What does the ankh mean?

Life. It is the Egyptian hieroglyph reading ankh, used in ordinary writing as well as in religious art, where gods hold it out to kings as the gift of life or breath. It is a life-giving sign rather than a protective one.

What was the ankh originally a picture of?

Unknown, though there is a mainstream answer. A sandal strap, with the loop round the ankle, is the oldest scholarly proposal and is still the standard Egyptological position, argued by Gardiner and Westendorf on the rebus principle that a concrete object is drawn to write an abstract word that sounds like it. A mirror in its case, a knotted girdle and a papyrus sheath have also been argued. The male-and-female reading is a nineteenth-century esoteric idea with no Egyptian support.

Can anyone wear an ankh?

There is no restriction from ancient Egyptian practice, which has no living priesthood. It is worth knowing that the ankh is a serious emblem for many Afrocentric and Kemetic practitioners today, so it carries a live meaning as well as an ancient one.

What is the difference between the ankh and the Eye of Horus?

Function. The ankh gives life and is offered or carried; the wedjat guards, heals and is placed on wounds and bodies. Egyptians wore both, often together, because they were doing different jobs.

Talismans · Signs and seals

The ankh

Also called: Key of life, crux ansata

The written word for life, made into an object small enough to hold.

At a glance

Origin: Ancient Egypt
Reads as: The hieroglyph ankh, life
Earliest use: Early Dynastic, c. 3000 BCE
Materials: Faience, wood, bronze, gold
Held by: Gods, to the nostrils of kings
Later use: Coptic crux ansata, then modern revival

What it is

A loop above a horizontal bar above a vertical stem. In Egyptian writing it is the triliteral sign reading ankh, meaning life, and it is used in ordinary words and names as well as in religious contexts. That is the first thing to understand about it: unlike almost every other charm here, the ankh is a piece of writing before it is a symbol.

In tomb and temple art gods hold it by the loop and extend it to the nose of a king, which is the visual formula for the gift of life or breath. Rows of ankhs pour from ceremonial vessels. It is carried, offered and given, and very rarely just displayed.

What the loop was

Nobody knows what object the sign originally depicted, and the proposals are numerous. A sandal strap, with the loop passing round the ankle and the bar as the crosspiece, is the oldest scholarly suggestion and remains the mainstream Egyptological position, argued by Alan Gardiner and later by Wolfhart Westendorf. It works on the rebus principle that runs through the whole writing system: a concrete object whose name sounds like an abstract word is drawn to write that word, so a strap gets used to write life.

Others have argued for a mirror in a case, a knotted cloth or girdle, a papyrus sheath, or the sun resting on the horizon. The reading that makes it a combination of male and female elements is a nineteenth-century esoteric idea with no Egyptian support, and it has proved almost impossible to dislodge.

None of this is settled, and the honest position is that the sign's origin is lost. What is certain is that Egyptians used it for three thousand years without apparently needing to know either.

As an amulet

Made in the same industrial quantity as the scarab and the wedjat: moulded faience for anyone, wood for the modest, bronze and gold for those who could pay. Worn at the neck, laid with the dead, incorporated into mirror handles and spoon handles so the object itself formed the sign.

It is a life-amulet rather than a protection-amulet, and the distinction shows in where it goes. The wedjat guards; the ankh grants. In funerary use it is not there to keep something out but to supply something the dead person needs.

The form survived the religion. Coptic Christians adopted the shape as the crux ansata, the handled cross, and it appears in Christian Egyptian manuscripts and textiles where it functions as a cross with a local ancestry.

Its modern career

The ankh's twentieth-century revival was broad and fast. It became an emblem of the Egyptian revival in Western esotericism, then of the 1960s counterculture, then of goth subculture, then of a large strand of Afrocentric and Kemetic spirituality where it carries specific and serious meaning.

That last use matters. For a great many people today the ankh is not a museum artefact but a living emblem of African cultural continuity, and it is worn as such. It is worth knowing which conversation you are entering when you put one on, because the sign is doing at least four different jobs at once in the present day.

How the ankh was made and used

Egyptian practice is unusually well documented, because so much of it went into tombs.

Moulded in glazed faience for the ordinary market, or cut and cast in wood, bronze, silver and gold.
Pierced at the top of the loop for stringing, or made as a solid object to be held.
Worn at the neck in life, frequently in a set with a wedjat and a scarab rather than alone.
Placed with the dead, where the sign supplies life rather than guarding against harm.
Built into everyday objects, so that a mirror or a spoon takes the shape of the sign it is named for.

Ankhs sold today are frequently mixed with unrelated iconography, most often the Eye of Horus and a scarab, in combinations no Egyptian workshop would have produced. That is a modern design convention rather than an ancient one.

What the ankh belongs with

The Egyptian set it was made and worn alongside.

Questions for reflection

The ankh grants rather than guards. Which of those do you actually want from an object?
Its original referent is lost and it worked for three thousand years anyway. Does a symbol need to be traceable?
The same sign is a hieroglyph, a Christian cross and a modern identity emblem. Which of those are you wearing?

Frequently asked questions

: Life. It is the Egyptian hieroglyph reading ankh, used in ordinary writing as well as in religious art, where gods hold it out to kings as the gift of life or breath. It is a life-giving sign rather than a protective one.
: Unknown, though there is a mainstream answer. A sandal strap, with the loop round the ankle, is the oldest scholarly proposal and is still the standard Egyptological position, argued by Gardiner and Westendorf on the rebus principle that a concrete object is drawn to write an abstract word that sounds like it. A mirror in its case, a knotted girdle and a papyrus sheath have also been argued. The male-and-female reading is a nineteenth-century esoteric idea with no Egyptian support.
: Not originally, but it became one. Coptic Christians in Egypt adopted the shape as the crux ansata, the handled cross, and it appears in Christian Egyptian manuscripts and textiles as a cross with local ancestry.
: There is no restriction from ancient Egyptian practice, which has no living priesthood. It is worth knowing that the ankh is a serious emblem for many Afrocentric and Kemetic practitioners today, so it carries a live meaning as well as an ancient one.
: Function. The ankh gives life and is offered or carried; the wedjat guards, heals and is placed on wounds and bodies. Egyptians wore both, often together, because they were doing different jobs.

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