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[napier]

i spoke to an Egyptologist friend of mine & part of his v brief translation was

"there are two lines of burble about writing about Egypt"

i'm afraid i'm with the Oxford translation, IMHO

[Salkunh]

[invfish]

[Kirjava]

Hmm, I still think Alan Gardiner fits best. Since it already includes the Oxford joke, why couldn't there be a pun on Gardiner sounding like gardener? Turning to something from yet *another* scholar from Liverpool, such a play on words sounds like it would be just the sort of thing the Egyptians would have liked!

[invfish]

The Ford of the Ox part could be this:

The 'ford of the ox' is another name for 'Bosphorus'.
Url: http://home.xtra.co.nz/hosts/Wingmakers/Pavo.html - third paragraph down.

Bosphorus is a straight that is located near the Nile. More info on Bosphorus here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosphorus

=)

[SteveC]

Egyptologists.

[Salkunh]

well all the verbs that i didn't know I looked up in Faulkners dictionary which is nice and gives references to which texts you can find it in and they all seemed to come from various parts of Urk iv. Though I've never looked at that in any way, shape or form so I can't say for sure. I would have a look at it again now but I have a coptic exam in 2.5 hours and I'd rather not confuse myself

[napier]

[GWing_02]

I think the Alan Gardiner solution fits best. Personal opinion, having come in and read the entire exchange.

[Leeravitz]

Yeah, I'm inclining towards the Alan Gardiner answer as well, for what it's worth. I'd point out that a complicated set of references is probably intended here. As far as I understand it, the titles of the cards thus far produced aren't random - some are pretty self explanatory (Whipsmart Wordsearch), others are coded hints about what's going on (Vexillogy - is that how you spell it? - is a pun on the study of flags and the 'vexing' quality of the task).

So, what is the 'Master of Secrets'? I believe it's a reference at one level to an actual (fairly obscure) title that was held in Ancient Egypt by certain officials - you actually have references in papyri and tomb inscriptions to the 'Master of Secrets'. But it's probably another pun as well. Gardiner, who was able to translate hieroglyphs so well, could be considered to be a man who had 'mastered' certain 'secrets' in order to do so. And this seems to become even more conclusive when you recognise that hieroglyphs were long thought of in Europe as containing secret knowledge before the Rosetta Stone was found. Indeed, the very name in Greek means 'priestly writing', and the linkage with the idea that the hieroglyphs harboured mysterious, occult messages is ancient (if generally incorrect).

If the answer was something like 'the River Nile', this wouldn't fit nearly so well...

So, then, the only question would remain: is a reference to Gardiner's work of any use to anyone?? Or was this card just another taster to whet our appetite for the main course?

[Salkunh]

the only good thing Gardiners work can be used for is propping open doors and windows...or maybe keeping chiropractors in work coz its one huge mofo

[someone_elses_one]

Master of secrets

[Salkunh]

Re: Master of secrets

[Seej]

Just to weigh in with my POV to support the Alan Gardiner solution:

[someone_elses_one]