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Large Palette with Two Birds

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Pre-Dynastic, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
MEDIUM Graywacke
  • Place Excavated: El Ma'mariya, Egypt
  • DATES ca. 4000–3200 B.C.E.
    PERIOD Predynastic Period, Naqada I to Naqada II Period
    DIMENSIONS 5 9/16 x 26 in. (14.2 x 66.1 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 07.447.600
    CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Big slate palette, elongated lozenge-shaped, decorated on one end with two stylized bord-protomes over two shrot horns, forming a gracefull antithetic lyre-like pattern with a circle in center. The other end is thinned on both faces (intentionally?). Near the center of one face a very small square groove is filled with a dark brown substance (now partly fallen out), perhaps with a meaning, but more likely a natural garnet. Condition: Intact but for a very slight chip at tip. Stained. Traces of use.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Pre-Dynastic, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
    CAPTION Large Palette with Two Birds, ca. 4000–3200 B.C.E. Graywacke, 5 9/16 x 26 in. (14.2 x 66.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 07.447.600. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , CUR.07.447.600_Neg07.447.600GRPA_print_cropped_bw.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, CUR.07.447.600_Neg07.447.600GRPA_print_cropped_bw.jpg., 2013
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