Start contributing
Anyone can browse, study and join a sign’s Discussion. Contributors can also suggest edits to the archive’s signs and words and publish study collections. Every change is reviewed, so the record stays checkable. Here is how to begin.
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How to contribute
Pick a public username
Your username appears on your comments and suggestions. Your email is never shown. You can change it at any time.
Read the guidelines, especially sources
The archive is a scholarly reference, so every change needs a source someone else can check: a grammar, a dictionary, a sign list or a published article.
Find a sign and suggest an edit
Open any sign page and use the Suggest link beside the section you want to change. Fill in your reasoning and cite your source with its page, section or entry.
Follow the transliteration conventions
Write transliteration with the Egyptological characters the archive uses, with no added vowels. When reputable sources disagree, say so and cite both rather than picking a side.
Wait for review, and keep the Discussion civil
A reviewer checks each suggestion before it changes the record. Use a sign's Discussion to talk things through, and remember that teaching aids are not evidence.
Example contributions
Four short examples of what reviewers hope to see, each next to a version that would need more work.
A reading suggestion
GoodReading: ꜣ. Rationale: G1, the Egyptian vulture, is the uniliteral for ꜣ. Source: Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, 3rd ed., Sign-list G1.
Needs workI read online that this sign is ꜣ.
Why: A reviewer can look up the sign-list entry and check it. “Online” cannot be checked.
A word suggestion
GoodTransliteration: ꞽr.t. Meaning: “eye”. Source: Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, entry ꞽr.t. The .t is the feminine ending, written after a dot.
Needs workTransliteration: Iret. Meaning: eye.
Why: The archive writes lowercase, with ꞽ for the reed leaf, no added vowels, and a dot before an ending. No source is given either.
A disputed reading
GoodI am not changing the reading. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, 3rd ed., Sign-list G1, gives ꜣ a glottal-stop-like value, but the sound is debated. I suggest a note that says so, citing Gardiner and the second work I have read, with its page.
Needs workEveryone who says ꜣ is a glottal stop is wrong. It is an r sound. Replace the reading.
Why: When sources disagree, keep both with their citations. Do not overwrite one reading with another.
A Discussion comment
GoodOn F35: Gardiner's Sign-list F35 gives the reading nfr, and Faulkner's Concise Dictionary entry nfr gives “good, beautiful”. Could a reviewer check that the meaning field cites one of them?
Needs workObviously this is wrong. Everyone knows nfr means perfect.
Why: A helpful comment names the sources and asks a specific question. A bare claim gives nobody anything to check.