Cartouches

Cartouches

The cartouche of King Tut >>>

"Cartouche" is actually not an Egyptian word at all, it is French. Egyptian word is "shenew", meaning "to encircle," as the cartouche encircles the pharaoh's name. The French called these ovals cartouches because they resembled bullet casings, which is what "cartouche" means in French, and Egyptologists simply adopted this term.

Cartouches were extremely important to ancient Egyptians, because they protected the pharaoh's name. In order to successfully pass into the afterlife, the name had to survive with the pharaoh. If it was not surrounded by a rope, the cartouche, it could be lost. A cartouche also "...symbolized the role of the king as all powerful ruler of everything the sun encircled" (David). The knot at the base symbolized a magic amulet, another figure of protection.

Perhaps most important of all, without cartouches, we may never have learned how to read hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone (which I will discuss in later posts) contained several cartouches, but particularly one of the Greek general Ptolemy. Ptolemy's name appeared in the Greek section of the stone, which could be read, and a cartouche was in the corresponding place in the hieroglyphic section. Jean-Francois Champollion (the man credited with deciphering the hieroglyphic language) concluded that the cartouche had to contain the name of Ptolemy (Remler).

It took several tries, but Champollion eventually translated the hieroglyphs to the letters P-T-O-L-M-I-S (the Greek form of the name), and from there he deciphered other names, like Cleopatra's. In the future, I hope to contact the author of the Champollion article below and some other experts on the Rosetta Stone to get more information!

Citations

David, Rosalie. "royal names, ancient Egyptian." Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2003. Ancient and Medieval History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE49&iPin=HEGU0263&SingleRecord=True

Remler, Pat. "Champollion, Jean-François ." Egyptian Mythology A to Z, Revised Edition. Mythology A to Z. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Ancient and Medieval History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE49&iPin=EGMAZ087&SingleRecord=True

Images from Wikimedia Commons