{{Short description|Decorated ancient Egyptian macehead}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{multiple image | align = right | caption_align = center | direction =horizontal | header=Scorpion Macehead | total_width=450 | image1 = Scorpion Macehead.jpg | caption1 = Scorpion macehead ([[Ashmolean Museum]]) | image2 = Hierakonpolis Great Mace.jpg | caption2 = Details, at the time of discovery in [[Hierakonpolis]]. | footer= }} The '''Scorpion macehead''' (also known as the ''Major Scorpion macehead'') is a decorated [[ancient Egypt]]ian [[mace (bludgeon)|macehead]] found by [[United Kingdom|British]] [[archeologist]]s [[James E. Quibell]] and [[Frederick W. Green (Egyptologist)|Frederick W. Green]] in what they called the [[Main deposit (Nekhen)|main deposit]] in the temple of [[Horus]] at [[Hierakonpolis]] during the dig season of 1897–1898.<ref>[http://www.ancient-egypt.org/kings/0101_narmer/palette.html The Ancient Egypt Site – The Narmer Palette] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615113238/http://www.ancient-egypt.org/kings/0101_narmer/palette.html |date=2006-06-15 }}, accessed September 19, 2007</ref> It measures 25 centimeters long, is made of [[limestone]], is pear-shaped, and is attributed to the [[pharaoh]] [[King Scorpion|Scorpion]] (c. 3200–3000 BCE) due to the [[glyph]] of a [[scorpion]] engraved close to the image of a king wearing the [[Hedjet|White Crown]] of [[Upper Egypt]].<ref>Millet 1991: Figure 2</ref>
A second, smaller macehead fragment showing Scorpion wearing the [[Red Crown]] of [[Lower Egypt]] is referred to as the "Minor Scorpion macehead".<ref>Yurco 1995: Figure 1</ref>
==Description of the maceheads== [[File:Kingscorpion.jpg|thumb|left|Scorpion macehead (detail) (Ashmolean Museum)]]
===Egyptian pictorial conventions=== Ancient Egyptian depiction obeyed a number of conventions. [[Perspective (graphical)|Perspective]] being unknown, depth was often hinted at by depicting a more remote scene above a closer one. People's lower body, their legs, arms, and head were almost always shown in profile, while their torso was depicted in frontal view, as was the eye. Legs are always apart. Size was often dependent on status, kings being depicted larger than their inferiors.
===The Major Scorpion macehead=== On the macehead the king sporting a bull's tail is standing by a body of water, probably a canal, holding a [[Hoe (tool)|hoe]]. He is wearing the [[White Crown]] of Upper Egypt and is followed by two fan bearers. A scorpion and a rosette are depicted close to his head. He is facing a man holding a basket and men holding standards. A number of men are busy along the banks of the canal. In the rear of the king's retinue are some plants, a group of women clapping their hands and a small group of people, all of them facing away from the king. In the top register there is a row of [[Nome (Egypt)|nome]] standards.<ref>Edwards 1925: 26</ref> A bird is dangling from each of them, strung up by its neck.
<gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="200px"> Detail from the mace-head of King Scorpion.jpg Mace-head of king Scorpion.jpg </gallery>
===The Minor Scorpion macehead=== [[File:HKmacehead2.jpg|thumb|Drawing of the Minor Scorpion macehead]] Little is left of this macehead and its imagery: A king wearing the [[Red Crown]] of Lower Egypt, sitting on a throne below a canopy, holding a flail. Beside his head are images of a scorpion and a rosette. Facing him is a falcon who may be holding an end of a rope in one of its claws – a motif also present on the [[Narmer Palette]].
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== *{{Cite book | last = Edwards | first = I. E. S. | author-link = I. E. S. Edwards | title = The Cambridge Ancient History | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | date = 1925 | location = [[Cambridge]] | url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgeancient1971edwa | isbn = 978-0-521-07791-0 | url-access = registration }} *{{Cite journal | last = Millet | first = N. B. | author-link = Nicholas Millet | title = The Narmer macehead and related objects | journal = [[Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt]] | volume = 28 | pages = 53–59| date = 1991 | doi = 10.2307/40000073| jstor = 40000073 }} *{{Cite book | last = Wengrow | first = David | author-link =David Wengrow | title = The archaeology of early Egypt: Social transformations in North-East Africa, 10 000 to 2650 BC | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | date = 2006 | location = [[Cambridge]] }} *{{Cite journal | last = Yurco | first = F. J. | title = Narmer: First king of Upper and Lower Egypt. A Reconsideration of his palette and macehead | journal = Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities | volume = 25 | date = 1995 }}
==External links== *[http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/faqs/q005/?s=scorpion&pnum=3 Ashmolean Museum]
[[Category:4th-millennium BC works]] [[Category:1897 archaeological discoveries]] [[Category:Collection of the Ashmolean Museum]] [[Category:Decorative maceheads]] [[Category:Predynastic Egypt]] [[Category:Individual weapons]]