The Battlefield Palette is the earliest "battle scene" representation of the dozen or more "ceremonial" or "ornamental" cosmetic palette

Cosmetic palette

The cosmetic palettes of middle to late predynastic Egypt are archaeological artifacts, originally used to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics. The decorative palettes of the late 4th millennium BCE appear to have lost this function and became commemorative, ornamental, and...

s of ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

. Along with the others in this series of palettes, including the Narmer Palette

Narmer Palette

The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great ierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC, containing some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. It is thought by some to depict the unification of...

, it includes some of the first representations of the figures, or glyphs, that became Egyptian

Egyptian language

Egyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...

 hieroglyph

Egyptian hieroglyphs

Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...

s. Most notable on the Battlefield Palette is the standard (iat hieroglyph), and Man-prisoner (hieroglyph)

Man-prisoner (hieroglyph)

The ancient Egyptian Man-prisoner is one of the oldest hieroglyphs from Ancient Egypt. An iconographic portrayal from predynastic Egypt eventually led to its incorporation into the Egyptian language...

, probably the forerunner that gave rise to the concept of the Nine Bows

Nine bows

The nine bows is a term used in Ancient Egypt to represent the traditional enemies of Egypt. The peoples covered by this term changed over time, as enemies changed, and there is no true list of the nine bows...

 (representation of foreign tribal enemies).

The palettes probably date mostly from the Naqada III

Naqada III

Naqada III is the last phase of the Naqada culture of ancient Egyptian prehistory, dating approximately from 3200 to 3000 BC. It is the period during which the process of state formation, which had begun to take place in Naqada II, became highly visible, with named kings heading powerful...

 or Protodynastic Period of Egypt (circa ~3500 to 3000 BC). The two major pieces of the Battlefield Palette are held by the British

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 and Ashmolean Museum

Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...

s.

The Battlefield Palette, two fragments

The Battlefield Palette obverse contains the circular defined area for the mixing of a 'cosmetic'; the archaeological forerunner palettes, the Rhomboidal palettes, were without circular-defined mixing regions. It contains the battlefield

Battlefield

A battlefield refers to the location of a battle.Battlefield may also refer to:-In music:*"Battlefield", a song by Diana Ross from her 1991 album The Force Behind the Power* Battlefield Band, a Scottish traditional music group...

 scene, and forerunners of hieroglyphs: prisoner, tribal-territory wooden standard, the horus-falcon bird-resting on standard, and the ibis bird-(resting on standard). The fractured lower half of the prisoner on the obverse right may have a hieroglyph at his front-(the rectangle, as rounded for land) with suspected papyrus plants attached on top.

The reverse of the palette has dramatically stylized versions of a 'bird', two "antelope-like" mammals, and a vertical 'palm-tree' trunk and partial top with fruits, and short horizontal palm fronds.

See also

• Narmer Palette
  Narmer Palette
  The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great ierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC, containing some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. It is thought by some to depict the unification of...
  
  
• Cosmetic palette
  Cosmetic palette
  The cosmetic palettes of middle to late predynastic Egypt are archaeological artifacts, originally used to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics. The decorative palettes of the late 4th millennium BCE appear to have lost this function and became commemorative, ornamental, and...
  
  

External links

• Battlefield Palette: Obverse and Reverse
• 3rd fragment, and other Ancient Egypt palettes
• Front: the 2-joined pieces
• Part with "antilop like" an antilop...or a lama?

Palette reverse

• Photo and graphic of 3rd piece; Article, front side graphic, and Synoptic analysis of Battlefield Palette

British Museum site

• Battlefield Palette, British Museum