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.
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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)
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List of ancient Egyptian Predynastic palettes
Name | Dimensions | Image | Location | Notes + Topic |
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Battlefield Palette Vultures Palette, etc. |
Full Height? 50 x 32 cm-(?) (20 x 13 in) |
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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
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 | ||||||
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"Two-bird heads palette (Brooklyn)"[11] |
22.5 x 11.8 cm (8.8 x 4.6 in) |
Brooklyn Museum, USA |
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Unadorned palette, Shield-shaped, with 2-opposed-Bird-Heads | |||||||
Four Dogs Palette Giraffes Palette Louvre Palette |
– | ![]() |
Louvre |
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Obverse:Four canines and other animals, w/cosmetic circle | ||||||
"Duck, trussed" Trussed-Goose Palette-
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– | British Museum |
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Hunters Palette | (horizontally– –oriented) 30.5 x 15 cm (12 x 6 in) |
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British Museum |
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(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) |
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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 |
– | ![]() |
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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) |
Louvre |
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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 |
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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)[13] | |||||||
Zoomorphic palettes
A list of zoomorphic, or animal style Egyptian palettes.
Name | Dimensions | Location | Notes + Topic | ||
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"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-
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– | 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
Name | Dimensions | Location | <--> Form |
Notes + Topic | ||||||
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Bird (Louvre) (a goose) |
– | Louvre |
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Naqada IId-IIIc goose, seated-(at rest) | ||||||
"Duck, trussed" Trussed-Goose Palette-
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– | British Museum |
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"Two-bird heads palette (Brooklyn)"[16] |
22.5 x 11.8 cm (8.8 x 4.6 in) |
Brooklyn Museum, USA |
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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
Name | Dimensions | Location | <--> Form |
Notes + Topic | ||||||||||
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Min Antelope Palette | – |
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(Naqada IId-IIIc) circular with suspension hole, inscribed with antelope, 1/3 of face | |||||||||||
"Ka Palette (no. 1)" | – | ? |
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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)" | – | ? |
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Ka hieroglyph-shaped plate plus Ankh, Papyrus, and U3S-staff
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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:
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,
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, and possibly a relation to
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, Hathor-sistrum, (the shape of the cow's head, as on the Narmer Palette), and
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.
Min Palette
The only adornment is a "typographic ligature" style combination of the archaic "Min symbol"--
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with the hieroglyph for "crook-staff"--
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(1/4 of palette face).
Galleries
Zoomorphic gallery
- Bird - (non-typical, sitting Goose-(duck))
- Fish-(Dolphin-shape)
- Hippopotamus
- Turtle
Miscellaneous pallettes
- Four Dogs Palette
- Plover palette.
- Oxford Palette
Minor Hierakonpolis Palette
References
- 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.CS1 maint: multiple 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.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.CS1 maint: multiple 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
- Wikimedia Commons: Bird-resting, (on its feet)
- Wikimedia Commons: Fish, (dolphin-type), Louvre
- Vicroria Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Bulti Fish-shaped cosmetic palette, "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2009-05-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Turtle Palette, (circular, small appendages) p 18.
- https://www.usask.ca/antiquities/collection/egyptian/narmer.html
- 2-Bird-heads Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum
- 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
- Guinea Fowl Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum
- 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. |