Cosmetic Palette

Polished black mudstone or greywacke cosmetic palette in the form of a turtle with protruding head with incised eyes. Ivory inlay is now missing from the eyes. Objects like this were used with a pebble to grind minerals such as malachite to make eyepaint. Chipped in places and the limbs are broken off. Compare shape with W. M. F. Petrie, ‘Prehistoric Egypt Corpus’ (London, 1921) pl. LII 14 D; Compare with a similar turtle-shaped palette in the British Museum 37913 dated to Naqada I.