Palette – zoomorphic, hartebeest PAL-0021
By Droux, Xavier
Archaeological site unknown.
1914 : Gift from Maurice Nahman, Cairo.Brussels, Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, E.4992.
Date : Naqada IIA–D (?)
Assumed dates of types pal_bov_2a and b, see Droux (2019).
Material : Greywacke
Preservation : Almost complete
Preservation information :
The front horn has broken off, likely in antiquity; two small holes were drilled for repair; the tip of the back horn is missing.
Description
The palette has a mostly ovoid shape with added stylised zoomorphic details. The hartebeest is shown standing, with its head raised higher than the level of the back. A small hole is drilled through the back, likely for attaching a string or thong.
Decoration
Both horns are broken off, with drilled holes at the base of the 'front' horn suggesting that breakage and repair happened during the predynastic period. The 'back' horn is only slightly better preserved, so that that their exact appearance is uncertain. However, we can determine that they were rather thin and separated from one another by a large, pierced hole. In all probability, they were seen in front view and were lyre-shaped, perhaps connecting again above the hole, with their tip pointing outward, as is characteristic of the hartebeest. The eyes are represented by shallow depressions drilled on each side of the palette; they were perhaps inlaid. A small, triangular ear projects backward below the horn. The mouth is indicated by a small incision at the tip of the muzzle.
There are two marked, angular humps, one on the top of the back, the other before the junction with the neck. The legs appear as two small, sinuous shapes, not dissimilar in their outline to bird heads and necks as carved on other palettes and artefacts; this similarity in shape does however not necessarily imply that bird heads were intended. The tail is indicated by a vertical line incised along the backside.
Dimensions (cm)
13.8
24.1
1
Additional information
pal_bov_2
Comments
Palettes of shape-type pal_bov_2 are all carved in the shape of the hartebeest, although identification is sometimes tentative. In Droux (2019), this palette was tentatively included in sub-type 2a – the group of hartebeest palettes belonging to the earlier predynastic period. This was based on the elongated shape of the body, which differs from the rounded silhouette of the later palettes representing hartebeest (type 2b). However, this attribution is likely incorrect, since the the horns - a more important identification factor - seem to be of the thinner style of sub-type 2b. Alternatively, it is possible that the horns had a different shape altogether and that the palette did not belong to either group.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dirk Huyge for facilitating the study of this artefact.
References
2002
Bovines in Egyptian predynastic and early dynastic iconography, in: Hassan, Fekri A. (ed.), Drought, food and culture: ecological change and food security in Africa's later prehistory. New York & London
, 289, fig. 16.6.
