Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)
HEDVIG GYŐRY: On the Collars of the Gamhud Coffins
Disk pattern One of the most popular patterns on the Gamhud coffins in Budapest is the disk pattern, which is well attested on the coffins from Vienna, Cracow, and Cairo 23 - it seems to be almost compulsory for the Gamhud coffins. The most common variant is the row of unicolour disks. The alternation of colours is extremely rare: it is restricted to a couple of coffins. On coffins inv. nos. 51.1997 and 51.2005 the faint traces suggest a sequence of blue and ground-coloured disks, while on inv. no. 51.2017 green disks have been wedged in between the red ones. In most cases the background colour is red, blue or black; just very rarely identical with the ground-colour of the coffin, like the coffin inv. no. 51.2016. The disks happen to be adorned with a black or red dot in the middle. 24 In the Budapest collection, the bulked coffin inv. no. 51.2002 is the one where the disks are separated by a transversal, curved double line. 25 The background colour in these units is either red or blue. The row of disks is regularly connected to the band with a black line; and sometimes bordered by a strip with a perforation-like design. 26 This pattern is generally repeated within the same collar several times: three, four or five times with differently patterned rows interposed. Various colours have been used to make it even more spectacular. The disk pattern has a long history, and supposed to derive partly from the depiction of bernes or seeds. 27 It appears frequently on Ptolemaic and Roman coffins, too. Dotted bead pattern An extremely rare representation on the Gamhud coffins in Budapest is the round, bluish grey bead-chain. Among the coffins analyzed, it can be found only on two items, in the collars of the rhomboid coffins inv. nos. 51.1993 and 51.2016. In both cases, the bead chain emerges from a red band and is decorated with black dots resembling the number five on dice. This could be an imitation of faience beads with 23 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. nos. ÄS 6688, ÄS 6689. (Here I would like to thank Elfriede Haslauer, Director of the Egyptian Museum in Kunsthistorisches Museum for the invaluable support of this project, with whom I could study and discuss several aspects of these coffins.); Babraj and Szymanska 2000 (n. 18), 114-15, no. 61; Kamal 1908 (n. 1), 223-24, pl. 1. 24 For black, see Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts, inv. nos. 51.1989, 51.1992, 51.1994, 51.1997, 51.2005, 51.2018/1, and 51.2107; for red, see inv. nos. 51.1989, and 51.1997. 25 Curved lines between rosettes, see K. Küster, "Im Schatten des Pharao. Zum Totenkult im alten Ägypten," in Egipto Millenario. Vida cotidiana en la época de los faraones, exh. cat., Barcelona 1998 (henceforth abbreviated Egipto Millenario), flg. 8: Hibeh, Late period, no. 214. Transversal straight lines between rosettes, see A. Wiese, Antikensammlung Basel und Sammlung Ludwig. Die Ägyptische Abteilung, Zabern Bildbände zur Archäologie, Mainz 2001, no. 126. Another variant, a mid-positioned transversal line binding the disks, see Feucht 1986 (n. 20), 125-27, no. 27: Dynasty 27, Ptolemaic, Division by a vertical line has also been attested, see Lacovara and Trope 2001 (n. 20), 56. 26 Inv. nos. 51.1989, 51.1990, 51.1994, 51.2000, and 51.2007. 27 See Davies 2001 (n. 20), pi. 53,4; M.-L. Buhl, 77ze Late Egyptian Anthropoid Stone Sarcophagi, Copenhagen 1959, 157.
