Comparing Naram-Sin And The Palette Of Narmer

The Stele of Naram-Sin and the Palette of Narmer both tell the stories of their respective military victories through interpretive visual imagery. The works of art are descriptive without the use of words and just a mere understanding of the cultures. The Stele of Naram-Sin (c. 2254-2218 BCE) tells Naram-Sin’s story using a dynamic composition of 3 diagonal layers while the Palette of Narmer (c. 2950 BCE) follows a register model.
The Stele of Naram-Sin is from the Mesopotamian period, specifically the Akkadian period; the hieratic scale is indicative of this because Mesopotamian artwork had an emphasis on showing power and centralized leadership. The hieratic scale on the stele suggests that Naram-Sin was an authoritative figure

Naram-Sin was seen as powerful and was admired by his people and even other rulers. When the stele was later found in Susa, Iran instead of in Mesopotamia where it was originally, it suggested that the Elamite King Shutruk Nahunte had taken it there instead of destroying it out of respect for Naram-Sin. The Palette of Narmer was carved out of a piece of flat, soft dark grey-green siltstone. Measuring around 2 feet tall, this palette was used to grind make-up to decorate the statues of the gods. The Palette was also used to grind make up for Egyptians themselves as they used to wear dark make up around their eyes so as to block the sun and keep bugs away. The Palette also depicted the story of the unification of Upper and Lower

Through the dynamic composition of the 3 diagonal layers, starting from the left, Naram-Sin’s army is seen marching uphill into battle while treading on the heads of the enemy and Naram-Sin is seen ascending a mountain, looking up towards the sun that symbolizes a power higher than him. Naram-Sin was considered divine as shown by his horns and so he was considered the highest power on Earth and the suns above were the gods of this stele. Prior to this stele, no other artwork depicted a ruler, or any other human, as divine. The horns on Naram-Sin’s head transformed what it was like to be ruler, a transformation from mere human to god-like. The Palette of Narmer tells its story by following a register model on both its sides. On the reverse side of the palette, Narmer is seen wearing the hat of Upper Egypt suggesting that he ruled Upper Egypt at that point in time. The top register is decorated with hieroglyphs with woman-faced cows on both sides of them. The hieroglyphs spell out the name of the king that translates into “The Cleaving Catfish,” the horizontal fish (nar) lies atop the vertical chisel (mer). The second register depicts Naram-Sin defeating the enemy with his weapon; the enemy’s size suggests that he is of equal importance to Naram-Sin. As depicted on the front side of the palette, the defeat of this enemy led to Naram-Sin’s control of Lower Egypt. Also seen on the second register