Narmer Palette
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about 3000-2920 BC, containing some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found, and is thought to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the pharaoh Narmer. Egyptologist Bob Brier has referred to the Narmer Palette as "the first historical document in the world": which is thought by some to tell the story of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.
The palette, which survived intact, was discovered by British archeologist James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green in what they called the main deposit in the temple of Horus at Hierakonpolis in 1894. Also found at this dig were the Narmer Macehead and the Scorpion Macehead. Unfortunately the exact place and circumstances of these finds were not recorded very clearly by Quibell and Green. In fact, Green's report placed the palette in a different layer one or two yards away from the deposit, which is considered to be more accurate on the basis of the original excavation notes.[1] It has been suggested that these objects were royal donations made to the temple. [2] Hierakonpolis was the ancient capital of Upper Egypt during the pre-dynastic Naqada III phase of Egyptian history.
Palettes were typically used for grinding cosmetics, but this palette was too large and heavy to have been for personal use, and was likely a temple object. One theory put forward was that it was used to grind cosmetics to adorn the statues of the gods.
The Narmer Palette has been part of the permanent collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Description
It is a large (63 cm.), shield-shaped, ceremonial palette, carved from a single piece of flat, soft green siltstone. The stone has often been wrongly identified in the past as being slate or schist. Slate is layered and prone to flaking, and schist is a metamorphic rock containing large, randomly-distributed mineral grains. Both are unlike the finely-grained, hard, flake-resistant siltstone, whose source is from a well-attested quarry that has been used since pre-dynastic times at Wadi Hammamat.[4] This material was used extensively during the pre-dynastic period for creating such palettes, and was also used as a source for Old Kingdom statuary. A statue of the 2nd dynasty pharaoh Khasekhemwy, found in the same complex as the Narmer Palette at Hierakonopolis, was also made of this material.[5]
Both sides of the palette are decorated, carved in raised relief. At the top of both sides of the palette are serekhs bearing the rebus symbols n'r (catfish) and mr (chisel) inside, being the phonetic representation of Narmer's name.
[edit] Obverse side
Below the bulls' heads flanking the serekh of Narmer is what appears to be a procession, with Narmer shown wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt. He holds a mace and a flail, two traditional symbols of kingship. To his right are the hieroglyphic symbols for his name, though not contained within a serekh. Behind him is his sandal bearer, whose name may be represented by the rosette appearing adjacent to his head, and a second rectangular symbol that has no clear interpretation, though it could also represent the name of a town. Immediately in front of the king is a long-haired man, a pair of hieroglyphs appearing in front of him, which has been interpreted as being his name: Tshet. This is assuming that these symbols had the same phonetic value used in later hieroglyphic writing. In front of this man are four standard bearers, holding aloft an animal skin, a dog and two falcons. At the far-right of this scene are ten decapitated corpses, likely the victims of Narmer's conquest. Above them are the symbols for a ship, falcon and a harpoon, again perhaps indicating the name of the town that was conquered.
Below the procession, two men are tying to gather the outstretched necks of two serpopards, intertwining their necks. The circular formed by their curving necks is the central part of the palette, which is where the cosmetics would be ground. These animals have been considered an additional symbol for the unification of Egypt, but it is a unique image in Egyptian art and there is nothing to suggest that either animal represents an identifiable part of Egypt.
At the bottom of the palette a bull is seen knocking down the walls of a city while trampling on a fallen foe. This is again interpreted as a presentation of the king vanquishing his foes.
[edit] Reverse side
Two human-faced bovine heads, thought to represent the cow goddess Bata, flank the serekhs, uncharacteristically shown in full frontal view, atypical in ancient Egyptian art. It is also possible that they represent the vigor of the king as pair of bulls.
A large picture in the center of the palette depicts Narmer wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt and wielding a mace. To his left is a man bearing the king's sandals, again flanked by a rosette symbol. To the right of the king is a kneeling prisoner, who is about to be struck by the king. A pair of symbols appear next to his head, perhaps indicating his name, or indicating the region where he was from. Above the prisoner is a falcon, representing Horus, perched above a set of papyrus flowers. In his talons he holds a rope-like object which appears to be attached to the nose of a man's head that also emerges from the papyrus flowers, perhaps indicating that he is drawing life from the head. The papyrus has often been interpreted as referring to the marshes of the Nile Delta region, or that the battle happened in a marshy area, or even that each papyrus flower represents the number 1000, indicating that 6000 enemies were subdued in the battle.
Below the king's feet is a third section, depicting two naked, bearded men. They are either running, or are meant to be seen as sprawling dead upon the ground. Appearing to the left of the head of each man is a hieroglyphic sign, the first a walled town, the second a type of knot, likely indicating the name of a defeated town.
[edit] Scholarly debate on the palette
It had been thought that the palette either depicted the unification of Lower Egypt by the king of Upper Egypt, or recording a recent military success over the Libyans. More recently scholars such as Nicholas Millet have argued that the palette does not represent a historical event (such as the unification of Egypt), but instead represents the events of the year in which the object was dedicated to the temple. Whitney Davis has suggested that the iconography on this and other pre-dynastic palettes has more to do with establishing the king as a visual metaphor of the conquering hunter, caught in the moment of delivering a mortal blow to his enemies.[6]
The Narmer Palette resides in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and is one of the initial exhibits that visitors see when entering the museum.[7] It has the Journal d'Entree number JE32169 and the Catalogue Génèral number CG14716.
[edit] External links
- The Narmer Palette: The victorious king of the south
- Narmer Palette (weber.ucsd.edu)
- Narmer Palette (ancient-egypt.org)
[edit] References
- Brier, Bob. PhD. The First Nation in History. History of Ancient Egypt (Audio). The Teaching Company. 2001.
- Kinnaer, Jacques. What is Really Known About the Narmer Palette?, KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, Spring 2004.
- ^ Shaw, Ian. Exploring Ancient Egypt. p.33 Oxford University Press, 2003.
- ^ Bard, Kathryn A. The Emergence of the Egyptian State, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Ed. Ian Shaw, p.61. Oxford University Press, 2000
- ^ Shaw, Ian. Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction. p.4. Oxford Press, 2004.
- ^ Shaw, Ian. Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction. pp44-45. Oxford University Press, 2004.
- ^ Shaw, Ian. Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction. p44. Oxford University Press, 2004.
- ^ Shaw, Ian. & Nicholson, Paul. The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, pp196-197. The British Museum Press, 1995.
- ^ Shaw, Ian. Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction. p.4. Oxford Press, 2004.
