Fish-shaped kohol palette-E 22731-Egypte louvre 311

The fish palettes of

predynastic Egypt Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt span the period from the earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period around 3100 BC, starting with the first Pharaoh, Narmer for some Egyptologists, Hor-Aha for others, with th ...

are one of the common types of

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 mill ...

s, or more specifically

zoomorphic palette The zoomorphic palette is a type of cosmetic palette made during the predynastic period of Egypt. The palettes are found at burial sites, for example Abydos in the second half of the 4th millennium BC. Overview The term ''zoomorphic'', or anim ...

s, which are shaped in the form of the animal portrayed. The fish palettes are mostly ovoid in shape. The palettes are made mostly of

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from '' shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology. ...

, etc.

Description

The oldest cosmetic palettes from the Badarian, or

Naqada I Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic language: ; Ancient Greek: ) is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It includes the villages of Toukh, Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq, and Zawayda. ...

period are less adorned than later versions; also some gradation of ornateness should be considered for graves and tombs of less high-status individuals being interred, as these were common forms of

grave goods Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a ...

during the Naqada periods.

Most of the ovoid shaped fish were like the hieroglyphs later used, the Bulti Fish-(

Gardiner's Sign List Gardiner's Sign List is a list of common Egyptian hieroglyphs compiled by Sir Alan Gardiner. It is considered a standard reference in the study of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Gardiner lists only the common forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but h ...

) K1, '' Tilapia nilotica'', K1, or a very ovoid form of the hieroglyph K5, K5.

Example fish palettes

Bulti fish, NCMA

The

North Carolina Museum of Art The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. It opened in 1956 as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding. Since the initial 1947 appropriation that e ...

has a Bulti-fish palette, greywacke, with dimensions about 5 x 3.25 in. It is smaller than the large palettes, but has fins portrayed on the dorsal, tail, and pectoral fins, front and rear. The mouth is formed, and there is a suspension hole.

Bulti palette, Adaima Tomb S218

A 19 cm (7 in) long Bulti-fish type palette was found at Adaima, Egypt, Tomb S218. It is probably Naqada I, has a simple, truncated height dorsal fin, but is of the extended body length, as in the Bulti fish. It has a very simple stub of a tail fin, no fins incised, and 3 lines each for forward, and rear pectoral fins. Two forward arced lines form

gill slit Gill slits are individual openings to gills, i.e., multiple gill arches, which lack a single outer cover. Such gills are characteristic of cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays, as well as deep-branching vertebrates such as lampreys. In con ...

s, and a yellowish eye is made with inlay.

Louvre dolphin type

The Louvre dolphin type fish palette is a

Naqada Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic language: ; Ancient Greek: ) is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It includes the villages of Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq, and Zawayda. Accordi ...

I, or II palette. It has simple fish fin grooves on its tail, and its dorsal fin, towards the rear. The palette has an inlaid white eye, (often of shell). Because of its extended length, it contains three suspension holes.

Vienna fish palette

The fish palette at the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...

, Vienna, is more ornate than common fish palettes. It is a Bulti-fish type, and notable for a large cosmetic ''mixing circle'' adorning the center of the fish (photo

.Wien Fish-shaped palette, (''rope mixing circle'')
/ref> Other small animals are inscribed on the fish body in low

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

, a fish, a duck with two ducklings, a

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...

, and a 2nd bird.

References

External links

North Carolina Museum of Art fish palette-(Bulti-type)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fish Cosmetic Palette Ancient Egyptian palettes Badarian culture Amratian culture Fish in art