Egyptian sculpture

PROTO-DYNASTIC PERIOD 39

top are disproportionately small; the method of representing both the stem and the fronds should be compared with the earlier example. The animal supporters are giraffes, whose heads do not reach even to the lower branches, while their feet are considerably above the base of the tree; the drawing and anatomy of these animals should also be compared with the earlier type. The palette is bordered on each side with two hunting-dogs, their heads forming respectively the top and bottom of the palette, the tails meeting in the centre of the sides. The paws of the upper pair of dogs are between the heads of the giraffes and the lower fronds of the palm. There is no attempt at modelling, the details being merely incised. On the reverse of this palette there are again the same four dogs, one pair facing upwards and the other downwards. Between the upper pair of dogs are a bird, perhaps an ibis, and a lion; between the lower pair of dogs is a serpo-pard. Again, the surfaces are flat, with details incised, but in this palette the eyes have been inlaid; the inlay has fallen out and merely the hole remains. Though the workmanship is poor and the outlines of the animals entirely conventional, the general effect is exceedingly decorative.

The palette of the Hunters is in a class apart. The spirited scenes, the active motion of the figures, as well as the type of the faces (Pl. V. 4), differentiate it from the rest; so also does the fact that it is carved only on the side of the paint-saucer, the other surface being left blank. At the wide end of the palette is a man with a bow, shooting a square-tipped arrow at a lion, which, with two arrows already in its neck, and with a cub behind it, has overthrown one of the hunters. The lion’s mane shows the same convention as that of the lion of the Battlefield, though the lines are less naturalistic; the thick