InEgyptian hieroglyphs, acartouche (/kɑːrˈtuːʃ/kar-TOOSH) is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is aroyal name.[1] The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of theThird Dynasty, but the feature did not come into common use until the beginning of theFourth Dynasty under PharaohSneferu. While the cartouche is usually vertical with a horizontal line, if it makes the name fit better it can be horizontal, with a vertical line at the end (in the direction of reading). Theancient Egyptian word for cartouche wasshenu (compare with Copticϣⲛⲉšne yielding eventual sound changes), and the cartouche was essentially an expandedshen ring.Demotic script reduced the cartouche to a pair of brackets and a vertical line.
At timesamulets took the form of a cartouche displaying the name of a king and placed in tombs. Archaeologists often find such items important for dating a tomb and its contents.[4] Cartouches were formerly only worn by pharaohs. The oval surrounding their name was meant to protect them from evil spirits in life and after death. The cartouche has become a symbol representing good luck and protection from evil.[5][need quotation to verify]
The term "cartouche" was first applied by French soldiers who fancied that the symbol they saw so frequently repeated on the pharaonic ruins they encountered resembled a muzzle-loading firearm'spaper powder cartridge (cartouche inFrench).[6][need quotation to verify][7]
The cartouche in half-section, Gardiner no. V11 (as seen below) has a separate meaning in the Egyptian language as adeterminative for actions and nouns dealing with items: "to divide", "to exclude".[8]
The cartouche hieroglyph is used as adeterminative for Egyptian languagešn-(sh)n, for "circuit", or "ring"-(like theshen ring or the cartouche). Later it was used forrn, the word "name".[8] The word can also be spelled as "r" with "n", themouth over thehorizontal n.
^Allen, James Peter,Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, Cambridge University Press 2000, p. 65.
^CompareThomas Eric Peet, William Leonard Stevenson Loat,The Cemeteries of Abydos. Part 3. 1912–1913, Adamant Media Corporation,ISBN1-4021-5715-0, p.23
^White, Jon Manchip,Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt, Courier Dover 2002, p.175
^Compare:Najovits, Simson R. (May 2003). "The Social Context of the Egyptian Politico-Religious System".Egypt, Trunk of the Tree. Espiritualidad y religion. Vol. 1: The Contexts. New York: Algora Publishing (published 2003). p. 251.ISBN9780875862347. Retrieved25 January 2020.Theshenu has come to be known as the 'cartouche' – it was so named after a rifle cartridge, whose shape it resembled, by the French scientific team that accompanied Napoleon's occupying force in Egypt between 1798 and 1801.
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