Narmer Palette

The Narmer Palette, or Great Hierakonpolis Palette, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about 3200 BC, containing some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found, and depicting the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Narmer who is not mentioned by Manetho nor in the Turin King List or the Palermo stone. Egyptologist Bob Brier has called it "the first historical document in the world", as it tells the story of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Related Topics:
Egypt - 3200 BC - Hieroglyph - Upper - Lower Egypt - Narmer - Manetho - Turin King List - Palermo stone - Bob Brier

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The palette, which survived intact, was discovered by British archeologist James E. Quibell in 1894 while he was excavating royal residences in Nekhen, (present-day Hierakonpolis) which was the ancient, pre-dynastic capital of Upper Egypt. 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.

Related Topics:
British - Archeologist - James E. Quibell - 1894 - Nekhen - Hierakonpolis

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It is a large (ca. 64 cm), shield-shaped, ceremonial palette, carved from a single piece of flat, soft green schist. Both sides are decorated, carved in raised relief. At the top of both sides of the palette are serekhs bearing the symbols n'r (cafish) and mr (chisel) inside, being the phonetic representation of Narmer's name. 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. Pictures depict Narmer wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt and the red crown of Lower Egypt and vanquishing his enemies, thus symbolizing the unification of the "Two Lands".

Related Topics:
Serekh - Bata - White crown - Red crown - Two Lands

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Narmer Palette resides in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It has the Journal d'Entree number JE32169 and the Catalogue Génèral number CG14716.

Related Topics:
Egyptian Museum - Cairo

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~