Min Palette

The Min Palette, or El Amrah Palette is an ancient Egyptian cosmetic palette from El-Amrah, Egypt (for the Amratian Period), found in Naqada, tomb B62. It is held in the British Museum, no. 35501.[1]

For the Ancient Egyptian god Min, see Min (god).
Mudstone Min palette with hieroglyphs in relief. Late Predynastic, Naqada III. 3250-3100 BC. From El-Amra. The exact meaning of there early signs is unclear. The horizontal sign resembles that later used to write the name of the god Min.

Description

The Min Palette is a flat slate palette, unadorned, with no iconographic scenes.

Two topics are displayed on the palette. The Symbol of Min, a compound-type hieroglyph arrangement, is centered at the top of the palette, and comprises 1/4 of the palette's front. The other motifs are opposed-facing bird heads on each top corner; the heads are small, with a thin neck, about a tenth the height of the palette, and the right head is damaged.

A small suspension hole is centered on the palette's top.

Min's emblem
The Emblem of Min on the palette is a typographic ligature of two Egyptian hieroglyphs–
R23
and
S39
. The later horizontal form of the Min symbol (hieroglyph), (consisting of two opposing-faced arrows), is shown in an archaic form. Centered vertically overlaying the Min hieroglyph is a vertical "crook" or staff, the version of the 'straight staff', [2] (see Crook-staff (Luwian hieroglyph)).

See also

References
  1. Corpus of Ancient Egyptian palettes, Min Palette, Naqada IId;
  2. Betro. Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt, p 211, "Min's emblem on a cosmetic palette."

Further reading
  • Betrò, Maria Carmela. Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt, c. 1995, 1996-(English), Abbeville Press Publishers, New York, London, Paris (hardcover, ISBN 0-7892-0232-8)
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