Hill-country (hieroglyph)

Various colors, and patterning, may adorn the rest of the hieroglyph when the bottom is green.

Three major uses

The ancient language hilly land hieroglyph has three major uses:

1 – hill country, or hills

2 – a reference to arid, desert land

3 – Determinative, for foreign lands

The language meaning of the hieroglyph is as an ideogram or a determinative in the word khast (khaset), and is often translated as hilly land, desert, foreign land, or district.

Use as determinative

One major use of the hill-country hieroglyph is as the determinative for land, but especially the names of foreign lands. For example in the Merneptah Stele, foreign lands are mentioned, including the name of Hatti.

Partial list with land determinative

List of uses of the foreign land determinative:

• Ashkelon
• Canaan
• Hatti
• Retjenu
• Parthia 𓊪𓃭𓍘𓇋𓍯𓈉, p-rw-t-i-wꜣ
• Kingdom of Kush 𓎡𓄿𓈙𓈉, kꜣš