Herend Egyptian Owl Retail Price: ¥82,500 (tax included) Height: 8.0cm (palm-sized) Limited Edition of 3,000 worldwide Purchased a few years ago at a department store in Kobe and carefully stored in a glass case. Will be shipped in its original box. Its small size is also cute. [From the Herend website] Ancient Egyptian Civilization and Hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian civilization, born on the banks of the Nile, is familiar to us through the magnificent pyramids, the Sphinx, and names like Cleopatra. The fact that the ancient Greek sculptural style originated in ancient Egypt is an important aspect that tells the story of the flow between the two civilizations. And hieroglyphs, perhaps the most mysterious and beautiful ancient script. Their decipherment revealed the history of ancient Egypt, which had been a mystery. The Rosetta Stone and Champollion Everyone knows that Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs using the Rosetta Stone, which was discovered during Napoleon's Egyptian expedition. He was a linguistic genius, fluent in more than 10 languages, and was only 32 years old when he deciphered the hieroglyphs. The breakthrough in his decipherment was discovering that hieroglyphs were used both ideographically and phonetically. Champollion, who had assumed that everything was ideographic, was inspired one day when he heard from an acquaintance, an orientalist, that kanji, ideographic characters, could also be used phonetically. Hieroglyphic Owls Owls appear in the hieroglyphs. According to the decipherment, the owl means the owl itself or "by means of" ideographically, and represents the sound "M" phonetically. This "M" is presumed to be the first sound of the owl's name around 3000 BC when hieroglyphs began. However, although not clearly deified like the jackal, there is no doubt that the owl was a bird related to eternal life, as it adorned the tombs of nobles. Rather, the mystery seems to suit the nature of the owl. The original is housed in the Cairo National Museum, which exhibits the golden mask of Tutankhamun, and the 120,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts are, of course, the largest in the world. Owl, Owl, Owl, Ornament, Craft, Pottery, Lacquerware