Controlled Equivocation in Egyptological Lexicography with a Case Study on the Mummified Body ( sꜤḥ )

Summary

Controlled equivocation is a promising, though under-utilised, analytical approach for the study of ancient languages. This paper operationalises controlled equivocation for studying an ancient Egyptian word that has caused friction in the museum sector, sꜥḥ , which allegedly refers to the mummified body. We appraise the field, outline our corpus and present the findings of our lexical analysis, revealing that sꜤḥ ‘mummy’ and sꜤḥ ‘noble person’, long considered two separate words, both share a common origin and are different entailments of the same lexeme. Controlled equivocation, via comparison, then reveals previously under-scrutinised nuances of both the indigenous word and its translation, which has implications both for the study of ancient categories as well as for the presentation and display of Egyptian human remains.