This is a puzzle about egyptian hieroglyphs. Each emoji section depicts a hieroglyph, and identifying the hieroglyph and its Gardiner code gives us a series of letters and corresponding numbers.
hieroglyph | Gardiner Code | Character |
---|---|---|
cow suckling calf | E5 | 𓃖 |
horse | E6 | 𓃗 |
pig | E12 | 𓃟 |
head of spoonbill | H3 | 𓆁 |
frog | I7 | 𓆏 |
sunshine | N8 | 𓇶 |
crescent moon | N11 | 𓇹 |
combination of enclosure, flat loaf and basket | O9 | 𓉠 |
combination of enclosure and falcon | O10 | 𓉡 |
loaf on mat | R4 | 𓊵 |
mace with flat head | T1 | 𓌇 |
mace with round head | T2 | 𓌈 |
These numbers run from 1 through 12, so we This gives the cluephrase "T THREE IN O ONE". These correspond to the hieroglyphs 𓌉 and 𓉐, and placing one inside the other produces the hieroglyph 𓉒, the final answer.
This puzzle was inspired by those awful thinkpieces a few years back about how emoji were "regressing" language back to hieroglyphics, which managed to be insulting to both emojis and hieroglyphs at the same time. Well, this puzzle proved that they are, in fact, not the same set of characters, as seen by the tortured constructions of "mace with round head".