Mast (hieroglyph)
The ancient Egyptian ship's mast hieroglyph is one of the oldest language hieroglyphs from Ancient Egypt. It is used on a famous label of Pharaoh Den of the First dynasty, but forms part of the location hieroglyph: Emblem of the East.
Nectanebo II's obelisk uses the ship's mast hieroglyph when describing the construction of his obelisk; in a S-Egyptian emphatic word construct he adds a vertical S, the folded cloth, Gardiner no. S29, S29 , at the beginning of the word "to erect".
The ship's mast hieroglyphic is used as a triliteral phonetic hieroglyphic to represent the sound sequence ꜥḥꜥ, which means "to stand erect", or "to stand vertical"; its use is extensive throughout the language history, and hieroglyphic tomb reliefs and story-telling of Ancient Egypt. It is possibly a forerunner hieroglyph kh3, the sun rising upon the horizon.
In the 198 BC Rosetta Stone, the ship's mast hieroglyph has the unique usage in the final line of the Ptolemy V decree: the mast is used twice-: