Narmer Palette

Narmer Palette

The Narmer Palette, a triangular piece of black basalt, found in Hierakonpolis by J.E. Quibel in 1897-98, depicts a king who name is given as Mer-Mer.

On one side the King is shown wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt and holding a mace about to crush the head of a northern foe. A group of hieroglyphs above the head of the captured northerner have been tentatively interpreted as meaning 'Horus brings to the King captives of Lower Egypt'.

On the reverse, the same figure is shown wearing the Red Crown of the North while a bull (a symbol of the kings power, one of the later royal titles was 'Strong Bull of Horus') rages below him, smashing the walls of a city and trampling another foe.

We see the King marching in processions with his officials and the standard bearers of his armies to view the bound and decapitated bodies of his northern enemies. He is depicted in conventional posture of a victorious pharaoh, which is thought to be the earliest occurrence of what was to become an 'icon of mastery' throughout the rest of Egyptian history.

The centre panel shows what is usually interpreted as evidence of the early Mesopotamian art in Egypt, two four legged serpopards, their necks entwined to form the cosmetic scoop, and held on leashes by two small retainers.

Seshen

This is the sacred blue lotus or water lily, Nymphaea cerulea. The natural habit of the water lily, closing at night to sink underwater and rising to open again at dawn means that it is used as a symbol of the sun and creation.