![silver ankh vampire with red wings 3d silver ankh vampire with red wings 3d](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71wHYUiYlOL._AC_UX569_.jpg)
The Egyptologists Battiscombe Gunn and Alan Gardiner, in the early 20th century, believed these objects to be sandal straps, given that they appear in pairs at the foot of the coffin and the accompanying texts say the objects are "on the ground under his feet". The three consonants also compose the word for a looped rope-like object found in illustrations on many coffins from the Middle Kingdom (c. The same consonants were found in the word for "mirror" and the word for a floral bouquet, so the sign was also used in writing these words.
![silver ankh vampire with red wings 3d silver ankh vampire with red wings 3d](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1576/2737/products/Ankh_22in_grande.jpg)
The Egyptian word for "oath" was also Ꜥnḫ, because oaths in ancient Egypt began with a form of the word "live". For example, a phrase meaning something like "may you be healthy and alive" was used in polite contexts, similar to the English phrase "if you please", and the phrase Ꜥnḫ wḏꜣ snb, meaning "alive, sound, and healthy", was used as an honorific for the pharaoh when he was mentioned in writing. One of the common uses of the word Ꜥnḫ was to express a wish that a particular person live. The sign is known in English as the "ankh", based on the hypothetical pronunciation of the Egyptian word, or as the "key of life", based on its meaning. In the Egyptian language, these consonants were found in the verb meaning "live", the noun meaning "life", and words derived from them, such as sꜤnḫ, which means "cause to live" or "nourish" Ꜥnḫ evolved into ⲱⲛϩ ( onh) in the Coptic stage of the language. The ankh stood for the sequence Ꜥ-n-ḫ, where n is pronounced like the English letter n, Ꜥ is a voiced pharyngeal fricative, and ḫ is a voiceless or voiced velar fricative (sounds not found in English). In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, the ankh was a triliteral sign: one that represented a sequence of three consonant sounds. The ankh came into widespread use in Western culture in the 1960s, and it is often used as a symbol of African cultural identity, Neopagan belief systems, and the goth subculture. Coptic Christians adapted it into the crux ansata, a shape with a circular rather than oval loop, and used it as a variant of the Christian cross. The ankh was one of the most common decorative motifs in ancient Egypt and was also used decoratively by neighbouring cultures. It was especially commonly held in the hands of ancient Egyptian deities, or being given by them to the pharaoh, to represent their power to sustain life and to revive human souls in the afterlife. In art the symbol often appeared as a physical object representing either life or substances such as air or water that are related to it.
![silver ankh vampire with red wings 3d silver ankh vampire with red wings 3d](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1576/2737/products/Ankhs_16in_1024x1024.jpg)
This sequence was found in several Egyptian words, including the words meaning "mirror", "floral bouquet", and "life". It was used in writing as a triliteral sign, representing a sequence of three consonants, Ꜥ-n-ḫ. The origins of the symbol are not known, although many hypotheses have been proposed. The ankh has a cross shape but with a teardrop-shaped loop in place of a vertical upper bar. The ankh or key of life is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used in Egyptian art and writing to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself.