Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

their original appearance. The paintings formed a frieze running
around three adjacent walls of the tomb and represented what seems
to be, at least in part, a funerary scene with people, animals, and large
boats. The stick figures and their apparently random arrangement re-
call the Neolithic painted hunters (FIG. 1-17) of Çatal Höyük. One
black and five white boats, symbolic of the journey down the river of
life and death, carry cargo of uncertain significance. The figures in-
clude a heraldic grouping of two animals flanking a human figure (at
the lower left) and a man striking three prisoners with a mace (lower
left corner). The heraldic group, a compositional type usually associ-
ated with Mesopotamian art (FIG. 2-10,right), suggests that influ-
ences from Mesopotamia not only had reached Egypt by this time but

also already had made the thousand-mile journey up the Nile. The

second group, however, is characteristically Egyptian, and the motif

was to have a long history in Egyptian painting and sculpture alike.

PALETTE OF KING NARMER The Predynastic period ended

with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, which until re-

cently scholars thought occurred during the rule of the First Dy-

nasty pharaoh Menes, identified by many Egyptologists with King

Narmer. Narmer’s image and name appear on both sides of a cere-

monial palette (stone slab with a circular depression) found at Hier-

akonpolis. The palette (FIG. 3-3) is one of the earliest historical (ver-

sus prehistorical) artworks preserved, but Egyptologists still debate

The Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods 55

3-2People, boats, and animals,

detail of a watercolor copy of a

wall painting from tomb 100 at

Hierakonpolis, Egypt, Predynastic,

ca. 3500–3200 bce.Paint on

plaster, entire painting 16 4 

3  73 – 8 . Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

The oldest Egyptian mural

painting depicts boats, a heraldic

group of a human and animals,

and a man striking prisoners.

The random arrangement of the

motifs is characteristic of

Neolithic painting.

1 ft.

3-3Palette of King

Narmer (left,back;

right,front), from

Hierakonpolis, Egypt,

Predynastic, ca.

3000–2920 bce.Slate,

2  1 high. Egyptian

Museum, Cairo.

These earliest preserved

labeled historical reliefs

commemorate the

unification of Upper and

Lower Egypt. Narmer,

the largest figure, effort-

lessly defeats a foe on

one side, and on the

other surveys the

beheaded enemy.

1 in.