Palette Of King Narmer

The Palette of King Narmer was discovered at the site of Hierakonpolis, buried in the early temple of the falcon god, Horus. The Palette is a large ceremonial object, and is one of the most important artifacts from the dawn of ancient Egyptian civilization (Calvert). The beautifully carved palette, which stands 63.5 cm in height and made of smooth greyish-green siltstone, which is like the smooth stone found on a river bottom, is decorated on both faces. These scenes show a king, Narmer, and a series of ambiguous scenes (Calvert).

Palettes were generally flat, minimally decorated stone objects used for grinding and mixing minerals for cosmetics. Basic cosmetic palettes were among the typical grave goods found during this early era. Even though there are functional palettes, there were also larger palettes made as well. These objects still served the function of being a ground for grinding and mixing cosmetics, but they were also carefully carved with relief sculpture. Studies suggest that these larger palettes were used in temple ceremonies, perhaps to grind or mix makeup to be ritually applied to the image of the god (Calvert).
It was found with other objects that had been used for ceremonial purposes and buried in the temple at Hierakonpolis, ritually. Temple caches of this type are not uncommon. There was a great deal of focus on ritual and offerings to the God in temples. People of power, and anyone else who could afford it, donated items to the temple to show their devotion and increase their connection to the deity. After a while, the space had to be cleared out for new objects for showing devotion, and since they had been presented as gifts, the old items that needed to be cleared out could not simply be thrown away or sold, so they came up with this idea to bury them in a pit under the temple floor