beer and bread

I read a book about the history of food and alcohol and gave the book to my brother who claims now to not know anything about it. That household is the black hole of books, grasped so tightly they disappear. The book said bread and beer grew up together, being basically the same thing, beer the liquid version of bread. Egyptian beer was started by dropping a piece of bread into a vase of water.

Taking my mind off politics awhile, way off, far off as possible and focus like a laser on bread and beer long ago, three thousand years and elsewhere. Might as well be a science fiction. I find in the Yahoo groups email notifications, the Egyptologists are discussing text about Amennakhte having bread and beer at night and notice some things right off. Reading through reaffirm for myself this is why I cannot be in a group. I see this same thing with the other signs too and the groups that form around understanding them. There are certain things here that are straightforward and others that are not. Some things jump out and smack you while other less straightforward elements add tense and mood and set things in place. The elements that leap out and smack needn't be made more complicated, that is, no reason to tie yourself in knots finding a smooth and acceptable English locution when one is already given. Here are the signs. Click if you like, it gets bigger, I think.

When you scan it, the little man sitting down with arms parallel is determinative for "person" so, some name before that, and the little man with a hand to his mouth is more specific and there are two of those. He is eating, or drinking, or speaking, or saying, consuming something, doing something with his mouth.  Behind the little man are symbols for bread and for beer, these grouping are seen in offering scenes everywhere. The symbol groupings will be part of every food offering incantation. Every spell painted on a wall. Here, they are a little bit different but still close to looking like offerings. The items are not food offerings, rather, they are being consumed.

The little bird in the center is an odd hieroglyphic. I don't like it. Two similar birds are easily conflated one means small and insignificant and the other means great, the difference between them an aspect of their tiny tail. Everyone draws birds differently so these two are impossible to sort. Next to that, the little circle with three marks under it means "a few, three or more chunks or bits of anything" So now that bird before it is beginning to look like "small" and not "great," for "a few small bits."

We see it right there. Our interpretation must include the incredibly straightforward phrase "eat little bits of bread" and "drink beer" The symbols say that, smack, smack. Whatever else the lines also say, they must say that.

The bug means "become," it is a common word and concept and it is written everywhere. One of the best most replete symbols ever. The entire lifespan of the bug, its odd habit of burrowing and building chambers and loading it with its treasure, its future self, appears to die down there and remerges as itself, that whole idea of becoming and doing that again is wrapped up in this symbol. It is used in pharaonic names throughout their history, King Tut has this bug in his praenomen cartouche. Whatever our interpretation, it must use the concept of something becoming. The concept is written right there.

Next to that the rabbit sticks out. I love this symbol so much, because, bunnies. It means "is" and "exists." Here's an annoying thing. On television shows about Egypt the cameraman doesn't care about hieroglyphics except as, 'oh, writing" and that's it. He will sweep across the hieroglyphics of an important new find without giving viewers a chance to focus on them assuming nobody can care as he doesn't care, but cartouches do stick out anyway and this hare really does stick out within a cartouche and you know instantly on sight the pharaoh is Wenis. You needn't see anything else. Because of the hare. And sure enough, the host says, "Wenis." The w-n combination of the hare is also used in combinations, the star and the sun together nearby give the hint that in this case the w-n is used for the word "hour."

Finally, the determinative symbol for night confirms that g-r-H grouping before it is spelling out the word for  'evening." There are a hundred ways to write the word "night" that will all have this determinative meaning "night" behind them, the odd final sign shown below.

Okay? These are the things that stick out. This gives us a very good start. Our interpretation, whatever it ends up once we dig into names tenses and moods, who's doing whom, will contain these straightforward slappy-face elements. The closer to this simplicity the better.

Let's see how the other elements that we haven't yet examined throw off other interpreters. They think it must all be past tense, that all elements must change to force the whole thing to occur all in the past. Something in a book told them so, something they're studying, and not just past, but past perfect. They're seeing symbols that support past perfect interpretation. They read the hour as "arriving" and "coming" yet there are no legs shown up there. That would be another straightforward looking depiction, the hour actually arriving, but here we have a bug that we know for thousands of years even in royal names means to become, not to arrive.

Incidentally, the third hour refers to a priestly hour and the discussion is about fasting. You have to admit bread and beer is a meager meal. This is probably a priest consuming the food offerings, I'm guessing, the symbol groupings match when they could have been done differently and not so priestly an arrangement.

I've stripped their interpretations of their transliterations, the symbols mean sounds with no English match, for a code that doesn't make any sense without speaking the language of sounds that nobody any longer actually speaks, so all that slavish tedium means nothing to us here.


Amunnekht is (or was) eating some bread and drinking beer once the third hour of night had arrived.

“Amen-nakhte was eating a little bread and drinking beer…”
“… until the third hour of night had happened.”

Amen-nakhte was eating bread and drinking beer when the third hour of the night emerged.

Amen-Nakhte is eating some bread and drinking beer, the third hour of night having arrived.

Amennakhet has been eating a few of bread and drinking beer when the 3rd hour of the night came.

Amen-nakhte was eating some bread and drinking beer when the third hour of the night arrived.

Amen-nakhte is eating some bread and drinking beer being past the 3rd hour of the night.

Amen-nakhte was eating a little bread and drinking beer as the 3rd.hour of evening had arrived.

Amen-Nakhte is eating some bread and drinking beer when the third hour of the night occurs. (coming of / taking place of)

Amen-nakhte was eating bread and drinking beer at the arrival of the third hour of the night

Amen-nakhte was eating some bread and drinking beer when the third hour of the night had arrived.

Amen-nakte eats some bread and drinks some beer at the third hour of the night

Amenakhte was eating some bread and drinking beer appeared (at) any moment of the night.

Amen-nakte was eating a little bread and drinking bear when the third hour of the night arrived.