Palette – zoomorphic, hartebeest PAL-0027
By Droux, Xavier
, Tomb N0002.
1894–1895 : William M.F. Petrie or Egyptian Research Account excavation.Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, AN 1895.870.
Date : Naqada IIC–D (?)
Assumed date of type pal_bov_2b, see Droux (2019).
Material : Greywacke, Ostrich eggshell
Preservation : Fragment
Preservation information :
The upper half of the front horn broke off and is glued back in place; the upper half of the back horn is missing.
Description
Only the head and short neck of the hartebeest are preserved.
Decoration
The horns arethin, lyre-shaped and seen frontally, as is characteristic for the hartebeest. A large, drilled hole separates them from one another and they did not connect again before their tips pointed outward. Details of the head include the pointed ear that protrudes below the back horn, and the eyes that are represented by a small, drilled depression with a small, inlaid (ostrich?) eggshell disc.
Dimensions (cm)
4.1
5.5
Additional information
pal_bov_2b
Comments
This artefact is illustrated and discussed by Petrie in his journal, preserved in a copy by Kate Bardbury at the Griffith Institute (MSS 2.3.66). The entry dated 26 XII 1894 and follows shortly after the description of the first 7 tombs excavated in Naqada's Main Cemetery. In all likelyhood, the number written in black ink on the broken edge indicates that it comes from tomb N0002. Palettes of shape-type pal_bov_2 are all carved in the shape of the hartebeest, although identification is sometimes tentative; sub-type 2a seems to pre-date sub-type 2b; see Droux (2019); this assumption is based on stylistic considerations since no palette of sub-type 2b comes from a known, precise archaeological context.
Acknowledgements
We thank Helen Whitehouse and Liam McNamara for facilitating the study of this artefact.
References
1894
1894–1895 Tukh (Nubt), Ballas and Naqada. Manuscript journal copy by Kate Bradbury Griffith, Griffith Institute MSS 2.3; transcription by Cat Warsi
, 66.1993
Catalogue of the predynastic Egyptian collection in the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford
, 222, cat. 1807, fig. 75.
