The Throne Name

Let’s start the tour by going right to the central part of the pectoral. The ovoid shape is called a cartouche, and it contains three hieroglyphs. The circle on top is a sun disc, the one below represents a hill with sun beams behind it, and the last hieroglyph is a scarab.

The sun disc represents the ‘re’ sound, the hill represents ‘kha’ and the scarab represents ‘kheper’. ‘Re’ is the name of a very important Egyptian solar deity, ‘kha’ has the meaning ‘appearance’, and ‘kheper’ means ‘manifestation’.

Together, these three hieroglyphs spell the name of a king: Khakheperre. Egyptian kings had five names, including the name they were born with. This name is called the throne name, and it is the name King Senwosret II took when he ascended the throne. It means ‘The appearance of the manifestation of Re’. See: Leprohon, Ronald J., Denise M. Doxey, The Great Name: Ancient Egyptian Royal
Titulary (Atlanta, 2013)

Now that we have seen these hieroglyphs, let's zoom out a bit and look at what surrounds them.