Is Tell Khaiber shown on the Egyptian Narmer palette? (12 replies)

On the newsdesk today, an article titled ‘The Castle of the Sealand Kings’ with an aerial photo of Tell Khaiber in Iraq drew my attention:
[www.theguardian.com]


During the translating of the Sumerian text, The Story of Sukurru, it became evident that elements of the Sumero-Egyptian stories were depicted on the Narmer palette. That is why i'm wondering if this rectangular castle discovered in southern Iraq, a region of ancient Sumer, might correspond to the fortress shown on the Narmer Palette. At the very least, it demonstrates an architectural link that would have been rejected before this discovery.


Aerial view of Tell Khaiber fortress



Detail from Narmer Palette



There are several references in The Story of Sukurru to scenes on the Narmer palette, the most obvious and thoroughly substantiated being the character of Prometheus who was said to have stolen fire from the gods. He is shown on the palette about to serve his eternal sentence – a fiery stone in the sky on the nose-rope of Shu. The words of this scene are in lines 68 to 70 of The Story of Sukurru, where the origin of Prometheus’ name can also be determined according to the monosyllabic language of the text.


Prometheus on the Narmer Palette



Another possible link given in The Guardian is the lecture (in Akkadian, a later language than Sumerian) of clay tablets found at Tell Khaiber revealing that there were sets of ten soldiers guarding the place. On the Narmer Palette, we find ten bound and decapitated men. Could they be the same?


Narmer decapitated soldiers.


NAR has the meaning 'fox' in monosyllabic Sumerian.



Madeleine