Not a snake?

Do you see this animal here? It’s a snake. To be precise, it is a horned viper (compare it with the real one in fig. 1!). The text we read previously mentions nothing to do with snakes, so we can conclude that the snake is simply used as a sign to express a sound. This snake’s so-called sound value is ‘f’. ‘F’ is used, for example, to write the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘his’. In this case, in combination with the mountain-sign above it, it reads ‘his mountain’, in the phrase ‘Anubis, who is upon his mountain’: a common epithet of the god.

However, do you notice anything strange about the snake? Its head is detached from his body. This was done on purpose. The ancient Egyptians believed that images held power, and since the hieroglyphic script consisted of images, words held power too. By writing something down, or depicting it, you ran the risk of something coming true, or coming to life. In some cases this worked out great: by depicting offerings for the dead on a stela, they came to life, so you barely had to bring any real offerings anymore. But in other cases, it could be dangerous. Like in the case of snakes, or other dangerous animals. You don’t want those coming alive, of course. One way to prevent that was to mutilate the dangerous signs you write. If this snake were to come alive, it would die instantly, because its head is not attached to his body. Other strategies were placing knives in the snake ( fig. 2), depicting it all tangled up, so it would be unable to move, or leaving out the snake’s head altogether (fig. 3). B. Russo, ‘La vipère à cornes sans tête Étude paléographique et considérations historiques’, BIFAO 110 (2010), 251-274.

This mutilation by beheading, like we find on the stela, is often found elsewhere, for example on coffins. Most of them date back to the Middle Kingdom (see eg. fig. 4). A. Roth, ‘Fear of hieroglyphs: patterns of suppression and mutilation in Old Kingdom burial chambers’, in R. Ritner (ed.), Essays for the Library of Seshat: studies presented to Janet H. Johnson on the occasion of her 70th birthday (Chicago, 2017), 291-310.

On our stela, it happens multiple times. Can you find the other beheaded snakes?