Cosmetic palette

Cosmetic palettes are archaeological artifacts, originally used in predynastic Egypt to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics. The decorative palettes of the late 4th millennium BCE appear to have lost this function and became commemorative, ornamental, and possibly ceremonial. They were made almost exclusively out of siltstone with a few exceptions. The siltstone originated from quarries in the Wadi Hammamat. Many of the palettes were found at Hierakonpolis, a centre of power in pre-dynastic Upper Egypt. After the unification of the country, the palettes ceased to be included in tomb assemblages. Notable decorative palettes are: The Cosmetic palette in the form of a Nile tortoise The Narmer Palette, often thought to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the pharaoh Narmer, Egyptian Museum, Cairo Libyan Palette, Egyptian Museum, Cairo The Four Dogs Palette, displaying African wild dogs, giraffes, and other quadrupeds, Louvre The Battlefield Palette, British Museum and Ashmolean Museum The Bull Palette, at the Musée du Louvre, named for the bull at the top — obverse and reverse — trampling a man The Hunters Palette, British Museum and Louvre Even undecorated palettes were often given pleasing shapes, such as the zoomorphic palettes, which included turtles and, very commonly, fish. The fish zoomorphic palette often had an upper-centrally formed hole, presumably for suspension, and thus display. There are also Near East stone palettes, from Canaan, Bactria, and Gandhara. Siltstone was first utilized for cosmetic palettes by the Badarian culture. The first palettes used in the Badarian Period and in Naqada I were usually plain, rhomboidal or rectangular in shape, without any further decoration. It is in the Naqada II period in which the zoomorphic palette is most common. On these examples there is more focus on symbolism and display, rather than a purely functional object for grinding pigments.