List of ancient Egyptian palettes

A list of a small subset^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] 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)

Battlefield Palette
"Two-bird heads
palette (Brooklyn)"^[5]
"Bird palette (Louvre no XXX)"
(bird-resting, on its feet)^[6]
Double-Bird Palette, ("Anchor Palette")
Bull Palette
El Ahaiwah Dog Palette
Four Dogs Palette, Giraffes Palette
Oxford Palette
Minor Hierakonpolis Dogs Palette
"Fish palette (Louvre dolphin type)"^[7]
New Kingdom: Fish-shaped palette-(Bulti-hieroglyph type); Adorned fish side/ with cosmetic side for daily use.^[8]

Gerzeh Palette
Barbary Goat Palette
Trussed-Goose Palette
Guinea Fowl Palette
Hunters Palette
"Ka Palette (no. 1)"
"Ka Palette (no. 2)"
Libyan Palette
Manshiyat Ezzat Palette
Min Antelope Palette
Min Palette
Narmer Palette
"Turtle palette (no. 1)"-(Louvre)
(See zoomorphic palette)
Turtle Palette no. 2^[9]

List of ancient Egyptian Predynastic palettes

Name	Dimensions	Image	Location	Notes + Topic
Battlefield Palette Vultures Palette, etc.	Full Height? 50 x 32 cm-(?) (20 x 13 in)		British Museum	Side A: war; Side B: peace ('Order vs Chaos')
Bull Palette	–		Louvre
Gerzeh Palette	–	Gerzeh palette	Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Hunters Palette	30.5 x 15 cm (12 x 6 in)		British Museum	(smaller fragment in Louvre)
Libyan Palette	(original, approximated: 70 x 25 cm) (ht x width)		Egyptian Museum, Cairo	(surviving dimensions: ~18.5 x ~21 cm, (7 x 8 in)) (ht x width)
Min Palette El Amrah Palette	–
Narmer Palette Great Hierakonpolis Palette	64 x 42 cm (25 x 17 in)		Egyptian Museum in Cairo^[10]	Unification of Southern Egypt, Delta Egypt, (Upper and Lower Egypt)

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

Image

Location

<-->
Form

Notes + Topic

"Two-bird heads
palette (Brooklyn)"^[11]

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)

Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Unification of Southern Egypt, Delta Egypt, (Upper and Lower Egypt)

Oxford Palette
Minor Hierakonpolis Dogs Palette
"Ashmolean Palette"
"Two Dog Palette"^[12]

42 x 22 cm
(17 x 9 in)

Ashmolean Museum, no. E3294

greywacke, ca. 3150 BC
two serpopards, necks framing a mixing circle, and necks in wave-motion-(3-cycles); both serpopards are licking a gazelle, (as a newborn, or young)^[13]

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)^[14]

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^[15]
{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)"^[16]

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^[17]

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)^[18]

"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
Plover palette

References

^ Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), 1853-1942. (1920). Prehistoric Egypt illustrated by over 1,000 objects in University college, London. British School of Archaeology in Egypt. OCLC 603232901.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ Ciałowicz, Krzysztof, M. (1991). Les palettes égyptiennes aux motifs zoomorphes et sans dećoration : études de l'art pred́ynastique. Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński. ISBN 8323304963. OCLC 38471972.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), 1853-1942. (1921). Corpus of prehistoric pottery and palettes. British school of archaeology in Egypt. OCLC 603232953.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ Patenaude, Julie. (2011). A catalogue of Egyptian cosmetic palettes in the Manchester University Museum collection. Shaw, Garry J. [London]: Golden House Publications. ISBN 9781906137205. OCLC 791471887.
^ 2-Bird-heads Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [1]
^ Wikimedia Commons: Bird-resting, (on its feet)
^ Wikimedia Commons: Fish, (dolphin-type), Louvre
^ Vicroria Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Bulti Fish-shaped cosmetic palette, "Museum Gustavianum - the Victoria Museum of Egyptian Antiquities". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
^ Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Turtle Palette, (circular, small appendages) p 18.
^ "Museum of Antiquities | Narmer Palette (Egyptian)". www.usask.ca. Archived from the original on 2010-02-28.
^ 2-Bird-heads Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [2]
^ Patch, Diana (29 May 2012). Dawn of Egyptian Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 139. ISBN 978-0300179521. Retrieved 2014-05-24.
^ Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, "Ceremonial palette, Hierakonpolis", p 27.
^ Schulz, Seidel, Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Chapter 1, Egypt's Path to Advanced Civilization, p. 18, 3 palettes of: 1-elephant, 2-hippopotamus, 3-turtle.
^ Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs, Turtle Palette, (circular, small appendages) p 18.
^ 2-Bird-heads Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [3]
^ Guinea Fowl Palette, Egyptian Galleries,, 3rd floor, Brooklyn Museum [4]
^ Wikimedia Commons, Hotep offering tables

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).