Striking evidence for Narmer and the unification of Egypt comes from the Narmer Palette (Figure 5.2). Slate palettes were flat slabs much used in Predynastic Egypt for the grinding of minerals for cosmetics. Although most were small, some, like the Narmer Palette (63cm high), were large ritual objects, elaborately decorated with relief carving. Found in 1898 during the excavations of J. E. Quibell in the Temple of Horus at Hierakonpolis, the Predynastic capital of Upper Egypt, the Narmer Palette was evidently a votive gift to the temple.
The scenes carved in relief on both sides of this palette represent a remarkable pictorial expression of contemporary events that is rare for its time. They illustrate the victory of Narmer: the conquest of northern Lower Egypt by southern Upper Egypt. Narmer is named in a glyph denoting the king on both sides of the palette, on the top between images of Bat, a sky goddess, shown with cow ears and horns and a human face. On one side, the king dominates the scene. Wearing
Figure 5.2 Narmer Palette: obverse, cross section, and reverse. Slate palette, from Hierakonpolis. Egyptian Museum, Cairo
The conical white crown of Upper Egypt, his native region, and accompanied by his sandal bearer, the king grabs an enemy by the hair and prepares to strike him with his mace. The king is depicted with face and legs in profile, eye and torso frontal. This method of showing the human body would remain standard through the many centuries of Egyptian civilization even into the Roman period. To the right of the king, a falcon, representing the sky god Horus, holds by a cord the curious figure of a man with papyrus leaves sprouting from his body. Horus, the alter ego of the pharaoh, has captured Lower Egypt, personified here by the papyrus man. In a smaller zone at the bottom of the palette, humiliatingly placed below the king’s feet, two naked captives are shown as if floating, stripped of the dignity of clothing and the security of firm ground.
The other side is divided into three zones. In the uppermost, the pharaoh inspects the beheaded bodies of the defeated. The artist indicates his kingly status by showing him towering above his attendants. To complement the royal headgear on the other side, the king here wears the red crown of Lower Egypt, the land he has conquered. In the second zone, two long-necked monsters are secured by a rope in the hands of an attendant; the monsters may represent larger, cosmic forces of chaos, now subdued by the king. At the bottom, a bull, another symbol for the king, tramples a naked enemy. Beyond them lies a walled town, an example of the Lower Egyptian settlements captured by Narmer and his forces.
The glyphs for the king’s name and the pictographic nature of some images on the palette remind us that writing began in Egypt in the century or two before Narmer’s unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Egyptian writing, in use for over 3,000 years, is one of the fascinating achievements of this culture.
World History
