As Egypt grew and flourished to a powerful and rich nation, it left behind for today's historians, clues and artifacts of a once distinctive, well established and structured society. Proof of this is clearly depicted in king Narmer's Palette. This Palette shows historians the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, which signified the beginnings of a civilized era centred around the
Nile.
The unification of Egypt occurred around 3100 B.C., under the
First Dynasty of Menes(3100-2850 B.C.). This age is commonly know as the Protodynastic era, which is known for the establishment of a firm political structure of the land which was unified in the hands of the king. The glorification of Lower and Upper Egypt uniting was portrayed in Narmer's Palette, which was found in the ancient southern capital of Hierakonpolis. The general function of
Narmer's Palette was to commemorate a victory over his human foes.
With Narmer's victory, the Palette also depicts his successful claim and conquest of all of Egypt, thus establishing unification of Lower and Upper Egypt under his rule. The dominant them however, is the victory of the god incarnate over the forces of evil and chaos.
The Narmer Palette, while depicting several social aspects and tendencies of the Egyptian society, also reveals and emphasizes their structured positions within a hierarchy of command. Both sides of the Palette reveal, at the top, the name of king Narmer, which first documents, in the written history of Egypt, that we now are dealing with a civilized state. When the scribes wanted to write king Narmer's name, they placed a small fish called a 'nar' over a chisel, pronounced 'mer'. This combination of the words gave them 'Narmer'. The Palette also depicts king Narmer(probably the legendary Menes) wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and the
White Crown of Aphroditopolis, which represented Upper Egypt.
Since Narmer had claimed victory over the northern king, thus becoming the first Pharaoh, the unification of Egypt was completed.
The reverse of the Palette portrays Narmer clubbing a foeman.
Narmer is then followed by his foot-washer, which should be noted is shown on a smaller scale and standing on a separate register line, as suited to his relative rank and position in Egypt's hierarchy. Narmer stands before the supreme sky-god Horus, of whom
Narmer is also an incarnation, represented as a falcon with a human arm holding a papyrus thicket.
On the obverse of this palette, Narmer inspects a battlefield near Buto, with several decapitated bodies of his foemen. Narmer is then preceded by his four standard-bearers and his priest. The middle register of this highly organized recording shows two long-
These two statues are famous to the Egyptian art era. They represent the woman’s position and the man’s position at that day and age. Traditionally, the rulers of Egypt were male. So, when Hatshepsut, Dynasty 18, ca. 1473-1458 B.C., assumed the titles and functions of king she was portrayed in royal male costumes. Such representations were more for a political statement, rather than a reflection of the way she actually looked. In this sculpture, she sits upon a throne and wears the royal kilt and the striped nemes (NEM-iss) headdress with the uraeus (cobra) and is bare chested like a man. However, she does not wear the royal beard, and the proportions of her body are delicate and feminine.
Looking at this Palette, it isn’t hard to see how the old Egyptian subjects were so entranced by their leaders and how that compares to our modern viewpoints. Where we view politicians and leaders as a wiry group, always keeping an eye on them lest today be the day they raise their daggers against us, the ancient Egyptians saw their leaders as infallible, godlike beings to be trusted, obeyed, and adored. Standing just over 2 feet tall and 1.4 feet wide, this Palette was carved out of a majestic shade of grey-green siltstone, almost shield-like in appearance. Both sides are exquisitely carved out, each one uniquely decorated but both sides containing a central serekh used to identify and in this case even confirm the subject as royalty. This serekh contains the symbols n’r and mr, which as you may have noticed, phonetically spell Narmer. These symbols are surrounded by two bovine heads, which could either represent the Goddess Hathor or Bat. The front s...
‘The Hyksos forced Egyptian Pharaohs to look beyond their own borders, and involve themselves in the affairs and lives of their neighbor’s’ Through the notion of looking beyond their own borders, the necessity of constant battles was not only to expand but also protect Egypt’s borders, this eventually led to the image of the ‘Warrior Pharaoh’. Egypt became the pre-eminent power in the east due to talented civil, military and religious bureaucracies. The Hyksos ‘encouraged new nationalism and patriotism’ this could be seen through formation of administration, stable rule, gods and building externally while taking on board the establishment of the extensive diplomatic and trading contacts with the eastern Mediterranean region and Nubia. The economic influences created by the Hyksos include various influences that furthermore excelled New Kingdom Egypt to be a greater society. The ‘foreign rulers’ introduced olive and pomegranate trees as well as domesticated cattle to the agricultural practices to Egyptian society.
The Egyptian Palette of Narmer includes four different sections, it also includes many different figures, some human like and others are different combinations of various animals.
The two works of art that have been chosen to compare and contrast are The Palette Of Narmer and Apollo of Veii. The Palette Of Narmer dates back to the Hierakonpolis Dynasty 1 in 3100 BCE. The Palette of Narmer is interesting because it is the oldest historic work of art that names a person, and is the earliest piece of art that uses hieroglyph. This artwork depicts the dawn of a new age of man and his use of writing and pictographs in art. The statue of Apollo, from Veii comes from the Etruscan art period Apollo was created around 500 BCE. It was created by a very popular sculpture of his time, by the name of Vulca. The delicate technique of firing clay is fascinating. A sculptor of Vulca’s ability was required to know how to construct a large figure so that it did not fall under it’s own weight. He had to know how to precisely regulate the temperature of a kiln large enough to fit a statue of almost 6 ft tall, for a long period of time. The fact that to this day, Vulca is the only Etruscan Sculpture whose works of art have survived the test of time, show his genius in his creations.
