Egyptian sculpture

PROTO-DYNASTIC PERIOD 37

slope towards the nose, sometimes they are horizontal; the heads are disproportionately large as compared with the bodies. On the reverse is an emblematic scene of seven fortified towns being destroyed by the totems of as many tribes. Within each enclosure is the name of the town, and a certain number of square objects of which the significance is not known, but which probably represent bricks falling from the walls of the fortress. The numbers of these square objects are three, four, and seven. In this part of the palette the flatness of the surfaces, which becomes common later, first appears. Compare the totem lion here with the lion of the Battlefield; the flatness of the totem lion is in marked contrast with the modelled form of the lion of the Battlefield, though the detail of the mane still follows the same convention. The form of the enclosure should be compared with the form of the enclosure in the palette of Narmer, where again there are three square objects, and it should also be compared with the enclosure containing a lion on the Bull palette. The partially destroyed figures of the men within one of the enclosures should be compared with the figures in any other of the palettes.

The palettes with hunting-dogs (Molossian hounds) as supporters are an interesting class. There are two of these; the earlier is, in my opinion, the palette of Animals, in which animals are represented as running freely about, without deliberate arrangement. The heads and necks of the dogs stand out clear above the field of the palette, the front paws are intertwined, the bodies and tails following the outline of the sides. The surfaces are flat, the outlines not rounded except the heads and necks; the shoulders are indicated by incised lines; on the bodies are incised lines which perhaps represent the ribs, though more probably the thick hair on the under side of the animal, as the bushy