Clyde Winters, PhD

Uthman dan Fodio Institute

There are many mysteries concerning the Meroites of the Meroitic civilization

of Nubia and the Sudan. This ancient civilization lasted for hundreds of years

and has left us many wonderful monuments.

In addition to many grand monuments the Meroites left us a written

language. Although scholars have been able to read the letters of this

ancient Kushite writing for many years up to now the full meaning of the

Meroitic texts had alluded us.

Literacy in the Napatan and Meroitic Civilizations

Ancient Kush extended across a large part of the Sudan. In this vast

region encompassing the Napatan and Meroitic civilizations there were many

different nationalities, that spoke a myriad of languages.

1
Due to the ethnic diversity of the Napatans, it is clear that at least from the

Napatan period of Kush the rulers of the empire had decided that no single

language spoken in the empire would be used to record political,

administrative and religious information. To maintain an equilibrium within

and among the Napatan nationalities Egyptian was used as the lingua franca

of the empire. The leaders of the Napatan empire probably used Egyptian

because it was an international language, and few Kushites were of Egyptian

ethnic origin.

Egyptian remained the lingua franca for the Kushites during the Napatan and

early Meroitic periods in Kushite history. After the Assyrians defeated the

Egyptians the ethnic composition of the Kushite empire began to change. As

a result, many Egyptians began to migrate into Kushite, to avoid non-

Egyptian rule.

Beginning with the Assyrian defeat of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty large number

of nomadic people from the Middle East began to migrate into Egypt. These

people began to take over many Egyptian settlements, while other Egyptians

fled to Nubia and Kush to avoid non-Egyptian rule.

Other political and military conflicts after the Assyrians led many Egyptians

to migrate out of Egypt into Nubia and Kush. Herodotus’ mentions the
2
mutiny of Psamtik I’s frontier garrison at Elephantine—these deserters

moved into Kush. Moreover, the archaizing trend in Kush among the post

Twenty-Fifth Dynasty Kings testify to a possible large migration of Egyptians

into Kush.

In 343 BC Nectanebos II, fled to Upper Egypt. Later according to the

Natasen period stela we evidence of other Egyptians migrating into Kush

from Egypt (Torok, 1997, p.391).

Between the 260’s-270’s BC Upper Egyptian Nationalists were fighting the

Ptolemy (Greek) rulers of Egypt. The rebellion was put down by Ptolemy II.

This military action led to Egyptians migrating out of Egypt into Kush (Torok,

pp.395-396). These rebellions continued in Egypt into the 2nd Century BC

(Torok, p.426).

Between Ptolomy II and Ptolemy V, the Greeks began to settle Egypt. This

was especially true in the 150’sBC and led to many Egyptians migrating back

into Egypt.

By the time the Romans entered Egypt, many Egyptians had already left

Egypt and settled. Roman politics also forced many Egyptians to migrate into

Kush. This was compounded by the introduction of the Pax Agusta policy of
3
the Romans which sought the establishment of Roman hegemony within

territories under Roman rule (Torok, 454-456). This led to the emigration of

many Romans into Egypt.

The Kush was a multi-ethnic society. It included speakers of many languages

within the empire. During most of Kushite history the elites used Egyptian

for record keeping since it was recognized as a neutral language.

As more and more Egyptians, led by Egyptian nationalists, fled to Kush as it

became under foreign domination the Egyptians formed a large minority in

the Empire. Because of Egyptian migrations to Kush, by the rule of the

Meroitic Queen Shanakdakheto, we find the Egyptian language abandoned

as a medium of exchange in official records, and the Meroitic script takes its

place.

By the rise of Greeks in Egypt, the cultural ideology , like the people were

changing. This is supported by the transition from Demotic writing (7th 5th

Centuries BC) to Coptic (4th BC-AD 1400). The Coptic people are the best

evidence for the change in the Egyptian population.

After the Egyptians became a sizable minority in Kush, the Kushites

abandoned Egyptian as a lingua franca. Egyptian was replaced by the

4
Meroitic writing.

Due to the fact that Meroite leaders were trying maintain unity within the

Meroitic Confederacy/Empire they did not record any ethnic lexical items in

the Meroitic inscriptions , that I have read so far, except ethnonyms and

toponyms.

The Decipherment of Meroitic

Some years ago I deciphered the Meroitic script after I discovered that

the Meroites wrote their inscriptions in the Kushana language. In this paper

we will discuss recent decipherment theories, while I decipher Meroitic

inscriptions.

The comparative method was used to find the cognate language of

Meroitic. Using this method Meroitic scholars have compared the "known"

Meroitic terms to vernacular African languages to establish morphological

cognition between Meroitic and an African language. Up to now these

linguistic comparisons failed to reveal the cognate language of Meroitic.

