Make a
Cartouche
Egyptian pharaohs didn’t
just build fancy tombs.
They also liked to put their
names on their stuff. And
they wanted to make sure
that people knew those
names belonged to
royalty. So they used a
frame called a cartouche
(car-TOOSH). This is an oval
with a straight line on one
end. It shows that the
name inside is a royal one.
The word cartouche is French.
French soldiers thought the
shapes looked like the
cartridges they used in their
guns, so they gave them the
same name. The Ancient
Egyptian name for the
nameplate is actually shenu.
Egyptian scribes wrote in
symbols called hieroglyphs. They
had more than 1,000 hieroglyph
symbols to work with. Usually
they wrote from the right to
the left. But sometimes they
wrote the other way. How did
people know which direction to
read? They looked at the human
and animal shapes. They read
toward the faces. So if the
hieroglyphs face right,
start reading at
the right side.
Make
your own
cartouche!
Scribes also often wrote in columns. Those are read from top to bottom. The names in most cartouches are written this way.
A tool to carve clay
A piece of cardboard
First, grab your art supplies. Try using colored pencils or markers. The Ancient Egyptians often used bright colors in their art. You could even carve your cartouche into clay!
Markers
A piece of paper
Colored
pencils
Clay
Draw an oval. Put a straight line on one end. You can
make this very simple, or a little fancier. Try making
a thicker or thinner border.
Or print this frame.
Next, take a
look at this
hieroglyph
alphabet.
Find the
hieroglyphs
that stand
for letters in
your name.
Click here for a printable page.
Decide how you
want to write your
name. Egyptians
didn’t always use
vowels when they
wrote names. You
can either spell out
each letter in your
name or use just
the consonants.
For example, the
name JONATHAN
could be written
as JNTHN.
Draw the
symbols that
spell your
name from
the top to
the bottom
of the
cartouche.
Send us a picture of
your cartouche for a
chance to get published
in WORLDkids or on our
website! Click here . . .
To all who did receive Him,
who believed in His name,
He gave the right to become
children of God. — John 1:12
WORLDkidseditor@gwnews.com
Cut out your cartouche. Put it
on your bedroom door or a
treasure box! You might not be
Egyptian royalty. But you are
a child of the King of kings!