DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4664#0047
42
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.
the archaic people to grind the paint with which
they adorned their faces. This can now hardly be
doubted. Many hundreds of slate palettes have been
found in the different cemeteries ; they are placed in
front of the face, and the objects found near them
are toilet articles, such as beads, combs, and hairpins.
Very often they have a depression worn in the
middle, sometimes on both sides ; this depression is
generally stained green with powdered malachite,
and the pebble for grinding lies near it. Little
leathern bags containing malachite chips, and shells
containing the powdered mineral mixed with fat,
were found in several cases close to the palette.
Finally, on two steles of the Old Kingdom at Cairo,
traces of green paint on the cheek-bones, and not on
the lower part of the face, are plainly to be seen.
(The peculiar pendants of the Uza eye would be well
explained as representing streaks of this paint.) The
argument, then, is singularly strong that the simpler
palettes were used for face-paint
And this decorated palette belongs to the same
class. The shape—a derivative, probably, of the
double bird-head type—is known, and the gap be-
tweeen this piece and the plain slabs of slate of the
private tombs of Naqada is not entirely unbridged.
Incised drawings of animals are not very uncommon
on the poorer palettes, and one was sold in Cairo
lately decorated with three ostriches and a human
figure in relief. We may suppose that this sump-
tuous palette was given to the temple by Narmer, to
be used in dressing either the local idol or the king
himself before some religious ceremony.
The front of the palette is divided into four
registers. In the first is the name of the king flanked
by two Hathor heads. It is strange to find the ka
name written without the hawk above; not less so
that in so early a monument the door patterns should
be so simplified and different on the two sides of the
palette. The name is written with two signs, that of
the large fish with tentacles (Heterobranchus angnil-
laris ?), which in the tomb of Thy is called Ndr, and
the chisel with blade on one side, reading mer. The
king has, therefore, been generally called Nar-mer,
though it is by no means certain that this is the
correct reading.
In the second register the king is seen marching
to the right; his name, this time without the frame,
is repeated before him. He is preceded by the
official Thet, and followed by a servant bearing his
sandals and a metal ewer. The word Thet may be
a name, or may be the word for scribe. There is
much detail in the dress of the three figures ; the
shirt-like garment of the king fastened over the left
shoulder, the two flaps of beadwork over his skirt,
one square-ended, the other pointed, and with a bird
ornament at the end ; the dress of Thet, with its two
pendants over the left shoulder; and the curious
triangular object (basket ?) worn by the servant at
his waist.
The square label over the servant's head, bearing
the sign deb (?), must be either the title of the whole
scene, or the name of the place from which the king
has come. Capart has read it " Edfu."
The name or title of the servant is written with a
rosette, 6 leaved in this case, 7 leaved on the other
side, and with the sign hen. Petrie would translate
this "royal servant," but it may be equally well a
name.
Before the king go four standard-bearers carrying
the symbols of four deities ; one is the object which
has been called a piece of meat, and also a lock of
hair ; the next is a jackal, and the remaining pair are
hawks. These recur in similar scenes at Bubastis and
Deir el Bahri, but with the substitution of the ibis for
one of the hawks.
Note that the standard-bearer nearest Thet has
no beard, wears a round wig, and a short skirt; the
next is bearded, has a square-bottomed headdress,
and shows over his shoulder one of the same pen-
dants of which Thet shows two. The remaining two
standard-bearers wear tassels or kilts in front, and
are dressed alike. It is possible that this difference
of dress on official occasions may show a survival
from the times when the different towns of Egypt
had their own customs and dress, as well as their
own gods.
The king has come to view the ten bodies on the
right of the scene. They lie with arms tied together ;
their heads, all but one covered with a double-horned
headdress, are removed, and placed between their
legs. Above the bodies are four signs. The first
two may be read " the great gate," and the other two,
the bird on a harpoon with a boat below, have some
connection with a festival.
This scene is discussed by Naville (Recueil,
vol. xxi.), who suggests that it represents the
"festival of the destruction of the Anu," an im-
portant festival in the early times, as the Palermo
stone shows. The mention on the other side of the
palette of a definite number of prisoners, would lead
us to suppose that it commemorates a victory by
Narmer himself.
