The Hunters Palette or Lion Hunt Palette is a cosmetic palette from the

Naqada III Naqada III is the last phase of the Naqada culture of ancient Prehistoric Egypt, Egyptian prehistory, dating from approximately 3200 to 3000 BC. It is the period during which the process of state formation, which began in Naqada II, became ...

period of late

prehistoric Egypt Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt was the period of time starting at the first human settlement and ending at the First Dynasty of Egypt around 3100 BC. At the end of prehistory, "Predynastic Egypt" is traditionally defined as the period ...

. The palette is broken: part is held by the British Museum and part is in the collection of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

Content

The Hunters Palette shows a complex

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

lion hunting Lion hunting is the act of hunting lions. Lions have been hunted since antiquity. History Ancient Egypt In Ancient Egypt, lion hunts were usually reserved for pharaohs. These hunts nearly resulted in the extinction of the local lion populatio ...

as well as the hunt of other animals such as birds, desert

hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores and live Solitary animal, solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are precociality, able to fend for themselves ...

s, and

gazelle A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . There are also seven species included in two further genera; '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third former subgenus, ' ...

types; one gazelle is being contained by a rope. The weapons used in the twenty-man hunt are the

bow and arrow The bow and arrow is a ranged weapon system consisting of an elasticity (physics), elastic launching device (bow) and long-shafted projectiles (arrows). Humans used bows and arrows for hunting and aggression long before recorded history, and the ...

, mace,

throwing stick The throwing stick or throwing club is a wooden rod with either a pointed tip or a spearhead attached to one end, intended for use as a weapon. A throwing stick can be either straight or roughly boomerang-shaped, and is much shorter than the jav ...

s, flint knives, and

spear A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable materia ...

s. Two iconographic conjoined bull-forefronts adorn the upper right alongside a hieroglyphic-like symbol similar to the "shrine" hieroglyph, ''sḥ''. O21

Details

File:Egypte louvre 321.jpg, Louvre fragment showing various weapons File:Hunter's Palette.jpg, Hunters Palette, details, especially a lion's body with arrows. Predynastic Hunters (Egypte louvre 321, cropped).jpg, Hunters detail Hunterspalette1.png, Drawing of a hunter. Image from page 217 of "Osiris and the Egyptian resurrection;" (1911).jpg, Drawing of a hunter. Image from page 217 of "Osiris and the Egyptian resurrection;" (1911) - 14743676766.jpg, Drawing of a hunter. Image from page 217 of "Osiris and the Egyptian resurrection;" (1911) - 14764324954.jpg, Drawing of a hunter.

References

External links

British Museum page on the Palettethe Louvre fragment
{{Louvre Museum 4th-millennium BC works Ancient Egyptian palettes Ancient Egyptian objects in the British Museum Birds in art Mammals in art Rabbits and hares in art Lions in art Naqada III

Content

Details

See also

References

External links