Cartouche

A cartouche is a hieroglyphic symbol of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998)  - p.281 "cartouche: a carved tablet or drawing... an oval or oblong enclosing a group of Egyptian hieroglyphs, typically representing the name and title of a monarch". It is oval with a horizontal line at one end, showing that the text enclosed is a royal name.

It starts to be used at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu. The cartouche is usually vertical with a horizontal line, but it is horizontal if it makes the name fit better, with a vertical line on the left. The Ancient Egyptian word for it was shenu. In demotic writing, the cartouche was reduced to a pair of brackets and a vertical line.

Of the five royal titles it was the prenomen, the throne name, and the "Son of Ra" titulary,Ancient-egypt.org the so-called nomen name given at birth, which were enclosed by a cartouche.Allen, James Peter, Middle Egyptian: an introduction to the language and culture of hieroglyphs, Cambridge University Press 2000, p.65

At times amulets were given the form of a cartouche displaying the name of a king and placed in tombs. Such items are often important to archaeologists for dating the tomb and its contents.Peet, Thomas Eric & Loat, William Leonard Stevenson. The Cemeteries of Abydos. Part 3. 1912-1913, Adamant Media Corporation, , p.23 Cartouches were only worn by pharaohs.

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Category:Ancient Egypt
Category:Writing systems