Reading Your First Cartouche: A Step-by-Step Guide

What Is a Cartouche?

If you've ever seen a photograph of an Egyptian temple or a display case in a museum, you've almost certainly noticed cartouches, the distinctive oval rings that encircle certain groups of hieroglyphs. These elongated ovals with a horizontal bar at the base are among the most recognisable features of Egyptian inscriptions, and they serve a very specific purpose: they mark royal names.

The word "cartouche" itself is French. Napoleon's soldiers in Egypt noticed that the oval shape resembled the paper cartridges (cartouches) they used in their muskets, and the name stuck. The Egyptians had their own term: shenu, derived from the verb sheni, meaning "to encircle." The cartouche was a protective ring, a magical boundary that encircled and safeguarded the pharaoh's name for eternity.

I think understanding cartouches is one of the most practical skills in learning hieroglyphics because royal names appear on virtually every monument in Egypt. Once you can read them, you can identify who built a temple, when a tomb was constructed, and which dynasty left its mark on the landscape.

The Five Royal Names

Every pharaoh, from the Old Kingdom onward, held a formal titulary of five names, each introduced by a specific title:

1. •Horus name, the oldest royal title, written inside a serekh (a rectangular frame representing the palace facade)
2. •Nebty name (Two Ladies), invoking the protective goddesses Nekhbet (vulture) and Wadjet (cobra)
3. •Golden Horus name, the least understood, possibly referring to the eternal nature of the king
4. •Prenomen (throne name), enclosed in a cartouche, given at coronation, always containing the name of Ra
5. •Nomen (birth name), enclosed in a cartouche, the personal name given at birth

The two cartouche names, the prenomen and nomen, are what you'll encounter most frequently on monuments. The prenomen typically precedes the title nswt-bjtj ("King of Upper and Lower Egypt"), while the nomen follows sꜣ Rꜥ ("Son of Ra").

Decoding Tutankhamun's Cartouche

Let's start with one of the most famous names in history. Tutankhamun's nomen (birth name) cartouche reads:

𓇋𓏠𓈖𓏏𓅱𓏏𓋹𓈎𓅓𓋴

Reading hieroglyphs in a cartouche requires knowing the direction of reading (signs face the beginning of the text) and understanding honorific transposition, where divine names are written first but spoken later.

Breaking it down step by step:

• •𓇋𓏠𓈖 these signs spell jmn (Amun), written first due to honorific transposition
• •𓏏𓅱𓏏 these spell twt, meaning "image" or "likeness"
• •𓋹 the ankh sign, meaning "living"

Reassembled in spoken order: Tut-ankh-amun, "Living image of Amun."

Notice how the god's name (Amun) appears at the start of the cartouche out of respect, even though it is spoken last. This scribal convention is called honorific transposition, and it appears in almost every royal cartouche. Once you're aware of it, you'll spot it immediately.

Decoding Cleopatra's Cartouche

Cleopatra VII (the famous queen who allied with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony) was of Greek Ptolemaic origin, so her name is spelled purely phonetically, with no honorific transposition needed. This makes it an ideal beginner exercise.

Her cartouche reads: 𓈎𓃭𓇋𓅱𓊪𓄿𓂧𓂋𓄿𓏏

Reading each sign for its sound value:

• •𓈎 q (hill slope)
• •𓃭 l (lion)
• •𓇋 i (reed leaf)
• •𓅱 w/o (quail chick)
• •𓊪 p (stool)
• •𓄿 a (vulture)
• •𓂧 d (hand)
• •𓂋 r (mouth)
• •𓄿 a (vulture)
• •𓏏 t (bread loaf)

Sounding it out: Q-L-I-O-P-A-D-R-A-T, or as we know it, Cleopatra.

This is remarkably straightforward compared to native Egyptian names because it uses only uniliteral signs, the 24 single-consonant hieroglyphs that function like an alphabet. Champollion used exactly this cartouche, along with Ptolemy's, as his initial key to the phonetic values of hieroglyphs.

Decoding Ramesses II's Cartouche

Now let's tackle a more complex example. Ramesses II, often called Ramesses the Great, left his cartouches on more monuments than any other pharaoh. His prenomen (throne name) reads:

𓇳𓅱𓋴𓂋𓍿𓏏𓊪𓈖𓇳

Breaking this down:

• •𓇳 Ra (sun disc), written first by honorific transposition
• •𓅱𓋴𓂋 wsr (powerful)
• •𓍿𓏏 mꜣꜥt (Maat, the goddess of truth and order)
• •𓊪𓈖 stp.n (chosen by)
• •𓇳 Ra (again)

In spoken order: User-Maat-Ra Setep-en-Ra, "Powerful is the truth of Ra, chosen by Ra."

This cartouche demonstrates several advanced features: honorific transposition (Ra written first), biliteral signs, phonetic complements, and the integration of a goddess's name into the royal title. Reading it correctly requires understanding all of these elements working together.

Tips for Reading Cartouches in the Wild

1. Determine reading direction. Hieroglyphs face the beginning of the line. If the birds and people face left, read left to right. If they face right, read right to left. Inside cartouches, the same rule applies.

2. Look for honorific transposition. If you see a sun disc (𓇳) or the signs for Amun (𓇋𓏠𓈖) at the start, they are probably written first out of respect but spoken later in the name.

3. Identify the title before the cartouche. The signs nswt-bjtj (sedge plant and bee) before a cartouche indicate the prenomen. The signs sꜣ Rꜥ (duck and sun disc) indicate the nomen.

4. Start with Ptolemaic names. Greek and Roman names in cartouches (Ptolemy, Cleopatra, Alexander, Augustus) are spelled phonetically without honorific transposition. They are the easiest to decode and are how Champollion started too.

5. Use the 24 uniliteral signs as your foundation. If you memorise these single-consonant signs, you can sound out most foreign names and begin to recognise common phonetic patterns in Egyptian names.

Your Turn

Cartouches are everywhere, in museums, textbooks, documentaries, and on the walls of every major Egyptian monument. They are the most accessible entry point into reading real hieroglyphic inscriptions because they are clearly bounded, relatively short, and often well-documented.

Pick up any book on ancient Egypt, find a cartouche, and try to sound it out. You now have the tools to begin. The pharaohs wrote their names to last for eternity, and thanks to what you've just learned, their wish is being fulfilled.