Egyptian sculpture

36 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

the same type as the overthrown man in the Bull palette, and the action of the standards which hold them should be compared with the standards in the Bull palette. The contorted figures of the men represent the position of the chest when the arms are held back at the elbows. On the reverse is a purely decorative panel of a palm-tree in the centre, on each side of which is a long-necked antelope grazing on the fronds at the top. This well-known motif of a central object, generally a tree, with two supporters is known later in many countries, and may have originated in Babylonia. The stem of the palm-tree is worked conventionally, but sufficiently recognisably to know the date-palm; the feathery top and the bunch of fruit are also worked with the utmost care. The detail of the animals’ heads gives the effect of the soft sensitive muzzle in contrast with the hard, bony form of the head, an excellent example of realistic work. The bird is the ground-hornbill. Unfortunately, only the lower portion and part of one side of this remarkable piece have been preserved, the other portions having been broken away anciently.

Probably the next in succession is the fragment in which the booty from Libya is represented. Here the animals are arranged, according to the usual primitive convention, in rows, walking one behind the other. On the higher row appear oxen ; in the middle, asses; and in the lower, sheep. It is to be noted that these sheep have the horizontal horns which in Pharaonic times are common to the sheep of Egypt, with the exception of those of Thebes. In this palette the animals’ limbs are rounded, but are not so modelled as in the two earlier palettes, and a great deal of the detail is incised. Again, in the oxen the lines round the eye are represented with incised lines, the eyes of all the animals are not, however, represented with care; sometimes they