jꜣt

Egyptian

FWOTD – 5 March 2023

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /iɑt/
  • Conventional anglicization: iat

Noun

 f

1. mound, especially as a sacred site or location in the Afterworld [since the Pyramid Texts]
2. ruin, mound of ruins
3. cultivated land, fields [Greco-Roman Period]
4. (chiefly in the plural, expressively) regions, lands, foreign lands [Greco-Roman Period]

Usage notes

In late writings this word becomes confused with jw (“island, lands, regions”) and is often written identically.

Inflection

Declension of jꜣt (feminine)

singular	jꜣt
dual	jꜣtj
plural	jꜣwt

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jꜣt  

ꜣt	jꜣt	jꜣt	jꜣt	ꜣt	jꜣt
			[Book of the Dead]	[Late Egyptian]	[Late Egyptian]

Possibly, following Gardiner’s suggestion, ꜣꜣ (“mound of ruins”) may also be merely a variant writing of this word.

Derived terms

• jꜣwt
• jꜣtjw
• jꜣt wꜥbt
• jmjw-jꜣwt.sn

Noun

 f

1. (anatomy) spine, backbone [since the Old Kingdom]
2. (anatomy, of humans or animals) back
3. (figuratively) middle of a body of water (lake or river)

Inflection

Declension of jꜣt (feminine)

singular	jꜣt
dual	jꜣtj
plural	jꜣwt

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jꜣt  

jꜣt	jꜣt	jꜣt	jꜣt	jꜣt	ꜣt	ꜣtj	ꜣt	ꜣtj
	[Middle Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]	[18th Dynasty]	[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[Late Egyptian]	[Late Egyptian]
	from the story of Sinuhe	‘middle of water’ sense	from Beni Hasan			in hieratic

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jꜣt  

ꜣt	ꜣt	ꜣtj	ꜣtj	jꜣt	ꜣdt	jꜣdt
[Late Egyptian]	[Late Egyptian]	[Late Egyptian]	[Late Egyptian]	[Late Egyptian]	[Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]

Descendants

• Sahidic Coptic: ⲱⲱ⸗ (ōō⸗) (in ϩⲓⲱⲱ⸗ (hiōō⸗), pronominal state of ϩⲓ (hi))
• Bohairic Coptic: ⲱⲧ⸗ (ōt⸗) (in ϩⲓⲱⲧ⸗ (hiōt⸗), pronominal state of ϩⲓ (hi))

Noun

 f

1. standard for carrying cultic images and objects

Inflection

Declension of jꜣt (feminine)

singular	jꜣt
dual	jꜣtj
plural	jꜣwt

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jꜣt  

jꜣt	jꜣtj	ꜣt	jꜣꜣt
[Pyramid Texts]	[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom and Greco-Roman Period]	[22nd Dynasty and Late Period]
from PT 254.39 (Pyr. 288c), W	in hieratic

Noun

 f

1. Part of a place name in the Afterworld. The meaning of this term is uncertain. [Pyramid Texts]
   • c. 2289 BCE – 2255 BCE, Pyramid Texts of Pepi I — west wall of the corridor’s north section, line 25, spell 519.8:

     wny ꜥꜣwj ptr zny ꜥꜣwj jꜣt ẖrt

     Open, double doors of the Looking (Canal)! Open, double doors of the Lower jꜣt!

   • c. 2289 BCE – 2255 BCE, Pyramid Texts of Pepi I — south wall of the vestibule, line 19, spell 539.84–85:

     [mry-rꜥ pw jr(j)] jꜣt ẖrt ḥkꜣ [pry].f r.f šwy.f r.f jr pt

     [Meryra is the one pertaining to] the Lower jꜣt of magic (or: the jꜣt possessing magic), so he [should go forth], so he should soar up to the sky.

   • c. 2255 BCE – 2246 BCE, Pyramid Texts of Merenre — east wall of the corridor’s middle section, line 38, spell 519.8:

     wny ꜥꜣwj ptr zny ꜥꜣwj jꜣt ẖrt

     Open, double doors of the Looking (Canal)! Open, double doors of the Lower jꜣt!

   • c. 2246 BCE – 2152 BCE, Pyramid Texts of Pepi II — east wall of the corridor’s middle section, line 36–37, spell 519.8:

     wn ꜥꜣwj ptr zny ꜥꜣwj jꜣt ẖrt

     Open, double doors of the Looking (Canal)! Open, double doors of the Lower jꜣt!

Usage notes

The above quotes constitute all the known attestations of this word.

Allen, in his translation of the Pyramid Texts, renders this word as ‘peak’, presumably identifying it with jꜣt (“mound”) above. Shmakov disputes this reading and takes jꜣt ẖrt as a body of water based on the determinatives and a mention of š jꜣt (“Lake of the Standard”) found in the Coffin Texts (CT III, 204f), rendering it ‘Kherti’s standard lake’, but noting that a reading ‘lower standard’ is also possible. In this case the term would be an extended use of jꜣt (“cultic standard”) above, in the role of a proper name. Shmakov notes in this regard that this word for ‘standard’ is also found written with the sign in PT 254.39 (Pyr. 288c), W (see alternative forms under that term above).

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jꜣt  

jꜣt	jꜣt

Proper noun

 f

1. Iat, a goddess who serves as nurse to the dead, likely a goddess of milk [Pyramid Texts and Old Kingdom]

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jꜣt  

jꜣt	jꜣt
reading uncertain	reading uncertain

Derived terms

(possibly:)

• jꜣtt

Noun

 m

1. New Kingdom form of ꜣꜣ (“mound of ruins”)

References

• Gardiner, Alan (1948) “The First Two Pages of the Wörterbuch” in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 34, p. 15
• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[1], volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 2, 26.3–26.17
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 7
• Lesko, Leonard, Lesko, Barbara (2002) A Dictionary of Late Egyptian, second edition, volume 1, Providence: B.C. Scribe Publications, →ISBN, pages 1, 11
• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 242.