Although stone palettes from the Naqada culture are well known, research has been focused mostly on those palettes which are richly decorated. However, streaks and fragments of individual signs are also often found on...Although stone palettes from the Naqada culture are well known, research has been focused mostly on those palettes which are richly decorated. However, streaks and fragments of individual signs are also often found on simple palettes of various shapes. This study shows that the majority of these palettes have quite a number of marks and sign fragments that have been made by different techniques and over a long period of time. This particularly applies to rhomboidal palettes, for most of which there are no ground to infer that they have been used for ritual purposes or for mixing beauty care compositions. It is more likely that they denote an early form of the visual symbol in later periods represented by the head of Ptah's staff.展开更多
文摘Although stone palettes from the Naqada culture are well known, research has been focused mostly on those palettes which are richly decorated. However, streaks and fragments of individual signs are also often found on simple palettes of various shapes. This study shows that the majority of these palettes have quite a number of marks and sign fragments that have been made by different techniques and over a long period of time. This particularly applies to rhomboidal palettes, for most of which there are no ground to infer that they have been used for ritual purposes or for mixing beauty care compositions. It is more likely that they denote an early form of the visual symbol in later periods represented by the head of Ptah's staff.