Researchers working on the Meroitic language do not believe that it was

a member of the Afro-Asian group. Griffith and Haycock tried to read

Meroitic using Nubian.

5
 K.H. Priese, tried to read the Meroitic text using Eastern Sudani; and F.

Hintze, attempted to compare Meroitic with the Ural-Altaic group. Siegbert

Hummel, compared the "known" Meroitic words to words in the Altaic family

which he believed was a substrate language of Meroitic.

Rilly recently claimed that Meroitic is related to Nubian , eventhough

Griffith and Haycock failed to read Meroitic using Nubian. Rilly's hypothesis is

that Meroitic can be read by reconstructing the proto-language of the Sudani

language.

Rilly claims that Meroitic is Nilo-Saharan. He claims that this is supported by

comparing the Proto-Nilo-Saharan to Meroitic, because the people living in

Kush today are remnants of the Meroites.

I found the article about Claude Rilly the “Champollion of Meroitique”

very interesting. Although he is being given credit for presenting a method

to decipher Meroitic, I already deciphered Meroitic years ago. Rilly believes

that he can decipher the Meroitic language language using the Proto-

NorthEastern Sudanic, which he has reconstructed.

According to Rilly, since the people presently living in the Sudan today

speak languages associated with the Nilo Saharan Superfamily of languages,

the Meroites probably spoke a language associated with this family. This was

a radical decision, because research has shown that none of the attested
6
Meroitic terms accepted by mainstream scholars are related to any living

language in the Sudan (there are some Meroitic terms borrowed from

Egyptian).

Because there are no cognate Meroitic terms and lexical items in the

Eastern Sudanic Languages, Rilly has begun to reconstruct Proto-Eastern

Sudanic, and attempt to read Meroitic text using his Proto-Eastern Sudanic

vocabulary. Even if I hadn’t deciphered the Meroitic writing this

method would never lead to the decipherment of this or any other language.

First, it must be stated that no “dead “ language has been deciphered

using a proto-language. These languages were deciphered using living

languages, Coptic in the case of Egyptian, Oromo and (Ethiopian) Semitic

was used to decipher the Mesopotamian Cuneiform scripts.

The basic problem with using a proto-language to read a dead language

results from the fact that the proto-language has been reconstructed by

linguist who have no knowledge or textual evidence of the alleged

proto-language. Secondly, there are subgroups in any family of languages.

This means that you must first establish the intermediate proto-language

(IPL) of the subgroup languages in the target language family. Once

the IPLs have been reconstructed, you can then reconstruct the

superordinate proto-language (SPL).

You can only reconstruct the SPL on the basis of attested languages. In

addition, before you can reconstruct the IPLs and SPL a genetic relationship
7
must be established for the languages within the Superfamily of languages,

e.g., Nilo Saharan.

The problem with Rilly’s method, is there is no way he can really

establish the IPLs in Eastern Sudanic because we have not textual evidence

or lexical items spoken by people who lived in the Sudan in Meroitic times.

As a result, the languages spoken by people in this area today may not

reflect the linguistic geography of the Sudan in the Meroitic period. This is

most evident when we look at modern Egypt. Today the dominant language

is Arabic, and yet Arabic has no relationship to Egyptian. If we accept Rilly’s

method for deciphering Egyptian we would assume that once me

reconstructed proto-Semitic , we could read Egyptian—but as you know

Egyptian is not a Semitic language.

Secondly, researchers have compared the “attested Meroitic” terms to all

the Nilo-Saharan languages. The results were negative, they do not relate to

any Eastern Sudanic language. If the lexical items attested in Meroitic are

not cognate to Eastern Sudanic terms, there is no way to establish a genetic

relationship between these languages. Absence of a genetic relationship

means that we can not reconstruct the imagined IPLs of Meroitic sister

languages, since these researchers failed to find a connection between

Meroitic and the Eastern Sudanic. As a result, Rilly’s reconstructions of Nilo-

Saharan can offer no insight into the language spoken by the Meroites.

My decipherment of Meroitic is based on the Kushana theory. The Kushana

8
theory is that a group of “East Indian” scholars introduced the Meroitic

writing system to the Meroites.

There has recently been an attempt to link Meroitic to the Afro-Asiatic

languages. Rowan attempts to imply that a typological relationship exists

between Meroitic and Afro-Asiatic due to alleged consonantal compatibility

restrictions. Although this is her opinion I don't believe that it is supported

by the evidence, since she uses imagined Meroitic terms as her data. Since

the terms Rowan uses in her analysis are "made up" she can say they have

any feature she chooses and be "right".

Moreover, finding only one feature common to Meroitic and AA languages

does not support a connection.

