Ankh

life, and an unsolved loop

Unicode: U+2625 ankh
Meaning: Life. In Egyptian writing the sign is read ꜥnḫ, and gods hold it to the nose of a king to give him breath.
History: A hieroglyph before it was ever an emblem, and one whose picture nobody has settled. Gardiner’s sign list proposed a sandal strap; others have argued for a knot, a mirror, or a stylised union of forms. The sign is entirely legible and its referent is not — an unusual state for a mark this famous, and worth stating plainly rather than resolving.
Variants: Proportions of loop to bar vary widely; the Coptic crux ansata is a Christian continuation.
Related: ⚕ ☤ the other life-and-medicine marks; 十 the Cross archetype.
Appears: Egyptian art and inscription, Coptic Christianity, and — since the 1960s — countercultural and subcultural jewellery.
Evolution: Hieroglyph → funerary emblem → Christian cross variant → a pendant meaning roughly “ancient”.

Sources · 3

documented Alan Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, sign list S34, and the proposed sandal-strap identification.
documented The sign’s use in Egyptian inscription and iconography, including the offering of life to the king.
traditional Every specific identification of what the loop depicts. Several are in circulation, none is established, and the confident ones should be read as guesses.