Hovenweep Inscription
A SUGGESTED DECIPHERMENT OF THE
HOVENWEEP INSCRIPTION
by
Donal Buchanan
In the Fall of 1981 I became aware of the
Hovenweep inscription and responded to its challenge.
I had been told that Dr. Barry Fell had worked on this
inscription and requested that I not be told Dr. Fell’s
findings because I did not want to prejudice my own
investigation by “knowing the answers ahead of time.”
In any case, I never got to see what Barry came up
with. I present below my suggested decipherment. If I
differ from Barry, the difference is amicable.
The inscription is shown below. This was copied
from a drawing not a photograph. For the provenance
of this inscription, I direct the reader to Philip Leonard.
Hovenweep is a Ute Indian word meaning “deserted
valley.” The Hovenweep canyons site is in Mesa Verde
National Park which was established as a National
Monument on 2 March 1923. It is located about 43 miles
west of Cortez, Colorado.
The dotted line is not part of the inscription, but
represents a division between the two parts of the
inscription caused by the structure of the rock face.
I suggest that the characters might be Egyptian.
The inscription thus involves Hieroglyphic, Hieratic and
Demotic symbols. I read them in the following order:
This could be the hieroglyph = semi-t or
set, which can mean “foreign country” or “desert” or
“mountainous land” (B.598B). Here, however, I read it
phonetically for set = “to sow seed” (B.707A).
I see this as and read it as
fa-kh-at a-t-a (fakhet ata). The first character is a
Demotic f The second character is a demotic kh or h,
reversed so that it resembles , the hieroglyphic h (see
the accompanying table and B.438). The third character
136 ESOP * The Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers * Volume 25
is the hieroglyph read by Budge at (B.96B) and by
Gardiner idt (G.466). By itself or in combination with
certain other characters it means “womb.” Here it is
apparently used for its phonetic value. Thus, the first
word in this two-word combination is fa-khet = “to make
offerings.” The second word, ata, is made up of a
Demotic a (the fourth letter in the two-word combination
—and also the sixth, although harder to recognize), used
twice, and t —here closer in form to the Hieratic than
the Demotic. The word ata = “to make, cause.” So, fa-
khet ata = “cause to make offerings.”
This is , the hieroglyph of a foot. Gardiner
(G.457) reads it bw. Budge reads it b (13, 197A). Here I
believe it is phonetic for ba = “soul, spirit” (B. 197B).
This is the hieroglyph for “house, palace”
(per)(B.237B). It can also mean “to
come forth” or “to go out, to depart” (B.cxxvii). Here the
latter meaning is emphasized by the arrow departing
from the house and moving off to the side. Note that a
single arrow, rather like a spear, coming through
the,’door’: would be a hieroglyphic combination used
to mean “sepulchral offerings.” It is possible that an echo
of this second meaning is intended.
Here we have two characters, poorly drawn.
(B.633A) = s and a or i (B. 15). I read it as
sa = “to go, depart,” emphasizing the previous
hieroglyph.
The hieroglyph , read k (B.782A), can
stand for the 2nd pers. sing. masc. pronoun (“thou, thee,
thy”) as well as the 1st. pers. sing. pronoun. While it
may look like a knife, Gardiner says that it is a picture
of a wickerwork basket with a handle (G.525). Read
syllabically as ka, it could mean “behold” (B.782A).
Here we have four symbols: which
I read herta shebu. is a reversed , which is a
hieroglyphic h (W.115; B.438). is a Demotic r (W.115).
is a Demotic t (W.115). These three together form
herta = “feast, festival” (B.449B). The final character,
, is read seb according to Budge (EL.77) and sb
 Hovenweep Inscription

according to Gardiner (G.496). It is the hieroglyph for
“door, gateway,” here used phonetically. In Egyptian,
sbw is “a kind of offering” (B.657B) and sheb or shebu
means “food offerings; food” (B.734B). I take herta
shebu to mean “festal food-offerings.”
These two glyphs are which together
read kh-k or k-kh which I take to mean “Rise to Thee”
or possibly “Thy Rising.” We have already seen that
can stand for the 2nd. pers. sg. pronoun. The
glyph is the hieroglyphic form of the Demotic
read h or kh (W.115). Budge reads it kh (B.525). Kh
or khi can mean “to rise” or “the rising sun” (B.525A)
usually with at least one more glyph, but here again the
hieroglyph is used phonetically.
The use of Demotic argues that this inscription is
probably relatively late. According to Gardiner, Demotic
was in use from c. 715 BC to c. 470 AD. Whoever wrote
this was not a scribe. He was someone with an imperfect
knowledge of Demotic and of the use of the hieroglyphs.
Perhaps we have here a case of a fading memory of the
proper use of the script due to isolation from the mother
country. Of course, a modern hoax is always a possibility.
I must emphasize that I do not regard myself as any
kind of expert on ancient Egyptian. No attempt has been
made to address questions of authenticity. This is a
suggested decipherment, nothing more. All in all,
however, it was a fascinating problem.
References

Here we have = heri = “Chief, master; a

1. Budge, E. A. Wallis: An Egyptian Hieroglyphic
celestial being; He who is over” (B.494A). I translate Dictionary, in two volumes, Dover Publications,
paperback, 1978. (B)
it as “King.”

2. Budge, E. A. Wallis: Egyptian Language, Dover

This is = ra, which means “the Sun-God, Ra” Publications, 1966. (EL)
or “sun” (B.418A). In this case, I read it “Heaven.”

3. Gardiner, Sir Alan: Egyptian Grammar, Oxford

(Hieroglyphic form: ) Three glyphs are Univ. Press, 1969. (G)
shown here: (here shown vertically) can be
read phonetically mr and nm (G.493).In this inscription 4. Wemyss, Stanley: The Languages of the World,
it appears to be doubled ( ) and takes both readings. published by Stanley Wemyss, 1950. (W)
Mera is the ancient name of Egypt (B.315A). Nem =
“star” and nemu refers to a group of star gods (B.374A).
I suggest that mer-nm-k here is meant to be read as
“Thou Star of Egypt” or “Thou God of Egypt.”

So we have:

I render this rather freely as follows: “(When)

sowing, (we) cause to be made offerings (to the) soul
departed. Thy festal food offerings rise to Thee, King
of Heaven —to Thee, Star (or God) of Egypt.”
Since the glyph can mean “foreign country,” an
argument could be made for replacing “(When) sowing”
with “(In) a foreign country.” The use of the glyph for
festival, however, argues that more likely some kind of
fertility rite is involved here.

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