List of ancient Egyptian palettes
A list of a small subset[1][2][3][4] 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.
Alphabetical individual listing, (abbreviated)
[edit]
|
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List of ancient Egyptian Predynastic palettes
[edit]| Name | Dimensions | Image | 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) |
|
Egyptian Museum in Cairo[10] | Unification of Southern Egypt, Delta Egypt, (Upper and Lower Egypt) |
Shield-shape palettes
[edit]A list of shield-shaped palettes; the majority are vertically oriented. (The Hunters Palette is an example of a horizontally-oriented palette.)
| Name | Dimensions | Image | Location | <--> Form |
Notes + Topic | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Two-bird heads palette (Brooklyn)"[11] |
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"–
(1/4 of palette face) | |||||||
| Narmer Palette Great Hierakonpolis Palette |
64 x 42 cm (25 x 17 in) |
Egyptian Museum, Cairo |
|
Unification of Southern Egypt, Delta Egypt, (Upper and Lower Egypt) | |||||||
| Oxford Palette Minor Hierakonpolis Dogs Palette "Ashmolean Palette" "Two Dog Palette"[12] |
42 x 22 cm (17 x 9 in) |
|
Ashmolean Museum, no. E3294 |
|
greywacke, ca. 3150 BC two serpopards, necks framing a mixing circle, and necks in wave-motion-(3-cycles); both serpopards are licking a gazelle, (as a newborn, or young)[13] |
Zoomorphic palettes
[edit]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)[14] |
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[15] {circular) |
– | Egyptian Museum, Berlin | Circular shape with small turtle appendages |
Bird palettes
[edit]| 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)"[16] |
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[17] | 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
[edit]| 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)[18] | ||||||||||
| "Ka Palette (no. 2)" | – | ? |
|
Ka hieroglyph-shaped plate plus Ankh, Papyrus, and U3S-staff
|
Egyptian hieroglyphs and the palette's corpus
[edit]A list of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and the individual palettes.
Gerzeh Palette
[edit]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
|
.
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
[edit]Zoomorphic gallery
[edit]-
Bird - (non-typical, sitting Goose-(duck)) -
Fish-(Dolphin-shape) -
Hippopotamus -
Turtle
Miscellaneous pallettes
[edit]-
-
Four Dogs Palette -
-
Plover palette
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), 1853-1942. (1920). Prehistoric Egypt illustrated by over 1,000 objects in University college, London. British School of Archaeology in Egypt. OCLC 603232901.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Ciałowicz, Krzysztof, M. (1991). Les palettes égyptiennes aux motifs zoomorphes et sans dećoration : études de l'art pred́ynastique. Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński. ISBN 8323304963. OCLC 38471972.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), 1853-1942. (1921). Corpus of prehistoric pottery and palettes. British school of archaeology in Egypt. OCLC 603232953.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Patenaude, Julie. (2011). A catalogue of Egyptian cosmetic palettes in the Manchester University Museum collection. Shaw, Garry J. [London]: Golden House Publications. ISBN 9781906137205. OCLC 791471887.
- ^ 2-Bird-heads Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [1]
- ^ Wikimedia Commons: Bird-resting, (on its feet)
- ^ Wikimedia Commons: Fish, (dolphin-type), Louvre
- ^ Vicroria Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Bulti Fish-shaped cosmetic palette, "Museum Gustavianum - the Victoria Museum of Egyptian Antiquities". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
- ^ Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Turtle Palette, (circular, small appendages) p 18.
- ^ "Museum of Antiquities | Narmer Palette (Egyptian)". www.usask.ca. Archived from the original on 2010-02-28.
- ^ 2-Bird-heads Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [2]
- ^ Patch, Diana (29 May 2012). Dawn of Egyptian Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 139. ISBN 978-0300179521. Retrieved 2014-05-24.
- ^ Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, "Ceremonial palette, Hierakonpolis", p 27.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Turtle Palette, (circular, small appendages) p 18.
- ^ 2-Bird-heads Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [3]
- ^ Guinea Fowl Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [4]
- ^ Wikimedia Commons, Hotep offering tables
- Schulz, Regine; Seidel, Matthias eds.; Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, (w/ 34 contributing Authors), Konemann, Germany, c 1998, (538 pp), (hardcover, ISBN 3-89508-913-3).
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ancient Egyptian palettes.