The major problem with the thesis is that Rowan failed to discuss Meroitic

based upon the agreed upon vocabulary of Meroitic. Failure to do this has led

her to make conclusions that can not be supported by the evidence since

some words she uses as examples in her paper are based on conjecture or

are hypothectical/imagined Merotic terms. Moreover, the failure to

acknowledge that most Meroitic consonants are probably associated with a

schwa, except when a Meroitic vowel is joined to a consonant e.g., -i.-e, - a,

makes any discussion of Meroitic phonology suspect.

9
Failure to present examples from agreed upon Meroitic lexical items,

especially given the clear Meroitic examples of Egyptian loan words in

Meroitic is quite strange. This is further compounded by the fact that she

fails to provide a cognate language to read the script and therefore provide a

firm foundation for her spurious conclusions.

In general the paper is a good discussion of the state of research relating to

Afro-Asiatic. But in my opinion it offers little support for the posibility that

Meroitic is related to Afro- Asiatic, or Nilo-Saharan for that matter, given the

phantom/imagined words she provides as Meroitic lexical items.

The Kushana hypothesis was based on the following evidence, 1) no African

language has been found to be a cognate language of Meroitic 2) the

Classical literature says that the Kushites lived in Asia and Africa; 3) the

Gymnosophists, or "naked sages" of Meroe came from India.

Before I began work on Meroitic, other researchers had already falsified

the African theory for Meroitic's cognate language. The fact that not even

Nubian, a language spoken by a people who lived in the Meroitic empire,

failed to be the cognate language of Meroitic made it clear that we must look

elsewhere for the cognate language spoken by the Meroites. It also

makes it impossible for us to accept Rilly’s contention that he can read

10
Meroitic using Proto-Eastern Sudanic.

Flavius Philostratus, the writer of the Vita Apollonii, Vol. 1,claimed that the

Gymnosophists of Meroe originally came from India (see F.C. Conybeare,

Philostratus:The Life of Apollonius of Tyana (p.45),1950). Given the fact that

the Kushana had formerly ruled India around the time that the Meroitic

writing was introduced to the Kushite civilization, led to the hypothesis that

the ancestors of the Gymnosophist may have been Kushana philosophers.

The historical evidence of the Kushana having ruled India made the

Classical references to Indians in Meroe, an important source for the

construction of alternative theories about the possible location of

the cognate language of Meroitic.

There is external evidence, which supports my theory. A theory explains

observed phenomena and has predictive power. I have theorized that due to

the claims of the Classical writers that some of the Meroites came from India

(pg.271)1. According to the Life of Apollonius, the Indian Meroites were

formerly led by a King Ganges, who had "repulsed the Scythians who

invaded this land [India from] across the Caucasus" (Conybeare, Vol.1,

Pg.273). Pilostratus also made it clear that the Indians of Meroe came to this
1
F.C Conybeare (Trans.), Philostratus: The life of Apollonius of
Tyana Vol.2, (1950)
11
country after their king was killed.

The presence of this tradition of an Indian King of the Indian-Meroites

conquering the Scythians predicts that the Indian literature should record

this historical episode. This prediction is supported by a Jaina text called the

Kalakeharya-Kathanaka, which reports that when the Scythians invaded

Malwa, the King of Malwa, called Vikramaditya defeated the Scythians2. This

king Vikramaditya may be the Ganges mentioned in the Life of

Apollonius.Confirmation of the Ganges story, supports the Classical literary

evidence that their were Indianized-Meroites that could have introduced the

Tokharian trade language to the Meroites. Moreover, there were other

Indians in North Africa in addition to Kush/Meroe. For example, at Quseir

al-Qadim there was a large Indian speaking community3 . These Indians

were in Egypt writing messages in their own language, around the time we

see a switch from Egyptian hieroglyphics to the Meroitic writing

system.

The evidence that the Classical references to an Indian-Meroite King who

conquered the Scythians is supported by the Indian literature, provides

external corroboration of the tradition that some of the Meroites were of

2
(H. Kulke & D. Rothermund, History of India. London, Routledge:
1990, pg.73
3
R. Salomon, "Epigraphic remains of Indian
traders in Egypt", Journal of the American oriental
Society, (1991) pp.731-736; and R. Salomon, Addenda,
Journal of the American Oriental Society, (1993)
pg.593.
12
Indian origin. The presence of Indian traders and settlers in Meroe (and

Egypt), makes it almost impossible to deny the possibility that

Indians, familiar with the Tokharian trade language did not introduce this

writing to the Meroites who needed a neutral language to unify the diverse

ethnic groups who made up the Meroite state. In relation to the history of

linguistic change and bilingualism, it is a mistake to believe that linguistic

transfer had to take place for the Meroites to have used Tokharian,

when it did not take place when they wrote in Egyptian hieroglyphics.

