Palette
Medium:Stone (greywacke)
Geography: Egypt
Date: c. 1550-1069 BC
Period: 18th-20th Dynasty, New Kingdom
Dimensions:1.9 × 11.5 × 7.1 cm
Object number: 985X2.2
Gallery Location:Galleries of Africa: Egypt
DescriptionThis elegant scribal palette, with a hollowed-out area in the shape of a cartouche, would have been an elite possession during the New Kingdom of Egypt. Most working scribal palettes had two wells, one for red and one for black ink. A cartouche shape well is known from other examples, though the size and weight of this artifact suggets the possibility that it was a votive offering left in a temple by a scribe, rather than an object of everyday use.
