List of ancient Egyptian palettes

The Four Dogs Palette, Room 20 of the Louvre.

A list of ancient Egyptian palettes, ranging in the Naqada periods, 4th millennium BC, probably mostly from ~3500 to 3000 BC; some palettes may be from the later period of the earliest 3rd millennium BC.

These cosmetic palettes come in numerous shapes and sizes, and were often found in tombs or graves. They were preceded by a period of palettes called rhomboidal palettes, unadorned, and without the cosmetic mixing circle found on some of the later Naqada period palettes.

Alphabetical individual listing, (abbreviated)

List of ancient Egyptian Predynastic palettes

Shield-shape palettes

A list of shield-shaped palettes; the majority are vertically oriented. (The Hunters Palette is an example of a horizontally-oriented palette.)

Name	Dimensions	Location	<--> Form	Notes + Topic
"Two-bird heads palette (Brooklyn)"[7]	22.5 x 11.8 cm (8.8 x 4.6 in)	Brooklyn Museum, USA		Unadorned palette, Shield-shaped, with 2-opposed-Bird-Heads
Four Dogs Palette Giraffes Palette Louvre Palette	–	Louvre		Obverse:Four canines and other animals, w/cosmetic circle
	"Duck, trussed" Trussed-Goose Palette-	–	British Museum
Hunters Palette	(horizontally– –oriented) 30.5 x 15 cm (12 x 6 in)	British Museum		(smaller fragment in Louvre)
Manshiyet el Ezzat Palette	(Broken top) 23.5 to 27 x 12 cm, (9-10 x 5 in) (ht x width)			Discovered in a tomb, dated to Pharaoh Den's reign Cosmetic Circle: two confronted lions with intertwined necks, (as on the Narmer Palette).
	Min Palette El Amrah Palette	–			The only adornment is a "typographic ligature" style combination of the archaic "Min symbol"– with the hieroglyph for "crook-staff"– (1/4 of palette face)
Narmer Palette Great Hierakonpolis Palette	64 x 42 cm (25 x 17 in)	Louvre		Unification of Southern Egypt, Delta Egypt, (Upper and Lower Egypt)
Oxford Palette Minor Hierakonpolis Dogs Palette "Ashmolean Palette" "Two Dog Palette"[8]	42 x 22 cm (17 x 9 in)	Ashmolean Museum, no. E3294		greywacke, ca. 3150 BC 2-Lions, necks framing a mixing circle, and necks in wave-motion-(3-cycles); both lions are licking a gazelle, (as a newborn, or young)[9]

Zoomorphic palettes

A list of zoomorphic, or animal style Egyptian palettes.

Name	Dimensions	Location	Notes + Topic
"Anchor Palette" ("Double Bird (Pelta) Palette")	–	Pelta?	Anchor-shaped, double outward facing bird-heads
Bird (Louvre) (a goose)	–	Louvre	Naqada IId-IIIc
"El Ahaiwah Dog Palette"	–		from El Ahaiwah- (El Ahaiwah)
	"Duck, trussed" Trussed-Goose Palette-	–	British Museum	portrayed later in hieroglyphs as G54, a 'trussed goose'
Elephant palette	(length-(horizontal): ~20.5 cm, (~8 in)[10]	Egyptian Museum, Berlin
Geese Palette	(broken palette) 14.5 x 11.5 cm (6 x 5 in)	British Museum, 32074	schist remainder piece has large, entire cosmetic circle, 2 small confronted geese below
Barbary Goat palette	–	British Museum
Turtle Palette {circular)	–	Louvre	Circular shape with small turtle appendages
Turtle Palette no. 2[11] {circular)	–	Egyptian Museum, Berlin	Circular shape with small turtle appendages

Bird palettes

Name	Dimensions	Location	<--> Form	Notes + Topic
Bird (Louvre) (a goose)	–	Louvre		Naqada IId-IIIc goose, seated-(at rest)
	"Duck, trussed" Trussed-Goose Palette-	–	British Museum
"Two-bird heads palette (Brooklyn)"[12]	22.5 x 11.8 cm (8.8 x 4.6 in)	Brooklyn Museum, USA		Unadorned palette, Shield-shaped, with 2-opposed-Bird-Heads
Guinea Fowl Palette[13]	28.5 x 19 cm (11.3 x 7.5 in)	Brooklyn Museum, USA	?	Guinea Fowl shape, Naqada II, (with small inlaid white eye)

Miscellaneous palettes, fragments

Name	Dimensions	Location	<--> Form	Notes + Topic
	Min Antelope Palette	–			(Naqada IId-IIIc) circular with suspension hole, inscribed with antelope, 1/3 of face
	"Ka Palette (no. 1)"	–	?		, Ka hieroglyph-shaped plate large vertical offering-style plate (see the Hotep-style plates, and the Ancient Egyptian offering formula)[14]
	"Ka Palette (no. 2)"	–	?		, Ka hieroglyph-shaped plate plus Ankh, Papyrus, and U3S-staff , ,

Egyptian hieroglyphs and the palette's corpus

A list of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and the individual palettes.

Gerzeh Palette

The Gerzeh Palette, or "Hathor Palette", "Cow-Head Palette" has topics containing 5-stars, a pair of horns, and a stylized "head". The hieroglyphs are: , , and possibly a relation to , Hathor-sistrum, (the shape of the cow's head, as on the Narmer Palette), and

.

Min Palette

The only adornment is a "typographic ligature" style combination of the archaic "Min symbol"-- with the hieroglyph for "crook-staff"--
(1/4 of palette face)

Galleries

Zoomorphic gallery

• 
  Bird - (non-typical, sitting Goose-(duck))
• 
  Fish-(Dolphin-shape)
• 
  Hippopotamus
• 
  Turtle

Miscellaneous pallettes

• 
  Battlefield Palette
• 
  Four Dogs Palette
• 
  Hunters Palette
• 
  Narmer Palette
• 
  Oxford Palette
  "Minor Hierakonpolis Palette"

See also

• Cosmetic palette
• Zoomorphic palette
• Gardiner's Sign List

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ancient Egyptian palettes.

• Schulz, Regine; Seidel, Matthias eds.; Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, (w/ 34 contributing Authors), Konemann, Germany, c 1998, (538 pp), (hardcover, ISBN 3-89508-913-3).

External links

• Corpus of Egyptian Late Predynastic Palettes by Francesco Raffaele

Ancient Egypt topics
Outline Index Major topics Glossary of artifacts
Agriculture Architecture (Egyptian Revival architecture) Art Astronomy Burial customs Chronology Cities (list) Clothing Cuisine Dynasties Geography Great Royal Wives History Language Literature Mathematics Medicine Military Music Mythology People Pharaohs (list) Philosophy Religion Sites Technology Trade Writing
Egyptology Egyptologists Museums
Book Category Ancient Egypt portal WikiProject Commons