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The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC, containing some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. It is thought by some to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the king Narmer. On one side, the king is depicted with the bulbed White Crown of Upper (southern) Egypt, and the other side depicts the king wearing the level Red Crown of Lower (northern) Egypt. Along with the Scorpion Macehead and the Narmer Maceheads, also found together in the Main Deposit at Nekhen, the Narmer Palette provides one of the earliest known depictions of an Egyptian king. The Palette shows many of the classic conventions of Ancient Egyptian art, which must already have been formalized by the time of the Palette's creation.〔Wilkinson, Toby A.H. Early Dynastic Egypt. p.6 Routledge, London. 1999. ISBN 0-203-20421-2〕 The Egyptologist Bob Brier has referred to the Narmer Palette as "the first historical document in the world".〔Brier, Bob. ''Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians'', A. Hoyt Hobbs 1999, p.202〕 The Palette, which has survived five millennia in almost perfect condition, was discovered by British archeologists James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green, in what they called the Main Deposit in the Temple of Horus at Nekhen, during the dig season of 1897–1898.〔http://www.ancient-egypt.org/kings/0101_narmer/palette.html The Ancient Egypt Site - The Narmer Palette, accessed September 19, 2007〕 Also found at this dig were the Narmer Macehead and the Scorpion Macehead. The exact place and circumstances of these finds were not recorded very clearly by Quibell and Green. In fact, Green's report placed the Palette in a different layer one or two yards away from the deposit, which is considered to be more accurate on the basis of the original excavation notes.〔Shaw, Ian. ''Exploring Ancient Egypt.'' p.33 Oxford University Press, 2003.〕 It has been suggested that these objects were royal donations made to the temple.〔Bard, Kathryn A. ''The Emergence of the Egyptian State'', in ''The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt.'' Ed. Ian Shaw, p.61. Oxford University Press, 2000〕 Nekhen, or Hierakonpolis, was the ancient capital of Upper Egypt during the pre-dynastic Naqada III phase of Egyptian history. Palettes were typically used for grinding cosmetics, but this palette is too large and heavy (and elaborate) to have been created for personal use and was probably a ritual or votive object, specifically made for donation to, or use in, a temple. One theory is that it was used to grind cosmetics to adorn the statues of the gods.〔Brier, Bob. ''Great Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt'', ''The Great Courses'' lecture series〕 The Narmer Palette is part of the permanent collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.〔Shaw, Ian. ''Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction.'' p.4. Oxford Press, 2004.〕 It is one of the initial exhibits which visitors have been able to see when entering the museum.〔 It has the ''Journal d'Entrée'' number JE32169 and the ''Catalogue Général'' number CG14716. ==Description== The Narmer Palette is a , shield-shaped, ceremonial palette, carved from a single piece of flat, soft dark gray-green siltstone. The stone has often been wrongly identified, in the past, as being slate or schist. Slate is layered and prone to flaking, and schist is a metamorphic rock containing large, randomly distributed mineral grains. Both are unlike the finely grained, hard, flake-resistant siltstone, whose source is from a well-attested quarry that has been used since pre-dynastic times at Wadi Hammamat.〔Shaw, Ian. ''Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction''. pp.44-45. Oxford University Press, 2004.〕 This material was used extensively during the pre-dynastic period for creating such palettes and also was used as a source for Old Kingdom statuary. A statue of the 2nd dynasty pharaoh Khasekhemwy, found in the same complex as the Narmer Palette at Hierakonpolis, also was made of this material.〔 Both sides of the Palette are decorated, carved in raised relief. At the top of both sides of the Palette are the central serekhs bearing the rebus symbols ''n'r'' (catfish) and ''mr'' (chisel) inside, being the phonetic representation of Narmer's name.〔Wengrow, David, ''The Archaeology of Ancient Egypt'' Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-83586-2 p.207 ()〕 The serekh on each side are flanked by a pair of bovine heads with highly curved horns, thought to represent the cow goddess Bat. She was the patron deity of the seventh nome of Upper Egypt and was also the deification of the cosmos within Egyptian mythology during the pre-dynastic and Old Kingdom periods of Ancient Egyptian history.〔Wilkinson, Richard H. ''The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt'', p.172 Thames & Hudson. 2003. ISBN 0-500-05120-8〕 The Palette shows the typical Egyptian convention for important figures in painting and reliefs of showing the striding legs and the head in profile, but the torso as from the front. The canon of body proportion based on the "fist", measured across the knuckles, with 18 fists from the ground to the hairline on the forehead is also already established.〔Smith, W. Stevenson, and Simpson, William Kelly. ''The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt'', pp. 12-13 and note 17, 3rd edn. 1998, Yale University Press (Penguin/Yale History of Art), ISBN 0300077475〕 Both conventions remained in use until at least the conquest by Alexander the Great some 3,000 years later. However the minor figures in active poses, such as the king's captive, the corpses and the handlers of the serpopard beasts, are much more freely depicted. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Narmer Palette」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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