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Due to its age, its complex and ambiguous iconography, the Narmer Palette stands out as the most famous and most discussed early Egyptian artifact. Theories about the meaning of the events (real, commemorative, expressing kingly aspirations etc.) depicted in the palette abound, and so far no single theory has universally been accepted by scholars.
On the top of the palette King Narmer’s name nar-mr is in the middle,
inside a serekh srx ,^1 the latter symbolizing an early style palace with niched façade. The serekh name thus composed is the oldest of the five-fold royal titulary. The royal falcon Horus is usually perched on the top but here it is missing.
The name itself is made up by the Old Egyptian ideogram nar catfish
and the chisel biliteral , the latter having two phonetic values: Ab and mr. In other artifacts, this second part has often been suppressed in writing. Narmer’s name has sometimes been translated as ‘fighting catfish’ and indeed, in some artifacts, the catfish is depicted as an aggressive and controlling animal. 2 As noted by Wilkinson,^3 the name itself does not have ‘grammatical sense’ at least not the way other ancient Egyptian names do. The two bovines (also appearing in four copies directly below the king’s belt on the reverse face) represent the cow-goddess Bat (the feminine of bA spirit ), the patron deity of the upper Egyptian 7 th^ nome (around the present-day Nag
(^1) Lit. cause/make to know with the causative of the verb rx know. (^2) For example an ivory label depicting the catfish itself in the smiting an enemy pose. (^3) JEA, 81 (1995), pp. 205-210.
underneath is subject to interpretation (possibly a citadel). As for the royal
attendant, Tt may be his name, or most likely, his title, an early phonetic
writing of T(A)t(i) vizier. On the other hand, Wilkinson 9 reads Tt as an abbreviated writing (w)Tt(w) offspring (with the weak consonant w suppressed twice) and conjectures this person to be Narmer’s oldest son. (At close inspection, the age difference between the king and the attendant is visible.)
(^9) Op. cit.
The four standard bearers may be chiefs (or personifications) of four nomes. The nomes are not in the later nome-list but one clearly recognizes the gods Wepwawet and Horus. According to another interpretation (and based on analogy with a fragment found in the Abu Gurab sun temple) the standard bearers are the so-called ‘Followers-of-Horus, the gods, the souls of Pe,’ the
followers of Lower Egypt’s ancestral kings. ( p Pe is one of the twin-cities of Buto, Lower Egypt.) In any case, the whole procession is seemingly
coming out of a building (possibly a palace) called DbA.^10
(^10) Interestingly DbAw means crowning and DbAw altars.
matches with the scene in that Narmer is personifying the sun-god Re in defeating his enemies at night. The center hole of the picture is to grind malachite or galena for face paint (in fact, in some other palettes there are remnants of green powder). The eye– paint was believed to protect against sun-glare and also believed to have the power of maintaining healthy eyesight. The Mesopotamian style mythical animals (serpopards) whose intertwined necks form the hole are restrained by two attendants whose heads are identical to that of the king, an imagery clearly depicting the king’s subjugating power.
The bottom register once again shows the king as a strong bull with lowered head. This and the associated phrase kA nxt strong, mighty bull is a typical later epithet for the king. The bull smashes through the gate of a
fortification 17 and tramples over a prostrated dead enemy. The iconography portraying Narmer as a ferocious animal reflects back to late Predynastic Period in contrast with the “smiting the enemy pose” in the reverse face characteristic to later times.
The top of the reverse face of the palette is identical with that of the obverse face. In the central scene the king himself is in a typical smiting the enemy pose wearing Upper Egypt’s White Crown.
(^17) This sign also appears in King Den’s Royal Jubilee Label.
Once again, following Goebs, 18 the white crown represents ‘the full daytime sun’ as well as the moon and the stars. Behind him is again the faithful royal sandal bearer already mentioned.
The name of the kneeling figure may be waS , a chief of the Delta. Following O’Connor’s view that the Narmer Palette depicts symbolic events, however, it is more likely that these signs stand for wa the sole one, unique (the sign being carved identically with the one under Horus on the obverse face) and S(i) watery area referring to the Delta. This view is further emphasized by the scene in front of the king in which
Horus restrains a captive’s head by holding a cord. Once again the
(^18) Op. cit.
