Editing Seshat (section)

==Iconography==
In [[art of ancient Egypt|ancient Egyptian art]], she was depicted as a woman with a seven-pointed [[#Emblem|emblem]] above her head or extending from a headband.<ref name="Hart 2005">{{cite book |last1=Hart |first1=George |url=https://archive.org/details/RoutledgeDictionaryOfEgyptianGodsAndGoddesses/page/n155/mode/2up |title=The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |edition= |location=New York |pages=142–143 |access-date=8 July 2022 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> This emblem was the origin of an alternate name for Seshat, '''Sefkhet-Abwy''',<ref name="Note02" group="Note" /> which may be translated as "seven-horned".<ref name="Wilkinson" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Bunson |first=Margaret R. |url=https://archive.org/details/TheCompleteGodsAndGoddessesOfAncientEgypt/Encyclopedia%20of%20Ancient%20Egypt/page/n383/mode/2up |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt |date=2002 |publisher=Facts on File Inc. |isbn=978-0-8160-4563-1 |edition=Revised |series= |location=New York |pages=366 |access-date=27 February 2025 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> She was frequently shown in a [[Leopard skin (clothing in Ancient Egypt)|leopard-skin]] or dress, sometimes with a robe layered under a skin.<ref name=":3" /> The leopard-skin was a symbol of funerary [[priest]]s, with the pattern on the natural hide thought to represent the [[star]]s, being a symbol of [[eternity]], and to be associated with the night sky.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

Usually, Seshat is shown holding a notched [[Palm branch|palm rib]], the symbol for "year" in [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian hieroglyphics]]. The stem was often depicted ending in a [[tadpole]] above a [[shen ring]], representing 100,000 and infinity, respectively.<ref name="Hart 2005" /><ref>Wainwright, "Seshat and the Pharaoh," p. 35.</ref> Seshat's notching of the stem indicated the [[chronology|recording]] of the passage of time, especially that of the king's lifespan.<ref name=":6">Magdolen, "Sign of Seshat - Part Three," p. 67.</ref> Hieroglyphs representing festivals were shown as suspended from the palm stem when Seshat recorded these events. She was also depicted holding other tools, often the [[knotted cord]]s that were [[Rope stretcher|stretched]] to survey land and structures.<ref name="Wilkinson" />