Fine Pallets

Originally published in The Midden, 42(4), 6. 2010. By Grant Keddie These two unidentified stone objects, in the collection of the Royal B.C. Museum, are similar in quality of design to the scribe’s pallets that one finds in Egypt. I would suggest that these are fine paint pallets, possibly used in the process of body painting. One upper pallet has two separate carved-out compartments. One compartment shows wear patterns on both sides typical of what we can observe on modern paint pallets where excessive rubbing at the centre wears into the hard surface under the paint. The upper example (DjRi-Y:156) was collected by Charles Newcombe from the “Lower Fraser” in 1913 (old catalogue # 2518). It is only 60mm long … Continue reading “Fine Pallets”