In summary the classical literature makes it clear that there was a

connection between the Gymnosophists (of Meroe) and the Indians. The fact

that historical events mentioned in the classical sources are found in

the Indian literature confirm the view that there were Indian-Meroites who

could have introduced the Tokharian trade language to the Meroites.

The evidence presented above provides internal and external validity for

my theory based upon the sources I have cited previously. The sources I

have used are impartial, to disconfirm my hypothesis someone needs

to show that my propositions are not fully informed [i.e., there were no

Indians North Africa and Kush when the Classical writers maintained they

were] and present rival explanations based on the evidence. The

fact that the claims made by the Classical writers is supported by the Indians

themselves if further strong confirmation of the Kushana hypothesis.

The hypothesis based on the classical literature, was enough to support the
13
original Kushana Hypothesis. The predicting power of the original theory,

matches the observed natural phenomena which was confirmed

elsewhere by cognate place names, ethononyms, lexical items and

grammatical features, indicate that my theory has not be falsified.

The ability to reliably predict a linguistic relationship between Kushana

and Meroitic, was further confirmation of the Kushana Hypothesis, because

the linguistic connections were deducible from prediction. I controlled the

Kushana Hypothesis by comparing the statements of the classical writers,

with historical, linguistic anthropological and toponymic evidence found not

only in Africa, but also India and Central Asia [where the people also used

Tokharian as a trade language to unify the various people in Central Asia]. I

constructed five testable hypotheses in support of the Kushana theory, and it

seems only fair that these five variables must be disconfirmed,

to falsify the Kushana Hypothesis. Failure to disconfirm this theorem, implies

validity of my prediction.

My confirmation of the above five variables: the presence of Kushites in

Africa and Asia; the presence of Kushana sages in India who may have

migrated to Meroe; cognate lexical items; cognate verbs and cognate

grammatical features indicates systematic controlled, critical and empirical

investigation of the question of Kushana representing the Meroitic

cognate language.

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 The Meroitic Language

Today we can read the Meroitic text in their entirety using the cognate

language for Meroitic: Tokharian (Winters 1984,1989, 1996a, 1996b,1996c).

Although linguist call this language Tokharian in Central Asia (Winters 1988b,

1991, 1996b).

The people of Meroe, the Kushites had their own alphabet of 23 signs.

This was a wonderful improvement over hieroglyphic writing which was

made up of numerous ideographic and phonetic signs. Prior to the

introduction of Meroitic, the Meroites used Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Francis Llewellyn Griffith, an Egyptologist was able to decipher the

Meroitic script over 60 years ago. Although Griffith deciphered Meroitic, we

were unable to read this writing because we did not know the cognate

language.

Using the comparative method I was able to discover that Tokharian is

cognate to Meroitic. This led to the full decipherment of the Meroitic script.

We can now read Meroitic using Tokharian ( Krause,1952 ; Windekens 1941,

1979).
15
 Maurice Pope in THE STORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL

DECIPHERMENT , has made it clear that before an unknown language can

be deciphered you must have the right theoretical structure to base your

inquiry upon (p.191). Pope found that in the historical decipherments of

ancient languages three preliminary conditions must be met:

1) confidence that a script can be deciphered;

2) location of proper names must be determined;

3) the grammatical rules of the target language/

script must be found (pp.186-187).

We were able to read Meroitic because these preliminary conditions were

met, and we were able to develop new hypothesis based on historical

evidence to determine the cognate language of Meroitic. Conditions number

one and two were met by Griffith when he deciphered the Meroitic script in

1910, and his discovery of the proper names of the Meroitic gods and

individuals in Meroitic text. Griffith also discovered the direction the Meroitic

writing was written.

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 This recognition by Griffith of the solubility of the Meroitic text was

reinforced in 1978, with publication of UNESCO's The Peopling of Ancient

Egypt and the Decipherment of the Meroitic Script. This was an important

publication because it provided researchers with up-to-date information on

the status of Meroitic.

Condition number three for the decipherment of Meroitic was met in

1979 when Fritz Hintze published his Beitrage zur meroitischen

Grammatik . The research of F. Hintze (1979) and I. Hoffmann (1981) have

made it possible for us to find the cognate language of Meroitic: Tokharian

(Winters 1984 ,1989). The work of Griffith and Hintze fulfilled all the

requirements for the decipherment of the Meroitic writing.

17
 The classical literature supported the view that we might be able to

find the Meroitic cognate language through a comparison of the

Meroitic terms and Kushan lexical items. To test the Kushana

hypothesis we had to then:

1) find agreement between Kushana and Meroitic terms;

2) compare Central Asian and Egypto-Sudanese

toponomies;

3) compare Kushana and Meroitic grammatical forms.

18
Reading Meroitic Inscriptions

This was accomplished and now we can read Meroitic inscriptions.

Below is a broken Meroitic inscription. Let’s try to read it.

