Was Scepter

Forked staff of was

The was-scepter — animal head, forked foot — is in the hands of gods on temple walls from the Early Dynastic period. It writes power (was). Set is an early bearer, desert and storm in his brief; Amun, Ra, and others take it up. There is no forging epic. Faience votives copy the shape. It is a standard, a hieroglyph, and a divine attribute, not a unique weapon in the Osiris murder-cycle. Dominion over chaos is the meaning of the sign, not a surviving royal staff we can chain of custody.