The Jubilee Festival for the Pharaoh, the Heb Sed

Sed festival

The Sed festival was an ancient Egyptian ceremony that celebrated the continued rule of a pharaoh...

is represented in hieroglyphs by a Jubilee Pavilion Hieroglyph. It is Gardiner Sign List

Gardiner's Sign List

Gardiner's Sign List is a list of common Egyptian hieroglyphs compiled by Sir Alan Gardiner. It is considered a standard reference in the study of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs....

ed as no. O23. However it often appears with other pavilion, or festival hieroglyphs: the Hall, no. O22, O22 and an alabaster Basin, no. W3. W3 An alternate hieroglyph, the Basin combined with the Hall, W4is represented by Gardiner no. W4. A ligatured combination of the Basin with the Pavilion, O23:W3 is shown in some iconographic

Iconography

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...

 scenes, (Ramses II, Temple of Amun at Karnak).

The Pavilion hieroglyph

The pavilion hieroglyph is a side view of the pharaoh seated, in opposing views, wearing the two separate crowns, the crown of the South, the white crown, and the crown of the North (the Delta

Nile Delta

The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...

), the red crown. The pavilion is composed of two side views of the naos (hieroglyph)

Naos (shrine)

A naos was the sanctuary, the innermost chamber, of a Greek temple, in Latin referred to as cella.The Apostle Paul in the New Testament uses this word in 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 2 Corinthians 6:16 to denote that the bodies of the Christians are the Most Holy Places of the Living God as He indwells...

, Gardiner no. O18. O18
The early Old Kingdom

Old Kingdom

Old Kingdom is the name given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley .The term itself was...

 labels, for example Pharaoh Den

Den (Pharaoh)

Den, also known as Hor-Den, Dewen and Udimu, is the Horus name of an early Egyptian king who ruled during the 1st dynasty. He is the best archaeologically attested ruler of this period. Den is said to have brought prosperity to his realm and numerous innovations are attributed to his reign...

, portrayed him in a side view in his naos shrine. An example of the combined, opposed, view with the two crowns, is the lintel of Senusret II

Senusret II

Khakeperre Senusret II was the fourth pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt. He ruled from 1897 BC to 1878 BC. His pyramid was constructed at El-Lahun...

, 12th dynasty

Twelfth dynasty of Egypt

The twelfth dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with Dynasties XI, XIII and XIV under the group title Middle Kingdom.-Rulers:Known rulers of the twelfth dynasty are as follows :...

, 19th century BC. It shows the naos curved roofs of each half of the pavilion hieroglyph.

Sed counterpoise amulet

A counterpoise amulet, (menat

Menat

Menat was a name used for the goddess Hathor. With a slightly different hieroglyphic spelling, it referred to an ancient Egyptian artifact which, like the sistrum, was closely connected with the goddess Hathor. It was held in the hand by its counterpoise and used as a rattle by Hathor's priestesses...

 and counterpoise), for Psammetichus I

Psammetichus I

Psamtik I , was the first of three kings of that name of the Saite, or Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt. His prenomen, Wah-Ib-Re, means "Constant [is the] Heart [of] Re." The story in Herodotus of the Dodecarchy and the rise of Psamtik is fanciful...

 uses the three separate hieroglyphs for pavilion, hall, and basin. The sequence is hall-above-basin, then pavilion. What follows the three signs is a lizard (hieroglyph), then the Nesu-bity-name-(King of the South, King of the North) in the cartouche of Psammetichus II. (The lizard refers to the "multitudes", (the populace of Ancient Egypt).

The beginning of the text column with the cobra-at-rest

Cobra-at-rest (hieroglyph)

The Ancient Egyptian Cobra hieroglyph is Gardiner sign listed no. I10 for the cobra-at-rest. The Cobra-enraged in defensive posture, is the famous pharaonic Uraeus, The Ancient Egyptian Cobra hieroglyph is Gardiner sign listed no. I10 for the cobra-at-rest. The Cobra-enraged in defensive posture,...

-(for speech), then states: "Hb-Sd", determinative

Determinative

A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may derive historically from glyphs for real words, and...

-(?) Gard. no. N20, N20

The complete text states approximately: "Announce: Heb-Sed, (The)-Multitudes, "Nesu-bity", Psammetichus II."