The Hunters Palette or Lion Hunt Palette is a circa 3100 BCE

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 ...

from the

Naqada III 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, ...

period of late prehistoric Egypt. 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 the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

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 solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The ge ...

s, and

gazelle A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . This article also deals with the seven species included in two further genera, '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third ...

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 elastic launching device (bow) and long-shafted projectiles ( arrows). Humans used bows and arrows for hunting and aggression long before recorded history, and the practice was comm ...

, 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 ja ...

s, flint knives, and

spear A spear is a pole weapon 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 hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...

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

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External links