The Narmer Palette - Famous Egyptian Artifacts

This is the Narmor Palette, a soulstone artifact believed to depict the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt by King Narmor. It dates from around the 3rd millennium BC, making it over 5,000 years old, and it was discovered around 1897 in Nehen, also known as Hierakonpolis, the city of the falcon. It is significant for many reasons. It's one of the earliest depictions of hieroglyphs. It's a testimony, either historical or symbolic, of the unification of Egypt. It's the template of elements that Egyptian art would follow for the next 3,500 years. If you look at this side of the palette, Egyptian art was hierarchical, that is, the bigger the figure, the more important it was. And here we have, front and center, King Narmor, the biggest dude around, depicted smiting his enemy. This smiting motif would also become standard and be used by pretty much every pharaoh after Narmor, even those who didn't fight any wars. On the other side, we see that same concept of size hierarchy again, with Narmor as the tallest person in a procession, with what may be priests coming second, and standard bearers clearly less important than them. Ash, what are you doing? We also have animals with anthropomorphized features, such as the bovines here, mixed with human and animal facial characteristics. And down here, a bull destroying a wall, trampling over an enemy. The bull representing the king, another theme that would be consistent for the rest of ancient Egyptian history. If we look at Narmor again, he's wearing the bull's tail, that pharaohs and many male gods would be depicted wearing from then on. Animals would play extensive roles in Egyptian art. And here we have these beasts, with fantastic long necks, and fierce as they were, they were tamed by the will of man. Their necks forming a mortar where pigments would be ground to make makeup, because everybody wore makeup back then. And finally, Egyptian depicted scenes most often in distinct registers, that is, in levels, and that's what we see here, each of these scenes is taking place on its own level. All these features would be seen on everything from commoners' tombs to papyrus to the walls of the great temples. From an artistic perspective, this was the original artwork that everybody else copied elements from, from them onwards. The Narmor Palette is presently on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but it may be moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum once it opens. Have you seen the Narmor Palette in person? Let us know what you thought of it in the comments. Thank you so much for watching, and see you next time.