Palette – rhomboid, decorated PAL-0044
By Hendrickx, Stan
, Tomb B101.
1898–1899 : Egypt Exploration Fund excavation. Ex von Bissing collection. Ex Lunsingh Scheurleer collection.Brussels, Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, E.7062.
Date : Naqada IC–IIA
Dated after the context and the assemblage found in tomb B101.
Material : Greywacke
Preservation : Complete
Description
The rhomboid palette is rounded at the ends of the shorter axis and has pointed extremities.
Decoration
On the recto of the palette, the figure of an elephant, facing toward the nearest end of the palette, is carefully incised with a zigzag motif in front of it. The tusks of the animal are indicated by two small incised ticks that protrude from the trunk and the "butterfly" ears are oval shaped, one superimposed over the head, the other one above the animal. The lips and a short tail are also shown. The body of the elephant is decorated with crosshatched triangles, in a manner similar to C-ware decorative motifs. On the verso, at about the same place as the zigzag in front of the elephant, is a less carefully engraved harpoon.
Object use
The palette shows traces of use, in the form of a shallow depression in the centre of each side.
Dimensions (cm)
9.5
46.2
1.5
Additional information
References
1901
Diospolis Parva: the cemeteries of Abadiyeh and Hu. Egypt Exploration Fund Memoir 20. London
, pl. XII.43.1905
Primitive art in Egypt; translated from the revised and augmented original edition. London
, 82, fig. 61.1935
Deux palettes prédynastiques. Bulletin des Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire 7
.1952
Manuel d'archéologie égyptienne I: 1; les époques de formation, la préhistoire. Paris
, 375, fig. 252.1961
Chaos en beheersing: documenten uit het aeneolitisch Egypte. Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui 8. Leiden
, 139, afb. 64–65.1961
Recherches sur la Ire dynastie et les temps prépharaoniques (2 vols). Bibliothèque d'étude 38. Paris
, 263–4.1968
Handbuch der Vorgeschichte, zweiter Band: Jungsteinzeit, 2 vols. München: C. H. Beck
, pl. 20 no. 45.1986
Predynastische objecten uit Naqada en Diospolis Parva (Boven-Egypte). Bulletin des Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire 57
, 43, fig. 7.1990
The cobra goddess of ancient Egypt. Predynastic, Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods. Studies in Egyptology. London – New York
, 36.1994
Antiquités préhistoriques et protodynastiques d'Égypte. Guides du département égyptien 8. Brussels
, 45.2004
Elephants at Hierakonpolis, in: Hendrickx, Stan; Friedman, Renée; Ciałowicz, Krzysztof M.; Chłodnicki, Marek (eds), Egypt at its origins: studies in memory of Barbara Adams; proceedings of the International Conference "Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt", Kraków, 28th August–1st September 2002. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 138. Leuven
, 154, fig. 16.
