate  , 

If the glyph <clip-R> F46 o on its own stands for pekher, and the <mouth> sign is complementary (first example above), the second word above might be taken to read pekheren. In fact it is deben, with the <water> glyph complementary to the alternative stem word deben. But how would an amateur researcher know this?

Ancient Egyptians confuse

Gardiner, in his entry on glyph F46 ‘clip’: o , alerted his readers to two uses other than for phr  pekher and dbn deben above. Here are selected examples:

These uses are qAb and wedjeb. Just as the underlying idea for both pekher and deben was circularity, coupled with a few ‘unaccountable extras’, an underlying idea can be sought for each of qAb and wedjeb.. These underlying ideas might be:

qAb: fold

wedjeb: redirect

Here are three example for each:

qAb: fold

wedjeb: redirect

turn, r ‘away from’; turn back; revert, n ‘to’; divert offerings; direct action; r ‘to’ a purpose; recur of illness;

desist, compose oneself; turn oneself about;

noun: reversion offering;

Finally, Gardiner did not include what appears to be another ‘clip’-related word in his F46-49 ‘clip’ collection. The following example features the glyph <clip-Z: pap> M11 W. It relates to the word weden: ‘offer’

Why did Gardiner not include it? Because although it featured what may to us resemble a ‘clip’ variation, Gardiner classified this glyph not in his F ‘Parts of mammals’ category but in his M ‘Trees and plants’ category instead. 

Faulkner on the other hand, in just one instance, does record a ‘clip’ example for weden:

However, Faulkner also provides eight others weden examples featuring clip-Z: pap M11. So perhaps it is best to side with Gardiner and exclude weden from the ‘clip’ confusion.

Conclusion

The glyph <clip-R> F46 o has two basic associated word stems, phr pekher and dbn deben. Both have the underlying meaning of circularity. These two words have additional meanings and uses.

The glyph <clip-R> F46 o is also associated with the word stems ḳ3b qAb. These the underlying meaning of fold, and wdb wedjeb with the underlying meaning of redirect.

Are you a little confused by all this?

Jeremy Steele

Thursday 20 June 2013