List of ancient Egyptian palettes

A list of ancient Egyptian palettes, ranging in the Naqada periods, 4th millennium BC, probably mostly from ~3500 to 3000 BC; some palettes may be from the later period of the earliest 3rd millennium BC.

These cosmetic palettes come in numerous shapes and sizes, and were often found in tombs or graves. They were preceded by a period of palettes called rhomboidal palettes, unadorned, and without the cosmetic mixing circle found on some of the later Naqada period palettes.

Contents

Alphabetical individual listing, (abbreviated)

  • Battlefield Palette
  • "Two-bird heads
    palette (Brooklyn)"    [1]
  • "Bird palette (Louvre no XXX)"
    (bird-resting, on its feet)[2]
  • Double-Bird Palette, ("Anchor Palette")
  • Bull Palette
  • El Ahaiwah Dog Palette
  • Four Dogs Palette, Giraffes Palette
  • Oxford Palette
    Minor Hierakonpolis Dogs Palette
  • "Fish palette (Louvre dolphin type)"[3]
  • New Kingdom: Fish-shaped palette-(Bulti-hieroglyph type); Adorned fish side/ with cosmetic side for daily use.[4]

List of ancient Egyptian Predynastic palettes

Name Dimensions Location Notes + Topic
Battlefield Palette
Vultures Palette, etc		 Full Height?
50 x 32 cm-(?)
(20 x 13 in)		 British Museum Side A: war; Side B: peace
('Order vs Chaos')
Bull Palette – Louvre
Gerzeh Palette – Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Hunters Palette 30.5 x 15 cm
(12 x 6 in)		 British Museum (smaller fragment in Louvre)
Libyan Palette (original, approximated:
70 x 25 cm)
(ht x width)		 Egyptian Museum, Cairo (surviving dimensions:
~18.5 x ~21 cm,
(7 x 8 in))
(ht x width)
Min Palette
El Amrah Palette		 –
Narmer Palette
Great Hierakonpolis Palette		 64 x 42 cm
(25 x 17 in)		 Louvre Unification of Southern Egypt, Delta Egypt, (Upper and Lower Egypt)

Shield-shape palettes

A list of shield-shaped palettes; the majority are vertically oriented. (The Hunters Palette is an example of a horizontally-oriented palette.)

Name Dimensions Location <-->
Form		 Notes + Topic
"Two-bird heads
palette (Brooklyn)"[6]		 22.5 x 11.8 cm
(8.8 x 4.6 in)		 Brooklyn Museum, USA Unadorned palette, Shield-shaped, with 2-opposed-Bird-Heads
Four Dogs Palette
Giraffes Palette
Louvre Palette		 – Louvre Obverse:Four canines and other animals, w/cosmetic circle
"Duck, trussed"
Trussed-Goose Palette-		 – British Museum
Hunters Palette (horizontally– –oriented)
30.5 x 15 cm
(12 x 6 in)		 British Museum (smaller fragment in Louvre)
Manshiyet el Ezzat Palette (Broken top)
23.5 to 27 x 12 cm,
(9-10 x 5 in)
(ht x width)		 Discovered in a tomb, dated to Pharaoh Den's reign
Cosmetic Circle: two confronted lions with intertwined necks, (as on the Narmer Palette).
Min Palette
El Amrah Palette		 – The only adornment is a "typographic ligature" style combination of the archaic "Min symbol"– with the hieroglyph for "crook-staff"–
(1/4 of palette face)
Narmer Palette
Great Hierakonpolis Palette		 64 x 42 cm
(25 x 17 in)		 Louvre Unification of Southern Egypt, Delta Egypt, (Upper and Lower Egypt)
Oxford Palette
Minor Hierakonpolis Dogs Palette
'Ashmolean Palette'		 42 x 22 cm
(17 x 9 in)		 Ashmolean Museum, no. E3294 greywacke, ca. 3150 BC
2-Lions, necks framing a mixing circle, and necks in wave-motion-(3-cycles); both lions are licking a gazelle, (as a newborn, or young)[7]

Zoomorphic palettes

A list of zoomorphic, or animal style Egyptian palettes.