19
I will attempt to read the broken tablet. First of all it is hard to make
out some of the signs on this piece, especially parts of line three(3)
and five (5), but I will attempt to read the piece.

Reading the piece from right to left we have the following:

Transliteration

1. m...e-ne...ap....

2. [s]....mlo..nea...š.....

3. m...p....b...ye..... s

4. e.....q....b....p...nea....

5. [o]...lo... ň-ne...ml....ne...s...mš....

Translation

"...(1)The great Commander and ancestor....(2)[prop up] the inner

heart at this time (of) the King....(3) m entreat the Ba to travel (and)
prop up...(4)Register the wish (of) the Ba to solicit at this
time....(5)[Begin] to dispatch Goodness and the good spirit (of) the
son of Mash.....

Vocabulary

ap, ancestor, father

m , great

e-ne, commander

e, register; vouchsafe; grant a boon

b, Ba

ml, spirit

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mlo, innerheart, soul

s, son; to protect; to prop up

ye, to make; travel, voyage

nea, at this time;

ne, good

ň-ne, Goodness

mš, Mash

lo, dispatch

o, begin

The so called word divider sign : equals -ne. The : is used to change
verbs into nouns, or means good.

King Tañyidamani, and the Meroitic lion-god Apedemek (110

BC-90 BC)

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The most interesting Meroitic text concerning Apedemak is found on

the votive tablet of Tañyidamani which is now found in the Paris

Museum. On this votive tablet Tañyidamani is depicted on the obverse

side , and the god Apedemak on the reverse side.

On the reverse side of the Tañyidamani votive tablet the god

Apedemak is depicted wearing a short apron and hemhem crown. On

this votive tablet Apedemak also wears armlets, bracelets, a collar and

pectoral. Inside a panel in front of Apedemak we find a cursive Meroitic

inscription.

22
The inscriptions in the panel on the reverse side of the votive tablet of

King Tañyidamani make it clear that the king acknowledged the

important role the god Apedemak played in his life. These inscriptions

can be read either from right to left or top to bottom. Reading from

right to left we read:

TRANSLITERATION OF REVERSE SIDE OF VOTIVE TABLET OF KING

TAÑYIDAMANI

1. w e to

2. q tel

3. w to si

4.tone m-k

5. d.[l]..r-i

6.te i

23
TRANSLATION

1. You (it is Apedemak who) gives guidance.

2. Revitalize support (for me King Tañyidamani).

3. You guide (me) to satisfaction.

4. (And ) much reverence (for your patron).

5. Give (it) amicably (to me).

6. May (it go forth).

Reading this same inscription top to bottom we find the following:

TRANSLITERATION OF THE REVERSE SIDE OF THE VOTIVE TABLET OF

KING TAÑYIDAMANI

1. w q b-to d-te.

2. e te to m ne l.

24
3. toe i skr-i.

TRANSLATION

1. (Oh Apedemak) Guide and Make Honor (for your patron).

2. Give here your (full) measure of Good indeed.

3. (It is) thou (Apedemak who) give(s) leave to eminence (for your

patron).

The Meroitic mortuary offerings reflect many objects the Meroite would

use in the afterworld. They inscribed or painted ba statues, stela and

offering tables with cursive Meroitic . The utilitarian items of every-day

use by the Meroites were placed in the tomb., while the ba statuettes

and stela were often placed outside the tombs.

The offering tables were used to make libations in behalf of the

deceased after his interment. They were made of sandstone and

shaped either rectangular or square. The tables measured anywhere

between ten and fourteen inches in length, with a recessed center

25
surrounded by a raised border.

The offering tablets and funerary stela often include carved designs

and inscriptions. The inscriptions were in Meroitic. The most popular

designs on the tables include loaves of bread, and the mortuary gods

Anubis and Nephthys.

The artifacts found near the tombs of rich Meroites include ba

statuettes. The ba statuettes often made in the shape of humans with

folded wings, were usually placed in front of the tomb . It was made in

this way to represent the free and mobile nature of Ba, which was

suppose to sore into the sky. The Ba was recognized as a soul, which

possessed mobility.

The term Ba represented the ability of the deceased person's spirit to

move from the grave and implore the gods for passage and protection

of the Kha to the underworld.

In the funerary inscriptions we also find much mention of the Ba or Be

. I have interpreted the term Ø ba #, as "soul'. The ba, united the

conception of the Kha, and the Khe / Kho . The best place to find this

26
term in the Meroitic funerary literature include the Tañyidamani ,

Armina West and Karanog steleas.

The spirit body of the King was to sustain Good at the burial site. For

example the Ba of Tañyidamani was to remain at Jebel Barkal

(Tañyidamani stela, lines 33-34) for a period of time continuing to

serve Aman, while it represented a talisman of blessing for the

pilgrims that visited his tomb.

