Cosmetics and Ritual: The Palette of King Narmer and The Unification of Egypt
Although there were many palettes discovered by archaeologists from the Predynastic and Early Dynastic period of ancient Egypt that were the use of mixing cosmetic powders, one found in Hierkonopolis in Tomb 100 stands as more of a ritual object.The Palette of King Narmer, the first king to rule in Dynasty One and the first king to unite Upper and Lower Egypt, is a highly decorated palette of raised relief and was seen more than just for the sake of protecting the eyes and face with make-up.
Front side of the palette
Although it is still debated, the side with the area for the make-up has been said to be the back side of the pallet. In looking at the front side, it is divided into three registers, which in art are spaces in a work that section off certain content of a work. At the very top, the name of King Narmer is written at the top on both sides, enclosed in a square that is patterned in its lower half. The name itself is written in two hieroglyphs, a catfish and a chisel, which together would literally spell out the name 'Narmer'. The king's name is in the form of a serekh used by kings to contain their Horus name, one of the five royal names a king is given. The equation of the top of the palette with the sky is reinforced by the two full-view faces with cow's ears and horns, for the sky goddesses could be envisaged as a cow (the goddess Hathor).
The biggest register on the palette illustrates the king being the dominating figure and the largest (which is called hierarchical scale). Narmer is wearing the white crown of Lower Egypt, standing with one arm raised, holding a mace, while the other hand he grasps the hair of a kneeling prisoner, which is called the smiting position, a stance that will be the standard of kingship in ancient Egyptian iconography for thousands of years to come.
To the upper right of the register is a falcon perched on one leg, its talons are grasping a clump of papyrus that grows out of a strip of land terminating in a head. The other leg, ending in a human hand, grasps a rope attached to the nose. The papyrus reed, which grew in the Delta, became the representation of the plant of the north. The head growing out of the land represents the Delta population. The group demonstrates the falcon god dominating the inhabitants of the land where the papyrus grown, the subjugation made explicit by the rope attached to the head and held by the falcon. Behind the king is a much smaller figure on its own baseline, carrying the king’s sandals. The person represented here indicates that he must have been of high rank. Two fallen enemies; shown naked (humiliate opponents); positioned below the register containing the king, these enemies are visually placed beneath his feet.
Back side of the palette
The back side of the famous Narmer palette has four different registers. The very top one is identical to the front side. The figure of the king does not immediately dominate, but his size clearly shows him to be the most important figure in the upper register, where he views two rows of enemy bodies that have been decapitated and their heads placed between their legs. He is again accompanied by his sandal-bearer, and also by another figure wearing long hair and an animal skin. Identified by two hieroglyphs as tjet. Four even smaller standards topped with different emblems.
The central register, and the register containing the circle for the eye makeup, illustrates a symmetrical group of two opposing animals with long neck twisted round one another, each controlled by a rope around it’s neck that is held by a male figure. Similar pairs of animals appear on contemporary Mesopotamian and Iranian cylinder seals and may have influenced the Egyptian composition. The symmetry and balance of the composition and the subjugation of mythical animals that perhaps represent the forces of chaos probably symbolize the order of the cosmos that it is the king’s duty to maintain. The very bottom register of the back side of the pallet shows the king, now in the form of a bull, attacks a walled and fortified town, only part of whose perimeter is shown, and tramples on the naked body of one of his inhabitants. The identification of the king with a bull was to remain a constant theme, and can be seen much later in the Horus names of New Kingdom kings, most of which begin ‘strong bull’.
The Palette of King Narmer is an extraordinary find, not just in its design and iconography, but it also gave archaeologists insight into the first king that united Upper and Lower Egypt. I myself am fascinated with the concept of eye make-up in ancient Egypt, but even I have to know that this palette was created for more than just grinding make-up.
The Narmer Palette can be seen on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt.