The stele of Naram-Sin and the Palette of King Narmer.
The stele of Naram-Sin (2254-2218 B.) depicts the victory of Naram-Sin over his enemies, the Luibbi. The palette of King Narmer (3000-2920 B.C.) depicts the victory of King Narmer over Lower Egypt, finally unifying the land. .
On the stele the grandson of Sargon is leading his army up a mountain. His enemies are shown running away falling, dying, and begging for their lives. Naram-sin is depicted larger and higher up on the mountain than anyone else. That shows that he is the most important, and most powerful person in the picture. He is also standing on two bodies of the slain enemy. He is wearing a crown with horns, which symbolizes that he is God as well as king. This is the first time this happens in Mesopotamian art. And three stars seem to be shining down on him and his victory. Showing Naram-Sin on the top of the mountain shows that he is close to the heavens. His army is in an orderly fashion showing the great control he has over them as well as their obedience to him. The enemy's army is fleeing in disarray. The artist followed many old rules when creating this piece. He depicted the scene with composite views of the people. He placed profile heads on frontal bodies. He also placed a frontal crown on the profile head of the king. However this was the first time that a scene had been depicted of a landscape with people placed on successive tiers with in the landscape. That was very new to art of the time where scenes were depicted in horizontal registers.
The palette of King Narmer is a decorative example of a functional object used in predynastic Egypt. They wore dark makeup around their eyes to block the sun and keep bugs away, which they made on palettes like this one. This palette marks the beginning of recorded history for the Egyptians. As well as it is a blue print for the kind of figure representation of ancient Egypt.
