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As Egypt grew and flourished to a powerful and rich nation, it

left behind for today's historians, clues and artifacts of a once

distinctive, well established and structured society. Proof of

this is clearly depicted in king Narmer's Palette. This Palette

shows historians the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, which

signified the beginnings of a civilized era centred around the

Nile.

The unification of Egypt occurred around 3100 B.C., under the

First Dynasty of Menes(3100-2850 B.C.). This age is commonly know

as the Protodynastic era, which is known for the establishment of

a firm political structure of the land which was unified in the

hands of the king. The glorification of Lower and Upper Egypt

uniting was portrayed in Narmer's Palette, which was found in the

ancient southern capital of Hierakonpolis. The general function of

Narmer's Palette was to commemorate a victory over his human foes.

With Narmer's victory, the Palette also depicts his successful

claim and conquest of all of Egypt, thus establishing unification

of Lower and Upper Egypt under his rule. The dominant them

however, is the victory of the god incarnate over the forces of

evil and chaos.

The Narmer Palette, while depicting several social aspects and

tendencies of the Egyptian society, also reveals and emphasizes

their structured positions within a hierarchy of command. Both

sides of the Palette reveal, at the top, the name of king Narmer,

which first documents, in the written history of Egypt, that we now

are dealing with a civilized state. When the scribes wanted to

write king Narmer's name, they placed a small fish called...