Name Dimensions Location Notes + Topic
"Anchor Palette"
("Double Bird (Pelta) Palette")		 – Pelta? Anchor-shaped, double outward facing bird-heads
Bird (Louvre)
(a goose)		 – Louvre Naqada IId-IIIc
"El Ahaiwah Dog Palette" – from El Ahaiwah- (El Ahaiwah)
"Duck, trussed"
Trussed-Goose Palette-		 – British Museum portrayed later in hieroglyphs as G54, a 'trussed goose'
Elephant palette (length-(horizontal):
~20.5 cm, (~8 in)[8]		 Egyptian Museum, Berlin
Geese Palette (broken palette)
14.5 x 11.5 cm
(6 x 5 in)		 British Museum, 32074 schist
remainder piece has large, entire cosmetic circle, 2 small confronted geese below
Barbary Goat palette – British Museum
Turtle Palette
{circular)		 – Louvre Circular shape
with small turtle appendages
Turtle Palette no. 2[9]
{circular)		 – Egyptian Museum, Berlin Circular shape
with small turtle appendages

Bird palettes

Name Dimensions Location <-->
Form		 Notes + Topic
Bird (Louvre)
(a goose)		 – Louvre Naqada IId-IIIc
goose, seated-(at rest)
"Duck, trussed"
Trussed-Goose
Palette-		 – British Museum

"Two-bird heads
palette (Brooklyn)"[10]		 22.5 x 11.8 cm
(8.8 x 4.6 in)		 Brooklyn Museum, USA
Unadorned palette, Shield-shaped, with 2-opposed-Bird-Heads
Guinea Fowl Palette[11] 28.5 x 19 cm
(11.3 x 7.5 in)		 Brooklyn Museum, USA ? Guinea Fowl shape, Naqada II, (with small inlaid white eye)

Miscellaneous palettes, fragments

Name Dimensions Location <-->
Form		 Notes + Topic
Min Antelope Palette – (Naqada IId-IIIc)
circular with suspension hole, inscribed with antelope, 1/3 of face
"Ka Palette (no. 1)" – ? ,
Ka hieroglyph-shaped plate
large vertical offering-style plate (see the Hotep-style plates, and the Ancient Egyptian offering formula)[12]
"Ka Palette (no. 2)" – ? ,
Ka hieroglyph-shaped plate
plus Ankh, Papyrus, and U3S-staff , ,

Egyptian hieroglyphs and the palette's corpus

A list of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and the individual palettes.

Gerzeh Palette

The Gerzeh Palette, or "Hathor Palette", "Cow-Head Palette" has topics containing 5-stars, a pair of horns, and a stylized "head". The hieroglyphs are: , , and possibly a relation to , Hathor-sistrum, (the shape of the cow's head, as on the Narmer Palette), and

.

Min Palette

The only adornment is a "typographic ligature" style combination of the archaic "Min symbol"-- with the hieroglyph for "crook-staff"--
(1/4 of palette face)

Galleries

Zoomorphic gallery

Miscellaneous pallettes

References

  1. ^ 2-Bird-heads Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [1]
  2. ^ wikipedia commons: Bird-resting, (on its feet) [2]
  3. ^ wikipedia commons: Fish, (dolphin-type), Louvre [3]
  4. ^ Vicroria Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Bulti Fish-shaped cosmetic palette, [4]
  5. ^ Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Turtle Palette, (circular, small appendages) p 18.
  6. ^ 2-Bird-heads Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [5]
  7. ^ Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, "Ceremonial palette, Hierakonpolis", p 27.
  8. ^ Schulz, Seidel, Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Chapter 1, Egypt's Path to Advanced Civilization, p. 18, 3 palettes of: 1-elephant, 2-hippopotamus, 3-turtle.
  9. ^ Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Turtle Palette, (circular, small appendages) p 18.
  10. ^ 2-Bird-heads Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [6]
  11. ^ Guinea Fowl Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [7]
  12. ^ wikipedia commons, Hotep offering tables [8]

See also

External links