Semantics of the Images of a Cow's Head in Egyptian Monuments of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods

The article analyzes the images of a cow head with five stars from the Gerzeh Palette (Naqada II), a cylinder seal from Abydos (Naqada II–III), and a bowl from Hierakonpolis (1st Dynasty).The author considers the correlation between these motifs and the image of a cow on the bone tablet of king Djer from Abydos (1st Dynasty), representing the goddess Sothis as the giver of the flood. A comparative analysis of the iconography of “star” cow heads with images of “dancing” women with raised arms, which are depicted on the vessels of the Naqada culture, is carried out. The study reveals that the images of these heads designated the heliacal rising of Sirius, which was celebrated already in the archaic period as the Opening of the Year Festival, or the New Year Festival. This festival was correlated with the Feast of Drunkenness, dedicated to the goddess Hathor and held, according to later sources, in the first month of the flooding season. The Feast of Drunkenness, which celebrated Hathor’s departure to Nubia and her return to Egypt, was an allegorical expression of the disappearance of Sirius from view and its rise before the Nile flood. The author believes that these events underlie the pictorial program of Predynastic scenes on vessels showing boats with female figures. The named natural phenomena are also probably marked by the images of flower/star below the king, cow heads on Narmer palette, a heron on Narmer mace-head, and the king holding a plow on Scorpion mace-head

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