The stele of Naram-Sin (2254-2218 B.C.) depicts the victory of Naram-Sin over his enemies, the Luibbi. The palette of King Narmer (3000-2920 B.C.) depicts the victory of King Narmer over Lower Egypt, finally unifying the land.

On the stele the grandson of Sargon is leading his army up a mountain. His enemies are shown running away falling, dying, and begging for their lives. Naram-sin is depicted larger and higher up on the mountain than anyone else. That shows that he is the most important, and most powerful person in the picture. He is also standing on two bodies of the slain enemy. He is wearing a crown with horns, which symbolizes that he is God as well as king. This is the first time this happens in Mesopotamian art. And three stars seem to be shining down on him and his victory. Showing Naram-Sin on the top of the mountain shows that he is close to the heavens. His army is in an orderly fashion showing the great control he has over them as well as their obedience to him. The enemy’s army is fleeing in disarray. The artist followed many old rules when creating this piece. He depicted the scene with composite views of the people. He placed profile heads

These two pieces are a good examples of early art work depicting historical events. Both do not seem to be too terribly concerned with what really occurred just the fact that their side won and they need to praise their all-powerful leader for vanquishing their enemies for them.

I chose these two pieces because to me they seemed to serve very similar purposes, not functionally but figuratively. To me they are not much more than propaganda, beefing up the power and greatness of these leaders. Both of these pieces show the king higher than the other people in the picture, they also show them much larger, and standing alone. This seems to show that the king is solely responsible for the triumph. The other use I see for these pieces is religious icons. Both of these civilizations saw their leaders as Gods as well as Kings. Both of these pieces also show some sort of heavenly being watching down on these kings. In the Stele it was the three favorable stars. And in the palette it was the two faces of Hathor and the falcon Horus. The artists also both used composite figures to represent their subjects. This view characterized Egyptian art as well as Mesopotamian art, and even some Stone Age paintings. These pieces differ mostly in their format. The stele is a landscape with people shown on multiple tiers of a mountain, while the

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