Appearances
- First seen in Season 2 Episode One of Them, the Hieroglyphics appeared when Locke "pushed the button" after the countdown reached zero.
Bunker Hieroglyphics
Possible translation from a dictionary
Bunker Hieroglyphics: Theory on glyph #2
- Symbols.comis where smartdust.com and bigspaceship1.com redirected you (Feb 16, 2006 - Morning), but the page was not very helpful.
- As of 2/16/06 19:00 ET, Gameset.com (PDF showing all hieroglyphs) is where smartdust.com and bigspaceship1.com redirected you. (Feb 16, 2006 - Afternoon)
- The symbols most likely translate to: "Die!" (the "caus." meaning causative which lead to another translation: "Cause to die" or "(beeing the cause of) death").
- If the last symbol was changed, then this could possibly mean To Make Healthy. Although, because we can clearly see the last symbol, it does not mean this, this is a possible option. Note that this is going on the fact that the second symbol, which could not be seen, has both the possibilities of a bird, for make healthy, and a spiral, for die.
- A note: the symbols don't ever appear while the numbers are flipping - likewise are there no numbers while the symbols are flipping repeatedly. Also, the symbols appear several times in one place before the timer stops - unlike a real flipcard-timer, which would stop once the symbol to be shown is in the right place. This may be just a goof or for the effect.
- There are more glyphs avaiable in the display than the ones that locked in and it seems that all avaiable glyphs are flipping through in all Digits.
- It may be important to note that the flipping shows that there is definatly more then one Hieroglyphic, possibly dozens, for each position.
- Besides starting some more theories (see below), they also end one popular one, that the numbers are connecting to a satilite that passes overhead every 108 minutes for a window of 4 minutes of communication. If this were true, then it would not be possible to enter the buttons after the timer reached 0, as the satilite would be out of range. This points toward it is more likely that the entire incident, counter, and doom system are either entirely hatch based or entirely island based.
Non-visual description of the glyphs
The glyphs are, from right to left:
- Position 5 [000 01]: a cane, or second hand, with a "Y-shaped" end at 5 o'clock, and the business end pointed to 11 o'clock. It is also close to the symbol for "plow".
- Position 4 [000 10]: a bird, similar to a falcon, facing to the left, similar in style to Egyption hieroglyphics.
- Position 3 [001 00]: a small burner with a jet of flame pointing to 12 o'clock. Or a headband with a long feather.
- Position 1 [100 00]: a folded cloth. The left of the cloth is slightly longer than the right.
It could be a rebus, or some other language.
A possible translation and interpretation:
The 5 digits on the post-zeroed counter are:
Digit : Manuel de codage : phonetics : Interpretation 1[X00:00] : s or S29 : s : egyptian hieroglyph representing a folded cloth, also "health" 2[0X0:00] : : : not shown 3[00X:00] : DA or U29 : d : egyptian hieroglyph representing a fire drill, also "health" 4[000:X0] : A or G1 : a or 3(stop) : egyptian hieroglyph representing a vulture or evil- see The Swan for theories 5[000:0X] : Z6 : silent? : egyptian hieroglyph representing "bound man/enemy" or "(dead) man with a head wound" It is also one of the egyptian symbols for "dead". It may stand at the end of the word as an determinative. It also resembles an arrow .
This would make it "s-??-DA-A-Z6" in the Manuel de codage format, used by TKSESH. In a different format, the Symbols would be coded as S29-??-U29-G1-Z6.
They are real egyptian hieroglyphics, not just symbols resembling them.
The phonetics seem to be "s?da". If one assumes a spiral shaped glyph for the unknown one (code beeing then S29-Z7-U29-G1-Z6 - see links for images), the phonetic translation would be "swda" which seems to translate into "die" or "to die" or "it dies". The phonetics could also be "suda" which means "fortress/stronghold" in Latin. This might be a reference to the blast doors.
It was however pointed out, that the symbols in the show may have slight variations (a glitch in a stroke of the bird symbol, a notch in a line,...) in them that only occur in the (handwritten) dictionary that was used to determine the translation (see image to the right). So it may be that the symbols where actually taken from this dictionary by the makers of the show.
There are more symbols that are only seen flipping by. One of them may be the symbol for "child" (a recurring theme in the show) or for "eat,drink,speak,think,feel", another may represent "knife". No phonetic transliteration is given in the source.
another translation attempt
The first symbol, Folding Cloth, is "s". The second symbol is missing. The third symbol is Fire Drill with sound "d3" ("D" with a gutteral stop). The fourth symbol is Buzzard, with the sound "tw". The fifth symbol I cannot interpret, although it VAGUELY resembles "plow" with sound "sn" or "hb". The confusion lies in the bird symbol. It may be a Buzzard, as demonstrated by the squared off lower tail -- the same symbol with a rounded tail is Vulture, with the sound "3" (gutteral stop). If Vulture, then the translation "die" MIGHT be close -- but if it's Buzzard, that changes everything. Words with Fire Drill in it are often words of movement or journey. If the last symbol changes to Walking Legs ("iwi" or "nmtt"), and if the second changes to Quail Chick (as has been speculated on, in the "die" translation), the entire word will be very close to "depart" or "proceed". For this to be true, the last symbol would have to change although it is already locked in. A theory is that if the occupants stop entering The Numbers, they will be able to leave the island.
Theories
- The text is in Hieroglyphics, but why? Some think that this may not be actual Egyptian Hieroglyphics, but instead a code used by The Others
- The Dharma Initiative may use Egyptian Hieroglyphics, as Hieroglyphics are studied by it's members.
- The Hieroglyphics are meant to scare the hatch members into typing the code, as part of the skinner box theory.
- There are at least two glyphs on every panel of the clock, possibly more, a clue to a possible second, more urgent, countdown.
- There is more than one course of action when the countdown reaches 0; or under different events there are more potential actions.
- There is more than one code and entering a different one will cause another action to occur. The 4815162342 code prevents any action from occuring. No code might cause the worst action to occur