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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 February 2000 Issue No. 468 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 February 2000 Issue No. 468
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Profile Travel Books Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Den in the Delta
By Nevine El-Aref
The discovery of a ceremonial palette (a stone tablet with carved relief) dating to the reign of King Den in the Delta city of Manshiyet Ezzat, in Daqahliya governorate, by a Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) team has cast light on a period about which little is known. Tombs of both poor and rich people have been unearthed in the Old Kingdom burial ground in the past, but now in the midst of agricultural lands, the palette discovered by the SCA team is the first evidence of a royal monument to be found at the excavation site. The piece dates to a period much earlier than the Old Kingdom.According to Mohamed El-Saghir, head of the Pharaonic department of the SCA, the artefact is one of only 10 palettes from the early Pharaonic era. As part of the First Dynasty (about 3100-2686 BC), Den's reign was the most prosperous of the era as well as relatively tranquil. El-Saghir explained that instability both preceded and followed Den's rule.
The term "palette" is used to describe two different artefacts of the pre-dynastic period: cosmetic palettes, used to grind pigments for eye paint (frequently hollowed at the centre), and ceremonial palettes, usually shield-shaped, with rituals carved in relief (as in the case of Den's palette). The most well-known ceremonial palettes (sometimes called a "scribal palette") are the "Battlefield Palette", which shows slain captives being preyed upon by lions; the "Towns Palette", thought to represent different clans destroying walled settlements; and the famed "Palette of Narmer", so called because it is considered to record the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under King Narmer at the dawn of Pharoanic history.
Divided into three sections, the palette's pictographs are believed to reveal much about the politics of the era. The first section depicts the image of a hunting dog in pursuit of a gazelle, while another gazelle, the representation of which is damaged, appears to be eating foliage. The second contains the image of two large animals with curled tails and long necks confronting one another. On the third portion is an image of a large-eared animal. Given the political upheaval of the First Dynasty, El-Saghir explained that "the scene on the palette with the two animals confronting one another might be a symbol of the unification of the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt in [Den's] reign".
On one side of the famous Palette of Narmer (now in the Cairo Museum), two animals confront each other, their necks intertwined. The image is reminiscent of the relief on the newly-discovered palette in Manshiyet El-Ezzat (above)
Not only was Den's era politically significant, but it was also noteworthy from an artistic perspective. Den's rule heralded a period of architectural innovation as evidenced by the ruins of his vast tomb in Saqqara, which contains 45 rooms. Some of these rooms were found intact and contained a wide variety of funerary implements, including vessels of alabaster, schist and crystal. The tomb contained the largest single collection of early dynastic objects ever discovered. Now in the Cairo Museum, the designs on the dishes and vessels demonstrate ingenuity in their composition and attest to the developed carving techniques of the era's artisans.
Memphis, modern-day Saqqara, was the capital in Den's reign, and funerary monuments and cenotaphs of the Pharaohs of the First Dynasty were found at Saqqara and near Abydos, in Upper Egypt, believed to be their birth-place. So how this palette found its way to the Delta is a conundrum.
Clues to this mystery may be revealed as items found along with the palette are analysed further. Among these items at the Manshiyet Ezzat site were a collection of coloured pottery bearing inscriptions about the goddess "Hat-Maat", marble vessels, plates and knives, one of which bears Den's "Horus name". Horus is the Pharaonic god of death and like other Pharaohs, Den had many names, a number of which related to the different gods.
As if Den's legacy were not ensured by his tomb and its contents along with his achievement of having presided in an era of peace and affluence, his reputation was further enhanced by historians of the later Pharaonic era who strayed from the facts to aggrandize the Pharaoh. According to the King Lists, Den was said to have written books on anatomy. These "lists" were records compiled by learned priests who, with obvious pride in the past, credited the earliest kings with achievements that only came later.
