An unexpected surprise to everyone who is fond of unknown animals was presented at one time by a palette (thin stone tiles) with the image of Pharaoh Narmer. It is one of the first exhibits on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. This 63 cm high shield-shaped piece is carved from greenish stone and covered with bas-reliefs on both sides. It usually dates from the last century to the 4th millennium BC.
So, on the front side there are some intertwined long-necked lions ("sickles"), which are held on leashes by two bearded men. The depiction of symmetrically arranged pairs of "tamed" animals, in all likelihood, was borrowed from the iconography of the early period of Mesopotamia, possibly from Elam.
Academic scientists, for lack of other opinions, of course, decided that these images could have a very specific meaning and symbolize the forcible unification of the two parts of the country.
Here is a story about this artifact by Ian Shaw, Ph. D., who teaches a course in Egyptian archeology at the University of Liverpool. Since 1985, he has been excavating various ancient Egyptian ore mines in Khatnub, Wadi el-Khudi, Wadi Magar, Gebel el-Asr and other places:
“In 1898, British Egyptologists James Cubell and Frederick Greene found in the ruins of an early palace in the ancient city of Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt, a tile of greenish-grayish stone, similar to slate. This find did not make such a furore as the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun that occurred 24 years later, but scientists immediately understood the importance of this small subject.
Like the Rosetta Stone, this tile - Narmer's palette - could have extremely important implications for the study of Ancient Egypt. For the next 100 years or so, the contents of the palette will be exaggerated by Egyptologists seeking to find answers to numerous questions: from the political origins and prerequisites for the emergence of the Egyptian state to the nature of Egyptian art and writing.
Here is how Yen Shaw describes the image in the drawing:
“On the obverse, there are intertwined long-necked lions (" sickles ") held on leashes by two bearded men. The circle formed by the woven necks of the sickle leaves skillfully frames a small depression, or plate, for rubbing paints for decorative painting of the eyes (originally, such palettes served just for this). But it remains unclear whether such an important ceremonial item as the Narmer palette was ever used by a target.
Promotional video:
On another ceremonial plaque of a similar type, the circular indentation has an undesirable effect. It interrupts an even image - compare, for example, the "Two Dogs palette", also found by Cubell and Green at Hierakonpole, in which two long-necked lions can again be seen on the obverse in the foreground, but the depression is simply located between the necks, not created by them (or "Butterfly's palette" with a recess interrupting the image of a series of prisoners) ".
Palette "Two dogs"
Experts have thoroughly described everything that is depicted on the palette. Everything is quite realistic there. Some sickles for some reason "fall out" of reality!
But what if these are also real animals, especially since they are kept by ordinary earthly people - warriors? After all, on the rock carvings found, by the way, not so far from Egypt, among the very real animals, there are images of a creature surprisingly similar to elladotherium, the ancestor of the giraffe and okapi, which, according to the official doctrine, died out about 5 million years ago!
Maybe the palettes depict Indricotherium, a relative of the rhinoceros officially extinct 30-20 million years ago? Remains of Indricotherium have been found in many regions of Asia. The indicotherium had a small head on a long neck, no horns.
Indricotherium
Other pictures of sickles:
Serpopard on cylindrical printing. Mesopotamia, 4100 BC-3000 BC
Magic wand (knife) from Thebes to protect mother and child. Around 1750 BC
Another palette
By the way
Monsters like sickles are considered by traditional scientists to be "chthonic beings." In many religions and mythologies, these are creatures that originally personified the wild natural power of the earth, the underworld, etc.
Among the characteristic features of chthonic creatures, animal likeness, the presence of supernatural abilities, organically combined with the absence of a creative principle, and werewolf are usually distinguished.
In the Slavic tradition, the chthonic creatures were primarily reptiles, which included animals associated with death and the other world. In a number of traditions, the land itself was presented as a chthonic creature: vegetation - wool, peninsulas - legs, etc.
Chthonic creatures are also associated with marriage symbolism. The marriage of the hero with the chthonic goddess meant taking possession of the land (country). The image of the mother goddess, the mythical progenitor, also associated with death (chaos), has chthonic features.
Cryptozoologists, in contrast to academic scientists, are trying to explain the appearance of such creatures in works of art by actual cases of meetings of ancient people with little-known or completely unknown representatives of the terrestrial fauna, who subsequently disappeared through human fault.