then (Hartung 1998 ; Hill 2004 ). These sealings were all made in local Nile mud and
incorporated distinctively Egyptian imagery. Thus, like the wavy-handled pottery, an
import was quickly appropriated to convey manifestly Egyptian concepts.
MOTIFSSuch foreign cylinder seals may have been the medium for the transmission of Near
Eastern glyptic art (Amiet 1980 ), another category of import that has long been
recognised. However, the imported examples in Egypt, like those at Naqada, all carry
schematic rather than figurative designs. It is possible, however, that figural seals were
also introduced into Egypt as even in Mesopotamia there are few protoliterate figural
seals known outside of Uruk (Pittman 1996 : 16 ). It is also conceivable that seal impres-
sions themselves may have made it to Egypt.
The range of motifs adopted was selective and only a handful are recognised
including: felines with long necks, the winged griffin, the master of beasts, snakes
twisted around rosettes and animals in procession and in human attitudes. They were
not incorporated into an Egyptian glyptic, but translated into relief carvings on
characteristically Egyptian ceremonial objects such as knife handles, like the Gebel el-
Arak knife, and palettes of the latter part of the fourth millennium (Asselberghs 1961 :
pls. 43 – 52 , 122 – 23 , 127 – 28 , 151 , 168 – 169 ; Boehmer 1974 b). Just a single motif has been
found fixed in its original context, painted on the wall of the only known decorated
tomb from the entire Predynastic period. Dated to Naqada IIC, Hierakonpolis tomb
100 is one of the largest known burials of the era (Kemp 1973 ; Quibell and Green 1902 ).
Across the white mud-plastered background of the subterranean chamber were images
of animals, boats and humans in combat. In the midst of this scene is a motif more
familiar from round button seals and impressions from Susa than anything in the
Egyptian repertoire; that of the hero/ruler as master of animals (Amiet 1980 ; Smith
1992 ). At Hierakonpolis the figure holds back two opposing feline creatures (Figure
32. 1 ), perhaps lions, and it represents the earliest borrowed design in Egyptian art.
It is certainly lions that are featured on the Gebel el-Arak knife handle. So striking is
this image that it has been suggested that it forms evidence for the presence of
Mesopotamian craftsmen in Egypt (Sievertsen 1992 : 58 ; Trigger 1993 : 39 – 40 ). Yet given
the occurrence of lapis and cylinder seals in Egypt, it is clear that objects were entangled
within wider currents of material circulation that could easily have brought images to
Egypt, not necessarily itinerant craftsmen.
Such knives tend to date to Naqada IIC/IID, but as luxury artefacts they may have
been in circulation for generations before being reworked to accommodate decorated
handles. Most known examples have appeared on the art market without provenance,
leaving assessments reliant upon art historical parallels that generally placed the
carvings in Naqada III. Recent finds of seven similar ivory handles in the elite cemetery
U at Abydos, however, have provided Naqada IID contexts (Dreyer 1999 ). Glyptic
images are less apparent on the ceremonial palettes. Plain siltstone palettes were
relatively common throughout the Predynastic and were used as a surface on which to
grind cosmetic pigments. Towards the end of the fourth millennium BCthese were
appropriated by the elite as a vehicle for conveying the ideology of kingship and
incorporated some foreign elements to this end. The most prominent example, two
felines with long entwined necks, appears on the famous Narmer palette.
–– Egypt and Mesopotamia ––