The Palette of Narmer was created on a flat stone surface; the artists then carved the story into the flat stone in a very specific manor. This palette is known for representing the coming together of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt (Stokstad and Cothren, 52). At the top of the palette on both sides shows two bulls that were said to possibly represent the goddess Hathor. Hathor was known as the goddess of protection, and is depicted in other Egyptian art as a woman with cow ears (British Museum, no page). In between the heads of Hathor is the name of the King Narmer, written with iconography called serekh. In this serekh, one can see the Horus falcon head and below it is the name of the king. The falcon head is said to protect the Egyptian ruler (Kinnaer). Although this is just one small piece of the top of the palette, it already starts to depict an enormous part of history in Egypt.
One reason why I think Egypt was more unified, was the gift of the Nile. In my personal opinion people are products of their environment. The Nile, was one element that made living for a large population possible. The laid back atmosphere led the people to come together to create simple, but efficient ways of fertilizing the ground; furthermore, the fertile rich area allowed prosperity in crops and gave everyone piece of mind that they were not going to starve. (text, 73) On the other hand, Mesopotamia’s two rivers the Tigris and Euphrates, required people to create ways of irrigation to make the land more fertile for crops. (text, 59) The overall view of Mesopotamia’s greed arose from the possibility of loosing crops due to the floods. (text, 59) In other words, the land did not provide a great guara...
Although the portrait does not show a realistic representation of Wadj-shemsi-su himself, the Egyptians instead identified him with glyphs located on the back of the lid and concentrated on creating an idealistic image that symbolized the kingdom’s power. The lid functioned to protect the king’s mummified corpse, but the portrait itself functioned to symbolize the wealth of the kingdom through the figure’s powerful face, strong bone structure, and painted ornate
Egypt has one of the longest histories of any nation in the world. Written history of Egypt dates back to about 5,000 years, the commencement of civilization. While there is divergence in relation to Early Egyptian times, it is said that Egypt came to be around 3200 B.C., during the reign of a king by the name of Menes and unified the northern and southern cities of Egypt into one government. In 1675 B.C., Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos, people from the east, bringing along the very first of chariots and horses ever to come across Egyptian soil. Approximately 175 years later in 1500 B.C., the Egyptians had gotten rid of the Hyksos and driven them out. In 1375 B.C., Amenhotep IV had become the king of Egypt. During his reign he eliminated the worship of Egyptian gods and initiated the idea of only worshipping one god. But after his death, his ideas were retired and old ways were reestablished. Egyptian supremacy then started to decline around 1000 B.C. Between 1000 B.C. and 332 B.C., Egypt was ruled by many such as the Libyans, Assyrians, Ethiopians, and Persians. In 640, Muslims conquered Egypt and founded the city of Cairo in 969 and deemed it as the capital of Egypt. For many centuries Egypt was ruled by Muslim caliphs. A prominent ruler of this period was Saladin, who battled the Christian Crusaders at the conclusion of the twelfth century. In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt but was then forced to withdraw in 1801 Turkish and British armed forces. In 1805 Mohamed Ali began ruling Egypt till 1848 and great changed the country in terms of modernization and its military. During Mohamed’s conquest, he borrowed a lot of money from the French and British, which later resulted in Egypt’s coloniza...
The figures, both seated and standing are depicted according to traditional Egyptian conventions. Nebamun is painted as the largest figure in the painting because he is the most significant . He is standing in perfect balance with a youthful, well proportioned and defined body. The artist has painted Nebamun in a way that emphasises what the Egyptians believed to be the most important parts of a man’s body. Teeter expands upon this.
Finally, a man’s portrait in the bottom right of the painting. This painting is supposed to represent the biblical story, Noah’s Ark.
Another important aspect of the Narmer Palette are the carvings and what they symbolize. According to Dr. Amy Calvert, some have interpreted the battle scenes as a historical record of the initial unification of Egypt under one ruler, supported by the general timing, as this is the period of the unification, and the fact that Narmer sports the crown connected to Upper Egypt on one face of the palette and the crown of Lower Egypt on the other, this is the first preserved example where both crowns are used by the same ruler. Other theories suggest that, rather than an actual historical representation, these scenes were purely ceremonial and related to the concept of unification in general
Ancient Egypt, in the old kingdom of Egypt and the new Kingdom of Egypt exists two different types of portraits representing two royalty couples, from the old kingdom of Egypt there is the portrait of Menkaure and his wife khamerernebty. In the new kingdom of Egypt there is the portrait of Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, both differ in postures, proportions, size, and characteristics in the portrait itself, but both are originated from Egypt and Egypt’s royalty.
He was the first king that was ultimately given credit for bringing together the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt for the first time in Egyptian history. We were able to gain knowledge of the combination of the two kingdoms through what is known as Narmer’s Palette. Narmer’s Palette has two sides with one side depicting the Pharaoh of the White Crown of Upper Egypt defeating the army of the Lower Egypt. The other side of Narmer’s Palette represents the unification of Egypt as a whole with King Narmer wearing the Double Crown also known as the “Pshent” which was a combination of the White and Red Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. He was known as the ruler of the Early Dynastic Period and his unification gave rise to the 1st Dynasty of Kings in
“They are illustrations of Hunefer, a man of royalty in the 13th century who was being brought to the afterlife with The Book of the Dead. The Book of the Dead is portrayed as new chapter than pharaohs embarked on when they died. They would be mummified and given food, clothing, jewels, gold and other luxuries. Ceremonies would take place and rituals are performed to prepare the body.”