Narmers Palette :: essays research papers

As Egypt grew and flourished to a powerful and rich nation, itleft behind for todays historians, clues and artifacts of a at a timedistinctive, well established and structured society. Proof ofthis is clearly depicted in king Narmers Palette. This Paletteshows historians the unification of f number and Lower Egypt, whichsignified the beginnings of a civilised era centred around theNile. The unification of Egypt occurred around 3100 B.C., under theFirst Dynasty of Menes(3100-2850 B.C.). This age is commonly knowas the Protodynastic era, which is known for the establishment ofa firm governmental structure of the land which was unified in thehands of the king. The glorification of Lower and Upper Egyptuniting was portrayed in Narmers Palette, which was found in theancient southern capital of Hierakonpolis. The general function ofNarmers Palette was to commemorate a victory over his human foes. With Narmers victory, the Palette also depicts his successfulclaim and conquest of in al l of Egypt, thus establishing unificationof Lower and Upper Egypt under his rule. The dominant themhowever, is the victory of the god incarnate over the forces ofevil and chaos.The Narmer Palette, while depicting several fond aspects andtendencies of the Egyptian society, also reveals and emphasizestheir structured positions within a hierarchy of command. Bothsides of the Palette reveal, at the top, the name of king Narmer,which first documents, in the written accounting of Egypt, that we noware dealing with a civilized state. When the scribes wanted towrite king Narmers name, they placed a small fish called a narover a chisel, pronounced mer. This combination of the wordsgave them Narmer. The Palette also depicts king Narmer(probablythe legendary Menes) wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and theWhite Crown of Aphroditopolis, which represented Upper Egypt. Since Narmer had claimed victory over the northern king, thusbecoming the first Pharaoh, the unification of Egypt was comple ted. The reverse of the Palette portrays Narmer clubbing a foeman. Narmer is then followed by his foot-washer, which should be tellis shown on a smaller scale and standing on a separate registerline, as suited to his relative rank and position in Egyptshierarchy. Narmer stands before the supreme sky-god Horus, of whomNarmer is also an incarnation, represented as a falcon with a humanarm holding a papyrus thicket.On the obverse of this palette, Narmer inspects a battlefieldnear Buto, with several decapitated bodies of his foemen. Narmeris then preceded by his four standard-bearers and his priest. Themiddle register of this highly organized recording shows two long-