According to the Tañyidamani stela ,line 139, the Ba was a gift to

Aman . This may explain the placement of the Meroitic carved items

such as the ba statues and funerary tablets outside the Meroite tombs.

Placement outside the tomb probably tolerated the ba's effortless

access to flight.

In the late Meroitic text. The Ba , was no longer forced to stay at the

tomb. In these inscriptions it is made clear that the Ba, retired in

B(a)ne.

27
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/7051/lit8.gif

28
Below we will first give the transliteration of the Karanog stelae and

then a translation of Meroitic into English. At the end of the translation

we will provide a vocabulary of the text.

Line 1. Woshi ...ne... Shore... yi-ne... t-po... m-i... d.

Line 2. Tqowine... s... li-ne ...t ...si... d... e-ne.. te... o... d... he.

29
Line 3. Lo..wi-ne...sl...h...m-ne...s-ne..qo...Qo ...li-ne

Line 4. Terike...lo... wi-ne...i... l...pe...rine ...si...b... lo.

Line 5. Tel-o... wi-ne... pq... r... ne... ye mtetl[...]...e... ne... ye.

Line 6. Lq-ne...lo...win-ne ...yet...sn...net...e... i... ol... ye...e-ne.

Line 7. M...ne...lo...wi-ne[...]... ot... p ..kr-ne ...yet... ne-ne ... e-o...

wi-ne.

Line 8. Pe... sto... lt-ne... yet... m...n...e...e-o... wi-ne... qo ... re.

Line 9. St... s... t ... lete-ne ...s-ne ...tq ...lo ...wi-ne ...hle ...mr.

Line 10. S-ne ...q ...lo-t ...to ...lo ...wi-ne ...mte ...h ...ne ...s-n ...pe.

Line 11. Sto ...li ...h ...wi-ne ...t ...e ...lo ...lo-a ...en-ne ...ye.

Line 12. Tb ...h ...re ...lo ...wi-ne ...ato ...mh ...enep ...si ...se-a.

30
Line 13. Te-ne ...ato ...mh ...enep ...wi ...h ...r ...ke ...te-ne ...h ...ml-

o ...l-ne.

Line 14. P-Sin ...ote ...m-i ...ke ...te-ne ...Wosi ...ne.

...Shore ...o-i ...ine.

TRANSLATION

"l. Isis the Good, and Osiris the Eternal (are) commanding the

measure (of) the bequeathal. (2) Tqowine, the patron to transmit

her satisfying bequeathal. She commands the beginning of the

bequeathal of the He. (3) The solitary honorable patron (is) to

behold the He-ne's (the abstract personality of man)...to prop up

the renewal. Act to (make) the conveyance. (4) (Its) the Fashion

to dispatch Awe...[h]i to remain to reproduce within satisfaction

from a distance. (5) The solitary object of respect to make

indeed a good voyage to Mtetl...[here] to be give(n) a good

existence.(6) She is to witness solitary reverence capable of

cleverly bowing in reverence (to the gods)--give leave to the /a

grand journey (Oh) Commander. (7) Measure the good (of the )

lonely object of Honor [lying in the grave]...esteem and dignity.

Adorn (her with) goodness, give opening to honor.(8) Your

31
nonexistent patron goes to measure goodness. Give (its) beginning

Now! The Object of Respect (Tqowine, to be) renewed indeed. (9)

Endorse the embarkation of the (good) Supporter. Set in Motion

the dispatch of this object of respect (Tqowine) to reverberate

luck. (10) The patron, she is present (in) the grave. Send the

Object of Respect to unlock H-ne [the place where the H, is kept]

--the Patron begs you. (11) Protect her conveyance of the H. This

honorable woman give (her) isolated departure. The Teacher (to

take) a journey. (12) Announce in a lofty voice indeed, the

dispatch of this Object of Respect (on the) path (of) the grand

bestowal (of) atonement (and ) favor. (13) Rebirth is the path to

grand bestowal of honor to the H , indeed give permission for the

rebirth of the H, and the soul to exit. (14) Much satisfaction

(and) wonder (to come) measure it. The permission (for its

bestowal ) is arranged by Isis,( and) Osiris (is) the Opener of

the Way."

Naqa Temple

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At the lion temple of Naqa, we find Natakamani on the left façade and

Amanitore on the right. Under the feet of the ruling pair we find friezes

of their defeated enemies.

There are a number of Meroitic hieroglyphics on the front of the Naqa

Lion Temple. There are three columns of hieroglyphic inscriptions on

under the falcon of King Natakamani. Reading from left to right we see

the following

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Transliteration

1. ter tel i ne

2. …ni-ne b-q r

3. ikh iy kh te b d r te

Translation

"1….the erection (of this structure) elevates (our) tradition [of

building].2…brilliance (is) also desired indeed.3…this spot

bring Great light (and) also leave a legacy (of) unity."

