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MITMH2022
Public Access

Solution to The 4500 Year Itch

Reference Point

Answer: CAT FUR
by Shai Nir Hana

The puzzle combines Egyptian hieroglyphics and three of the rounds from the game show Only Connect. Each of the hieroglyphic symbols in the 18 tiles without enumerations is a uniliteral sign, corresponding to one phoneme in the Egyptian language. The first step is to interpret the hieroglyphs phonetically:

Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a lower leg, a basket with a handle, and a mouth. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a lower leg, a mouth, and a ripple of water. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a basket with a handle, a mouth, a lower leg, and a ripple of water. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a basket with a handle, a mouth, a ripple of water, a hand, and an owl. Blue tile with hieroglyph of an eye, followed by seven blanks. The last blank is surrounded by a pill which also contains two number signs. Blue tile with hieroglyph of twisted flax, followed by nine blanks. The eighth blank is surrounded by a pill which also contains a number sign.
Blue tile with hieroglyph of two reeds, followed by six blanks, then another row of six blanks. The second blank overall is surrounded by a pill which also contains a number sign. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of an owl, a basket with a handle, and two reeds. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of an owl, a jar stand, and a ripple of water. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a horned viper, followed by five blanks. The first blank is surrounded by a pill which also contains a number sign. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of an owl, a lower leg, a mouth, and a basket with a handle. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a ripple of water, a folded cloth, and a mouth.
Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a ripple of water, a bread loaf, a mouth, a cobra, and a ripple of water. Blue tile with hieroglyph of a lion, followed by six blanks. The second blank is surrounded by a pill which also contains a number sign. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a reed mat, a basket with a handle, and a tethering rope. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a reed mat, a mouth, an owl, a hand, and a door bolt. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a basket with a handle, a quail chick, a mouth, a bread loaf, and a folded cloth. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a mouth and a tethering rope.
Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a folded cloth, a hand, and a bread loaf. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a folded cloth, a ripple of water, a hand, a rectangular pool of water, and a mouth. Blue tile with hieroglyph of three ripples of water, followed by nine blanks. The fourth blank is surrounded by a pill which also contains two number signs. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a folded cloth, a mouth, a folded cloth, and a mouth. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a bread loaf, a reed mat, and a door bolt. Blue tile with hieroglyphs of a quail chick, a mouth, a hand, a folded cloth, a folded cloth, a bread loaf, a mouth, and a door bolt.

/bkr/ /brn/ /krbn/ /krndm/ π“‚€: _ _ _ _ _ _ [_##] π“Ž›: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [_#] _
π“‡Œ: _ [_#] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ /mky/ /mgn/ 𓆑: [_#] _ _ _ _ /mbrk/ /nsr/
/ntrdΚ’n/ 𓃭: _ [_#] _ _ _ _ /pktΚƒ/ /prmdz/ /kwrts/ /rΚƒ/
/sdt/ /sndΚƒr/ π“ˆ—: _ _ _ [_##] _ _ _ _ _ /srsr/ /tpz/ /wrdsstrz/

The vowels are missing from these, as is generally the case in hieroglyphs and in Only Connect round 4. When those vowels are re-populated, the cells of the grid (including those that contain enumeration blanks) need to be grouped into 4s as in Only Connect round 3. Finally, each set is an ordered list whose last element (which fits with one of the enumerations) must be found, as in Only Connect round 2. The categories are:

BAKER
 
BORON
 
CARBON
 
CORUNDUM
 π“‚€: 
DIAMON[D##]
 π“Ž›: 
ECCLEST[O#]N
π“‡Œ: 
G[U#]ARDS GUARDS
 
MCCOY
 
MCGANN
 𓆑: 
[M#]ORSI
 
MUBARAK
 
NASSER
 
NITROGEN
 𓃭: 
O[X#]YGEN
 
PIKACHU
 
PYRAMIDS
 
QUARTZ
 
RAICHU
 
SADAT
 
SANDSHREW
 π“ˆ—: 
SAN[D##]SLASH
 
SOURCERY
 
TOPAZ
 
WYRD SISTERS

Note that the cells are listed alphabetically in the grid.

Fans of Only Connect will note that each of the enumerations is listed with one of the six hieroglyphs used by that show, which are always presented in this configuration:

π“‡Œ 𓃭 π“Ž›
𓆑 π“ˆ— π“‚€

Each of the enumerated answers has one letter in a cartouche, and each is associated with a number in its list (e.g. oxygen is the 8th element). The cartouche has one # for one-digit numbers and two #s for two-digit numbers. The answers can be arranged by their associated hieroglyph like so:

G[U8]ARDS GUARDS
 
O[X8]YGEN
 
ECCLEST[O9]N
 
[M5]ORSI
 
SAN[D28]SLASH
 
DIAMON[D10]

Most common hieroglyphs are found in Gardiner’s Sign List, a canonical list of common signs compiled by Alan Gardiner, hinted at by β€œgardener” in the flavor text. The list assigns each hieroglyph a letter-number combination. We can use the letter-number combinations above to find the corresponding hieroglyphs:

π“ŒΌ
[U8]
 𓏙
[X8]
 𓉠
[O9]
𓆴
[M5]
 π“‚“
[D28]
 π“‚€
[D10]

The hieroglyphs look like the letters of CAT FUR, the answer to the puzzle (and also, as the flavor text alludes to, what is missing from a sphynx cat).

Author's Note

I've been thinking of Mystery Hunt 2022, in a way, as Palindrome's love letter to the written word, and this puzzle brings it back to the very beginning. It came out of the felicitous observation that (A) Only Connect prominently uses hieroglyphs and (B) one of its main game mechanics is writing without vowels, which Egyptian hieroglyphics also does.

The puzzle was partly inspired by the Only Connect questions Facebook group, where people post Only Connect challenges which occasionally include combo walls that combine the elements of multiple rounds.

Finding six sets of four that led to appropriate letter-number combinations was very constrained, in particular because Egyptian hieroglyphics did not have native phonetic representations for a lot of English sounds -- meaning we couldn't use clues with any Fs, Vs, or Ls.

The fact that the Eye of Horus corresponds to itself in the extraction was a pleasant coincidence.

Finally, a shout out to the YouTube channel Voices of Ancient Egypt which was a great resource for learning what sounds all the symbols make and how they fit together.