Ancient egyptian cartouche of Thutmose III, Karnak, Egypt. Thutmose III (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis III and meaning Thoth is Born) was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth The Karnak temple complex, universally known only as Karnak, describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples chapels pylons and other buildings

In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oblong enclosure with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name, coming into use during the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu. Egyptian hieroglyphs (ˈhaɪərəʊɡlɪf from Greek grc-Grek ἱερογλύφος " sacred carving " also hieroglyphic = grc-Grek The fourth dynasty of Ancient Egypt is characterized as a Golden age of the Old Kingdom. Sneferu, also spelled as Snefru or Snofru (in Greek known as Soris) was the founder of the Fourth dynasty of Egypt, reigning The Ancient Egyptian word for it was shenu, and it was essentially an expanded shen ring. Egyptian is an Afro-Asiatic language most closely related to the Berber, Semitic, Somali and Beja languages thumb|300px|left|Simplest depiction of a Shen Ring -->A shen ring is a circle with a line at a Tangent to it which In Demotic, the cartouche was reduced to a pair of parentheses and a vertical line. Demotic (from δημοτικός dēmotikós, "popular" refers to either the Ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of Hieratic

Of the five royal titularies it was the throne name, also referred to as prenomen, and the "Son of Re" titulary, the so-called nomen, i. e. the name given at birth, which were enclosed by a cartouche. ^[1]

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. ^[2] There were periods in Egyptian history when people refrained from inscribing these amulets with a name, for fear they might fall into somebody's hands conferring power over the bearer of the name. ^[3]

Etymology

It is said that the label cartouche was first applied by soldiers who fancied that the symbol they saw so frequently repeated on the pharaonic ruins they encountered resembled a muzzle-loading firearm's paper powder cartridge (cartouche in French). Paper cartridge refers to one of various types of Small arms Ammunition used before the advent of the metallic cartridge. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people ^[4]

References

1. ^ Allen, James Peter, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, Cambridge University Press 2000, p. 65
2. ^ cf. Thomas Eric Peet, William Leonard Stevenson Loat, The Cemeteries of Abydos. Part 3. 1912-1913, Adamant Media Corporation, ISBN 1402157150, p. 23
3. ^ Alfred Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, Adamant Media Corporation 2001, ISBN 1402193661, pp. 293-295
4. ^ White, Jon Manchip, Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt, Courier Dover 2002, p. 175

External links

• List of all the Egyptian Cartouches
• Cartouche-inscribed Object. Cosmetic palette, Egypt, burial V21, Abydos. The Cosmetic palettes are archaeological artifacts originally used to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics Abydos ( Egyptian Abdju, 3bdw, Arabic: أبيدوس Greek Αβυδος one of the most ancient cities of (Click on picture. )