Hunters Palette

Hunters Palette

Hunters Palette with pieces connected
Material	schist
Size	c. 66 cm x 26 cm
Created	31st century BC (circa)
Present location	British Museum, Louvre
Identification	British Museum, EA 20790, EA 20792, Louvre E 11254

The Hunters Palette or Lion Hunt Palette is a circa 3100 BCE cosmetic palette from the Naqada III 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 Hunters Palette shows a complex iconography of lion hunting as well as the hunt of other animals such as birds, desert hares, and gazelle types; one gazelle is being contained by a rope. The weapons used in the twenty-man hunt are the bow and arrow, mace, throwing sticks, and spears. Two icongraphic conjoined bull-forefronts adorn the upper right alongside a hieroglyphic-like symbol similar to the "shrine" hieroglyph, sḥ.

Louvre fragment showing various weapons

Hunters Palette, details, especially a lion's body with arrows.