Bull Palette
Unknown · Naqada III A-B, c. 3200-3100 BC
A broken slab of dark greywacke, carved on both faces in low raised relief. On the main side a massive bull tramples a bearded man who lies beneath its hooves, naked except for a penis sheath. The bull is the king himself, shown as pure force. Below him march five standards topped by the emblems of gods, among them two dogs, an ibis, a falcon and the sign of Min, each standard given a human arm that grips a single rope. Near the edge a small fortified enclosure marks a town, and a few early hieroglyphs give a name.
The object is a cosmetic palette, the kind of stone plate on which Egyptians ground malachite for eye paint, but at this size it was a ceremonial piece made for a ruler around three thousand two hundred BC, in the Naqada III period just before the first dynasty. It belongs to the same family as the Narmer Palette in Cairo and shows the language of royal victory already fixed: the animal king, the captive under his feet and the gods leading him. The collector Tigrane gave the palette to the Louvre before nineteen hundred and three.
Did You Know? The cord held by the five standards was probably tied to captives, so the palette records a victory a full century before the first pharaohs.
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