Bowl Fragment with Serekh of Narmer

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodEarly Dynastic, Dynasty 1

Date2950-2730 BCE

MediumCalcite (alabaster)

Credit LineMuseum purchase; Rollins Acquisition Fund

Dimensions2 3/4 x 5 11/16 in. (7 x 14.4 cm)

Object number2017.026.001

Label TextMany Egyptologists believe that Narmer was the first king of Dynasty 1. The famous Narmer Palette in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo belongs to this king. Narmer is often equated with King Menes, who united Upper and Lower Egypt for the first time, establishing the ancient Egyptian dynastic state.

This bowl fragment comes from the private collection of the Egyptologist Peter Kaplony (1933–2011), who specialized in Predynastic and Early Dynastic history and language. Kaplony acquired the fragment in the 1960s and published it in 1966. The inscribed bowl fragment is one of only four known to exist.

On the bowl is etched a serekh, which represents the royal palace in plan and elevation with a recessed façade. At the top of the serekh, Narmer’s Horus name is written in hieroglyphs with the nr (catfish) and mr (chisel). A falcon perches on top of the serekh to illustrate that the king, in the incarnation of Horus, is in the palace. This inscribed fragmentary bowl represents the very beginning of Egyptian kingship and, as such, is an incredibly rare piece of history.
Exhibition HistoryLife and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 4 - August 6, 2023
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, November 13, 2023 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Kaplony, Kleine Beitrage zu den Inschriften der agyptischen Fruhzeit (Weisbaden: Harrassowtiz, 1966), 100, plate 19, no. 1138.
Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw, Ancient Materials and Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 59.
"0128 (Narmer serekh from unknown site)," The Narmer Catalog, accessed November 1, 2017, http://www.narmer.org/inscription/0128#.
Melinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 65.

ProvenanceEx private collection, 1966. Ex coll. Peter A. Kaplony (1933-2011), Zurich, Switzerland, probably acquired in the 1970s. Ex private collection, from 2006, purchased from Kaplony. Brussels Ancient Art Fair, Brussels, Belgium, 2017. Purchased by MCCM from Sue McGovern-Huffman [Sands of Time Ancient Art], Washington DC.

Status

On view

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