;: W
___________________
MM
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.
the archaic people to grind the paint with which
they adorned their faces. This can now hardly be
doubted. Many hundreds of slate palettes have been
found in the different cemeteries ; they are placed in
front of the face, and the objects found near them
are toilet articles, such as beads, combs, and hairpins.
Very often they have a depression worn in the
middle, sometimes on both sides ; this depression is
generally stained green with powdered malachite,
and the pebble for grinding lies near it. Little
leathern bags containing malachite chips, and shells
containing the powdered mineral mixed with fat,
were found in several cases close to the palette.
Finally, on two steles of the Old Kingdom at Cairo,
traces of green paint on the cheek-bones, and not on
the lower part of the face, are plainly to be seen.
(The peculiar pendants of the Uza eye would be well
explained as representing streaks of this paint.) The
argument, then, is singularly strong that the simpler
palettes were used for face-paint
And this decorated palette belongs to the same
class. The shape—a derivative, probably, of the
double bird-head type—is known, and the gap be-
tweeen this piece and the plain slabs of slate of the
private tombs of Naqada is not entirely unbridged.
Incised drawings of animals are not very uncommon
on the poorer palettes, and one was sold in Cairo
lately decorated with three ostriches and a human
figure in relief. We may suppose that this sump-
tuous palette was given to the temple by Narmer, to
be used in dressing either the local idol or the king
himself before some religious ceremony.
The front of the palette is divided into four
registers. In the first is the name of the king flanked
by two Hathor heads. It is strange to find the ka
name written without the hawk above; not less so
that in so early a monument the door patterns should
be so simplified and different on the two sides of the
palette. The name is written with two signs, that of
the large fish with tentacles (Heterobranchus angnil-
laris ?), which in the tomb of Thy is called Ndr, and
the chisel with blade on one side, reading mer. The
king has, therefore, been generally called Nar-mer,
though it is by no means certain that this is the
correct reading.
In the second register the king is seen marching
to the right; his name, this time without the frame,
is repeated before him. He is preceded by the
official Thet, and followed by a servant bearing his
sandals and a metal ewer. The word Thet may be
a name, or may be the word for scribe. There is
much detail in the dress of the three figures ; the
shirt-like garment of the king fastened over the left
shoulder, the two flaps of beadwork over his skirt,
one square-ended, the other pointed, and with a bird
ornament at the end ; the dress of Thet, with its two
pendants over the left shoulder; and the curious
triangular object (basket ?) worn by the servant at
his waist.
The square label over the servant's head, bearing
the sign deb (?), must be either the title of the whole
scene, or the name of the place from which the king
has come. Capart has read it " Edfu."
The name or title of the servant is written with a
rosette, 6 leaved in this case, 7 leaved on the other
side, and with the sign hen. Petrie would translate
this "royal servant," but it may be equally well a
name.
Before the king go four standard-bearers carrying
the symbols of four deities ; one is the object which
has been called a piece of meat, and also a lock of
hair ; the next is a jackal, and the remaining pair are
hawks. These recur in similar scenes at Bubastis and
Deir el Bahri, but with the substitution of the ibis for
one of the hawks.
Note that the standard-bearer nearest Thet has
no beard, wears a round wig, and a short skirt; the
next is bearded, has a square-bottomed headdress,
and shows over his shoulder one of the same pen-
dants of which Thet shows two. The remaining two
standard-bearers wear tassels or kilts in front, and
are dressed alike. It is possible that this difference
of dress on official occasions may show a survival
from the times when the different towns of Egypt
had their own customs and dress, as well as their
own gods.
The king has come to view the ten bodies on the
right of the scene. They lie with arms tied together ;
their heads, all but one covered with a double-horned
headdress, are removed, and placed between their
legs. Above the bodies are four signs. The first
two may be read " the great gate," and the other two,
the bird on a harpoon with a boat below, have some
connection with a festival.
This scene is discussed by Naville (Recueil,
vol. xxi.), who suggests that it represents the
"festival of the destruction of the Anu," an im-
portant festival in the early times, as the Palermo
stone shows. The mention on the other side of the
palette of a definite number of prisoners, would lead
us to suppose that it commemorates a victory by
Narmer himself.
;: W
___________________
MM