First Intermediate Period, Dynasties 9-10, ca. 2213-2010 BCE
Dendera, Tomb of Merery, EEF, 1897-8
Gift of the Egypt Exploration Fund, OIM 4953
Photo ©Joan Ann Lansberry, 2010
Order and Arrangement of Hieroglyphic Signs
"In this inscription, all the signs with an obvious orientation (the owl, the human leg and the seated figure) face to the right, indicating that the text was written and read from right to left."
To further illustrate this, let's examine the text in Horemheb's tomb. Many parts of his tomb were not finished in time for the funeral, so we can see the working progress. The first limner sketched basic positions in red, and the black limner refined and corrected the first sketch:
"Hieroglyphs could be written from right to left or from left to right. Although the usual and dominant direction of writing was from right to left, signs were commonly written in the opposite direction to create symmetrical bands of inscriptions on statue bases and architectural..."
Oops! Bad Bird!
(Photo credit for this photo © William Petty)
Back to Merery's fragment:
Photo ©Joan Ann Lansberry, 2010
"The inscription is a list of titles of a man named Merery, which include Sole [Companion], Lector Priest, Overseer of the Prophets, and Herdsman [of Cattle]." (Text in quotes is from museum info cards.)
