It's a worthless bronze medallion Marion ya gonna give it to me?

[NLogan]

Thanks to Magnoli for the image, I borrowed from his site
http://www.indyprops.com/index.htm

My question is what language are the markings on the Headpiece inscribed in? I have seen people mention Phoenician, where do they get this reference?

I personally think it should have been engraved with Coptic or Demotic markings.

I don't think that the Hebrews would have designed a Head piece for the Staff of Ra (Egyptian Sun Deity) to use in a map room of Tanis (Egyptian Djanet) unless they were the ones that put it there. If the Hebrews did hide it, why would they pick Tanis? Why would the decorations in the well of the souls be Egyptian instead of more similar to the Temple of Soloman, if the Hebrews were the ones to hide it?
In my opinion the markings on the headpiece would not say "to honor the Hebrew God whose ark this is" if it were made by Hebrews. The sentence structure makes it sound as if the maker of the headpiece does not share the same Hebrew deity.
The Babylonians were the ones who sacked Jerusalem and probably plundered the Ark taking it with them to be later reacquired when Babylonian empire fell to the Islamic conquest. Egypt is an Islamic nation.
To me it would make more sense for it to be in harmony with the map room the Staff of Ra and the Well of Souls (all Egyptian) for the headpiece to be in some form of ancient Egyptian writing or hieroglyphs. The Ark in that setting looks like part of some spoils of war that is well respected or feared, probably because of the deaths of many of the keepers before it was entombed.
I'm pretty sure that Sallah takes Indy to the house of Imam because he is an Egyptian who can still read the "old way". He was not taken to an old Jew.
The old way could be Hieroglyphs, demotic, Coptic or hieratic as opposed to the modern Egyptian Arabic.

Some Phoenician markings that look similar:

If the markings are Phoenician, why would they be on the headpiece, also to honor the Hebrew God? The rest of the Piece looks definitely Egyptian inspired.

 

[Vance]

Could be that Egypt had taken slaves during that war (which wouldn't be unusual) and they were put to work in Tanis as well. It was the slaves, who did the labor, that made the staff and map room, bringing about the unusual mix. This isn't new to Egypt either, when you look at a lot of its artifacts.

 

[NLogan]

Could be, it's an interesting ideal anyway. Do you think the markings are not any actual language but based on some examples of real symbols and more imaginary symbols are just added to idealize it and make it look cool like they did with the Sanskrit on the cloth fragment from ToD?

 

[Vance]

I don't think it's supposed to be a 'carefully examined' piece, so I doubt that there's much worth in attempting a literal translation of anything. (Even in the scene where the the old man IS translating the headpiece, it's quickly brushed aside).

Its fits the artistic theme, first and foremost.

 

[NLogan]

I suspect you are right. It is fun however to see how far some of the props people and filmmakers have gone in their research to suspend reality for just a little bit and make anything possible or plausible.

 

[swarbs]

surely Indy is lying when he says it's worthless. would be priceless

 

[Ignatius Stone]

Interesting point.

The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones points out that the bird on the headpiece could possibly be the falcon of Horus, the large jewel being a feature often associated with depictions of Horus, and asserts that similar designs were found among the jewels of King Tutankhamen.

It also gives the translation of the carvings (which we're all familiar with) as:

Teetamah Qamato: "You should fear its existence", the warning not to disturb the Ark, which in the "old use" also implies "six kadam."

Kabed Yahweh ve ha Meeshkan Amah Akhat me Al Kadam: "Take back one kadam to honour the Hebrew god whose Ark this is."

These lines we obviously already know from the movie when Imam reads them out.

But the book doesn't identify the language, and of course isn't a canon source of info or anything.

 

[NLogan]

[/QUOTE]

Interesting point.

The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones points out that the bird on the headpiece could possibly be the falcon of Horus, the large jewel being a feature often associated with depictions of Horus, and asserts that similar designs were found among the jewels of King Tutankhamen.

The above winged scarab is from the jewels of King Tutankhamen.