The Palette, which has survived five millennia in almost perfect condition, was discovered by British archeologists James Quibell and Frederick W. Green, in what they called the Main Deposit in the Temple of Horus at Nekhen, during the dig season of 1897–98.

The falcon Horus of Upper Egypt stands upon a bunch of papyrus plants holding a northern prisoner. The Narmer Palette is a 63-centimetre-tall (2.07 ft), shield-shaped, ceremonial palette, carved from a single piece of flat, soft dark gray-green siltstone. The stone has often been wrongly identified, in the past, as being slate or schist.

Discovered among a group of sacred implements ritually buried in a deposit within an early temple of the falcon god Horus at the site of Hierakonpolis (a capital of Egypt during the Predynastic period), this large ceremonial object is one of the most important artifacts from the dawn of Egyptian civilization.

2016年2月4日 · The Narmer Palette was discovered in 1897-1898 CE by the British archaeologists Quibell and Green in the Temple of Horus at the city of Nekhen (also known as Hierakonpolis), which was one of the early capitals of the First Dynasty of Egypt.

2024年6月15日 · The Palette of King Narmer was found at Hierakonpolis within the Temple of Horus, a religious and political capital in Pre-Dynastic Egypt. The palette was discovered in a tomb for the Pre-Dynastic Kings who ruled between 5,000 and 6,000 BCE.

2024年11月25日 · The Narmer Palette was unearthed during the 1897-98 excavation season by British archaeologists James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green at the Temple of Horus in Nekhen, one of ancient Egypt’s most important religious and political centers during the Predynastic period.

2024年12月24日 · British archaeologists James Quibell and Frederick Green unearthed the Narmer Palette in near-perfect condition during their 1897-98 excavations. They were digging in the temple of Horus in Nekhen (or Hierakonpolis), which used to be the political and religious heart of Upper Egypt, when they came across an impressive cache of objects.

Following O’Connor’s view that the Narmer Palette depicts symbolic events, however, it is more likely that these signs stand for wa the sole one, unique (the sign being carved identically with the one under Horus on the obverse face) and S(i) watery area referring to the Delta.

Upper Egypt is in the south and its kings were wearing the white crown. Lower Egypt is in the north, and its kings wore the red crown. Narmer was the king of Upper Egypt who defeated Lower Egypt and unified the two lands, then established the first dynasty.

The hieroglyphs to the left of each man’s head respectively represent a walled city and the name of a defeated town. Meanwhile, the presence of the cow goddess Bat on the top register and the falcon god Horus to the right of Narmer suggests that the king acted with divine approval.