We can interpret the inscriptions and engraving from this part

of the temple as follows:

"King Natakamani smites the enemies of Meroe. The royalty

"...[has made] the erection (of this structure) to elevate (as is

34
our) tradition.2…Brilliance (is) also indeed desired.3…This spot

to bring Great light (to many and) also leave (to the Meroites)

a legacy (of) unity."

Funerary Stela of Meteye

This Stela dates back to the 2nd to 3rd Centuries. It is has a reddish-

35
white undercoat. It comes from Grave 275, Karanog. The stela is

located in Cairo, Egyptian Museum JE40229.

The couple Meteye and Abakharta stand under the inner wings of the

sun disk. Meteye wares her hair with a topknot and cornrows. This

man may be either Meteye’s husband or father. (I am uncertain

because the words ab-a can be interpreted as ‘[her] father’. If this is

the correct reading aba Kharta would mean ‘her father Kharta’.)

The grave was excavated by Woolley-Randall-MacIver at Karanog. The

skeleton in the grave was of a woman. The pointed breast on the

figure indicate that she was a young women. Standing side by side

suggest that this man was her husband. Since the grave contained

only one skeleton we can imagine that Abakharta was depicted on this

stela to show his devotion to his wife.

There are three sets of inscription on this stela. There are inscriptions

in front of Meteye and Abakharta, and an inscription between the legs

of Abakharta.

Reading from right to left beginning with the inscription between the

legs of Abakharta, then the inscription before Abakharta and finally the

36
one in front of Meteye we have the following:

Inscription between Abakharta’s legs.

P .. š ….o ….

“Pray for the patron to commence……”

Inscription in front of the man:

Wosi .. ne. Sore… yi-ne. Abkharta… ke ….lo …..wi-ne... a…kh…

m…še..

“ Isis the Good. Osiris the eternal. Abakharta gives permission

(for) the offering of this Object of Respect (Meteye) to acquire

greatness (and) protection.”

Inscription in front of the woman:

Woš..i-ne…šore.. yi-ne..Meteye…qo …wi…ato ….mh…ene… š..

o-a….tene

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“Isis the good. Osiris the eternal. Meteye , renew (her) honor

down the path (to) abundant alms giving. The patron [Meteye]

has commenced the Rebirth”.

Tedeqen Funerary Tablet

Inscription under the gods:

38
[………] lo…. wi-ne ….šo ….tk ….te

Translation:

“Dispatch (this) Object of Respect [Tedeqen] to live and to reflect (on

good)—may (it go forth).”

Inscription on the funerary tablet reading from left to right and around

the tablet :

Wosi …i-ne …a…. šore ….. yi-ne ….tedeqen ….qo-ne …ah ..d …s-ne-l ….

d …h … lo-ne… me …ň …tone …e ….ri-ne …..ke …. li-ne …..e … ri …ke …

lo… ne … atom … lo ..ne ….el … h …..tene ….al …ml …ol

Translation

“Isis the Good, Osiris the eternal. Tedeqen to live good (and) to

acquire a lasting legacy (of Good). The patron’s legacy (is for) the

Kha’s transmigration , measure the Good Rebirth (now). Give

withdrawal (to the Kha) for revitalization (and) exaltation. Register the

sendoff (of the Kha) to invigorate the good offering (of Tedeqen). He is

to be (re)born to transmit Good (as his) gift (to mankind). The Kha’s

39
noble (re)birth (of a) grand soul.”

Funerary stelae of Prince Tedeqen, circa 100-200 B.C.

40
Offering Stela of Tedeqeň

Translation by Clyde Winters:

Woš-i-ne …Tdeqeň …ne …ĥ …ml …. ol … ħo ….lk …tene ..at …mlo …ne…

41
p … rem … eš …. d …. o … tl … wi-ne … el …ĥ …tene ….ete …. eš …. d….

ot …. el … ĥ … tene …ĥe …. ra …. Ke-ne-l ….l …d …tene.

Translation

[Oh] Good Isis (give) Tedeqeň kha, grand inner heart (and) soul to

behold the path of rebirth. The good inner heart prays to witness (its)

manifestation. (This) bequeathal to open (and) elevate the Object of

Respect (i.e., Tedeqeň) gift (of the) Kha’s rebirth (Oh Isis). You give

the manifestation of the bequeathal prestige. The gift (of) the Kha’s

(and the) external body’s rebirth . Indeed [Tedeqeň] revitalization

(will) be the rebirth of the bequeathal (of the Kha).

