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Egyptian Artifacts

Columns of Rameses II at the Louvre

Here I am in the Louvre!

The Louvre had such a large Egyptian collection (even compared to the MET) that I was honestly a little overwhelmed trying to see everything!! My Nonno and I spent the whole time practically running around because we didn’t want to miss anything!

One of the first cartouches I learned to read were for Rameses II π“‡³π“„Šπ“§π“‡³π“‰π“ˆ–. I always felt so proud as a little girl when I could recognize the names of the pharaohs 𓉐𓉻𓏦 on the artifacts! Rameses II’s π“‡³π“„Šπ“§π“‡³π“‰π“ˆ– name π“‚‹π“ˆ– is always a good one to know because he put his name π“‚‹π“ˆ– everywhere! He usurped a lot of monuments from previous pharaohs 𓉐𓉻𓏦 and replaced their names with his own. Rameses II π“‡³π“„Šπ“§π“‡³π“‰π“ˆ– also had a lot of variations of his name π“‚‹π“ˆ– and depending when in his reign the monument was made and the amount of space available could determine which cartouche was used.

Here are some examples:

(π“‡‹π“ π“ˆ–π“ˆ˜π“‡³π“Ίπ“„Ÿπ“‹΄π“‡“), (π“©π“›π“ˆ˜π“„Ÿπ“‹΄π“‡“), and (π“‡‹π“ π“ˆ–π“ˆ˜π“œπ“Ίπ“„Ÿπ“‹΄π“Šƒ) are all different variations of Rameses II’s birth name! While β€œspelled” with different hieroglyphs π“ŠΉπ“Œƒπ“ͺ, they actually all mean the same thing! For example, 𓇳𓏺, 𓁛, and π“œ are all used to designate β€œRa” while π“‡‹π“ π“ˆ– and 𓁩 are used for Amun! (π“‡³π“„Šπ“§π“‡³π“‰π“ˆ–) which is seen on the column in the picture 𓏏𓅱𓏏 is his throne name!
What’s really cool is that a very similar column also belonging to Rameses II can be found in the British Museum too!