The Libyan Palette (also variously known as the City Palette,Lloyd 2010, p. 841. the Libyan Booty Palette, the Libyan Tribute Palette, the Siege Palette, the Tehenu- or Tjehenu Palette) is the surviving lower portion of a stone

cosmetic palette Cosmetic palettes are archaeological Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, originally used in predynastic Egypt, predynastic ancient Egypt, Egypt to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics. The decorative palettes of the late 4th mil ...

bearing carved decoration and hieroglyphic writing. It dates 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 ...

Protodynastic Period of Egypt Naqada III is the last phase of the Naqada culture of ancient 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 highly visible, ...

(c. 3200 to 3000 BC). The palette was found at

Abydos, Egypt Abydos ( or ; Sahidic ') is one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, and also of the Ta-wer, eighth Nome (Egypt), nome in Upper Egypt. It is located about west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10' N, near the modern Egyptian towns of El Araba ...

. The palette is made of

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...

and it is 19 cm long and 22 cm wide. Housed in Room 43 on the ground floor of the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

,Egyptian Museum Official website
Libyan Palette article
, accessed 8 June 2007. its Journal d'Entrée number is JE27434 and its Catalogue Général number is CG14238.

Content

Early character for Lybia on the Lybian Palette

On one side, there is a scene of walking lines of animals within registers.Stephan Seidlmayer 1998, p. 28.
, official website of The Grand Egyptian Museum Below these animals, an orchard with

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

trees is depicted, and the hieroglyphic inscription ' or ''tjehenw'' (usually transcribed as ''tehenu''), most likely a toponym of Western

Nile Delta The Nile Delta (, or simply , ) is the River delta, delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's larger deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the eas ...

or, according to most scholars, what was later associated with

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

. The character consists of a throwing stick on top of an oval, meaning "region", "place", "island", a toponym of Libya or Western Delta pronounced ''THnw'', ''Tjehenw''. The opposite side of the Libyan Palette shows the feet of some persons above a register line. Under the register, seven fortified towns are depicted, with the name of each town written within the wall. Above each town, an animal grasps its wall with the ''mr'' (hoe) hieroglyph. Günter Dreyer has interpreted this scene as a scene of destruction and the animals, or animal standards, as royal names.Wilkinson 1999, p. 42. However, other scholars have suggested that the animals represent royal armies or symbols. Another completely different interpretation is that the scene represents the foundation of these cities.Abeer El-Shahawy 2010, p. 20.

References

Sources

* Abeer El-Shahawy.
The Egyptian Museum in Cairo
'' (American University in Cairo Press 2005), * Lloyd, Alan B. ''A Companion to Ancient Egypt'', vol.1, (Blackwell 2010), * Seidlmayer, Stephan. ''Egypt: The World of the Phaaohs,'' Editors: Regine Schulz, Matthias Seidel, (Könemann, 1998), *Wilkinson, Toby. ''Early Dynastic Egypt'', (Routledge, 1999), {{ISBN, 0-415-18633-1

External links

The Libyan Palette
(includes zoomable multimedia images of the palette's front and back, in a pop-up window).
Back view of the palette
(official website of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo)

(includes a bibliography of Egyptological papers which refer to the palette) 4th-millennium BC works Ancient Egyptian palettes Egyptian Museum Naqada III Abydos, Egypt Archaeological discoveries in Egypt

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See also

References

Sources

External links