Papyrus roll-tied

The ancient Egyptian Papyrus roll-tied and sealed hieroglyph comes in the common horizontal, or a vertical form (shown in photo). It is juxtaposed against an open scroll, the Papyrus roll-open hieroglyph,, without the "visible ties". The sealed form can also have a seal impressed (in clay) on the tie, for security, or authentication, (see notarization). Both styles of the papyrus roll, "-tied" or "-open", are an ideogram for "roll of papyrus", with a phonetic value of m(dj)3t.

Some artistic versions of the papyrus roll show the laminations, or grid-work, the cross-hatching of the papyrus fibers, for example on Thutmose III's cartouches.