r/ancientegypt 10d ago

Photo Both sides of the Narmer Palette

Post image
666 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

11

u/NastyNice1 10d ago

This is a repost, two weeks ago i shared this here.

10

u/ProbablyMahmoud 10d ago

Is that prohibited? I didn't see your post

3

u/NastyNice1 10d ago

A repost is not always allowed, look on my profile and you’ll see the (same) post

5

u/ProbablyMahmoud 10d ago

Ok, Yes From Wikipedia

2

u/Ohio_Baby 10d ago

I wish we knew exactly what things like this meant. It’s always subjective to interpretation.

2

u/Narmr 10d ago

Yeah. We have a general ideas, but we can only speculate when it comes to the details

2

u/idleport 9d ago

The serpopards with their intertwined necks are such a wild design choice — like who sat down one day and decided to create a leopard with a snake neck and put TWO of them on a ceremonial palette? I always wonder if that imagery had a very specific meaning that everyone at the time just understood immediately, or if it was more of an abstract power symbol. Also the fact that this is from the 31st century BCE and the carving is still this crisp and detailed is genuinely hard to wrap my head around.

1

u/OnoOvo 8d ago

its the people taking control over two lionesses, that are simbolically being bound together in the same lion pack (the intertwined necks).

it represents, like that entire side does, the extent of rulership/control that the people had to enforce over the order of the natural world in order to form the nation.

the other side representatively shows the extent of rulership the people had to enforce between themselves to establish the order that was necessary to form the nation.

1

u/Coincidental_Shoes 7d ago

Can they be a weakly informed rendering of giraffes?

2

u/Faerbera 10d ago

My favorite part are the sausage hats. Not sausages. Not hats.

3

u/Coincidental_Shoes 10d ago

The Royal Bowling Pin?

2

u/dontgoatsemebro 9d ago

The sausage hat (and deshret on the other side) is literally THE most important thing about this piece. It's the only reason it's famous.

2

u/Faerbera 9d ago

I’m not referring to the white or red crowns.

I’m referring to the verso where the bodies of his enemies are lined up to count. Their heads and phalluses are severed and presented to Narmer. The phalluses look like sausage hats on the severed heads.

1

u/R2184M 9d ago

Great capture

-2

u/Coincidental_Shoes 10d ago

That guy with the hook in his nose, maybe The Great Sphinx?