42
Stela of Queen Amanishaketo Front

43
Stela of queen Amanishaketo. Reverse

 Transliteration

1. nišheto qo-ne qo

2. n-ne he ñk e li-ne ml o

3. ps e o-ne a r-i te

44
4. k-ne a ine rm i l-ne t d b e šo

5. sli n0 tene q en ne-n

6. te ši-ne ht nk tone n h-ne

7. tek ……ok…….nm…..n h n om-ne

8. hl[e]…. O h p ne š m r

9. m ……. Te r h tl k-ne l tene

10. [………….. ……]

11. h ne m e ter h te m n š nel l

12. w-ne q š-ne l h mete o om-ne

13. sl lne tek nei h r tne š

14. k ñh d ne ate h te ši kne

15. r-ñ h ne-ñ kne ane e-m bo

Translation

1. Anishkheto noble and good restored

2.Manifest the external spirit now;

command the transmittal of the sould to commence.

3. Give guard the accession (of the) apparition—may it go forth.

4. The Object of Supplication and Good [Anishkheto] goes to

witnee [a new] existence. Arrange to leave a legacy [and]
blessed life.

5. Leave to set in motion now the Rebirth. Act to command Good

to manifest.

6. The propitiation to pour out. God ignites and manifest the

abstract personality of man.

7. To investigate…….a new…..reverence and Good the offering’s

45
only acquisition.

8. Reverberate…….initiate the offering a good pray[er] [for] the

patron’s luck

9. m… …. ..te indeed the blessings to elevate the Object of

Supplication’s rebirth.

10. [……….. ….. …. … …]

11. The abstract personality of man to unlock indeed the great

holy place (of) good (to) merit existence

12. The Commander acts to uplift Greatness, unlock from a

distance (its) acquisition.

13. Set in motion (her) existence to investigate benevolence

(and) dignity. Lay Good (on) the patron.

14. It (is) obligatory at this time to leave a legacy at this

moment dispensing (your) satisfaction.

15. Certainly her abstract personality of man to manifest the

Object of Supplication’s spirit much favor (and) increase.

The inscription on the edge

Transliteration

1. ah

2. e k p

3. k h

4. š ne nek e

5. [………..]

6. [….. …… ]

7. […. …… ..]

8. a šne

46
9. š

10. [… ….. …..]

11. [….. ….. ….]

12. [… ….. …. ..]

13. ñ l li

14. l d

15. b ene

Translation

“The blessed dead [Anishkheto] prays (for) nourishment (of) the

obligatory offerings…..to merit……patron……retire exalted. (Her)
lasting legacy is abundant almsgiving.”

47
Now when we use my decipherment to read the text and the accompanying drawing

we have the following : [Dog] exist indeed to grant a noble boon [of rabbits with] the

intention to bring elevation to you, meritorious Netror”. The vocabulary items are as

follows:

W, to be, exist, to drive, to conduct

L, indeed, or termination element

E, grant a boon, vouchsafe, favor

Qo, to live, to renew, to restore; noble, royal, honorable; to make , to form

Ph, intention

N, good, only

Y, bring

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-t, you (personal pronoun)

tl, to elevate

Netror, name of person

Slo, meritorious

You can find a short Meroitic vocabulary at the following site:

http://geocities.com/olmec982000/meroitic.pdf

49
You can read more about my decipherment of Meroitic in the

following articles:

Winters,Clyde Ahmad. (Juin 1984b). "A Note on

Tokharian and Meroitic", Meroitic Newsletter\Bulletin

d"Information Meroitiques , No.23 , pages 18-21.

Winters,Clyde Ahmad. (1989b). "Cheikh Anta Diop et le

dechiffrement de l'ecriture meroitique",Cabet: Revue

Martinique de Sciences Humaines et de Litterature 8,

pp. 149-152.

Winters, Clyde Ahmad.(1998). Meroitic funerary Text.

Part1, Inscription Journal of Ancient Egypt 1,(1), pp.

29-34.

Winters, Clyde Ahmad.(1998). Meroitic funerary Text.

Part 2, Inscription Journal of Ancient Egypt 1,(2), pp.

41-55.

Winters, Clyde Ahmad. (1999). The inscriptions of

Tanyidamani. Nubica IV und Nubica V., pp.355-388.

50
You can read more about my decipherment at the

following web site:

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/7051/mero.htm

I have written a short dictionary of Meroitic

terms that you can find at the following web site:

http://geocities.com/olmec982000/meroitic.pdf

My most recent article discussing Meroitic

history and deciphering Meroitic documents titled the

Meroitic Evidence for a Blemmy Empire in the

Dodekaschoinos can be found at the following site:

http://arkamani.org/meroitic_studies/Kalabsha.htm

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Appendix 1: Meroitic and Karosthi Signs

The chart above makes it clear that the following Meroitic and Kharosthi
signs agree in shape and sound:

To

Te

52