Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)

HEDVIG GYŐRY: On the Collars of the Gamhud Coffins

like in Gamhud, the pattern was applied extensively in Akhmim in the middle of the third century AD against a red background,

41 and lingered on under the Roman times 42 Petal pattern Only three coffins in our collection reveal the petal pattern, either on the collar inv. no. 51.1988, or on the collar and on the neck-band of the coffins inv. nos. 51.1997 and 51.2012 simultaneously. The pattern is made of oblong, round-edged petals, which were adorned inside with two short vertical lines, as it can be observed on coffin inv. no. 51.2012 and on the cartonnage pieces recovered from the Gamhud coffins.

43 The red background predominates in these bands, but if the rows recurred several times on the same coffin, like on inv. no. 51.2012, red and blue were used alternatively as the background colour. Although the petal pattern itself had a long history, this round-edged type only seldom appeared. The regular repetition of bands composed of this pattern can also be found on coffins from other sites, e.g., el-Hibeh.

44 Rosette pattern The rosette, which is made up of eight adjacent petals projecting from a central disk, is not a common pattern on the Budapest pieces. The neck-band of coffin 51.2015 is adorned with rosettes whose centre was painted red. Further red dots could be seen roughly in the middle of each petal. Though the collar has been preserved in poor condition, parts of two incomplete rosette patterns suggest the same structure. Another rosette pattern has been delineated on the better preserved collar and neck-band of coffin inv. no. 51.1996. Here the petals and the disk are white, whereas the background was painted light blue. This design was applied exclusively as the pattern of the dividing band on the almost complete krs.t-typç coffin in the Gamhud collection of the Museum of Fine Arts 45 Red dots decorate the middle of the petals, and the central disk was painted red likewise. The petals were outlined in black against a red background. The band is bordered by a strip with black perforation-like design. Although the rosette with eight petals occurs only on two, rather worn anthropoid coffins in Budapest, it must have been a favourite pattern in the Gamhud workshops for a while, since it is attested on the bulked Gamhud coffins in Cairo,

46 Cracow (Irikhet-es)

47 and also in Vienna.

48 Furthermore, the cartonnage pieces found in these coffins also display this pattern.

49 41 E.g., C. Andrews, Egyptian Mummies, London 1984, 59. Cf. a Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statuette, see O. Perdu and E. Mahéo, La collection égyptienne du Musée de Picardie, Amiens 1994. 101, no. 175. 42 R. A. Martin, Mummies, Chicago Natural History Museum, Anthropology leaflet, no. 36, Chicago 1945, pi. 8; The Exhibition 1988-89 (n. 33), no. 135. 43 Inv. nos. 52.636 and 58.18-E. 44 See G. Botti, Le casse di mumie e i sarcophagi da El Hibeh net Museo Egizio di Firenze, Florence 1958, pis. 28-29; Küster 1999 (n. 25), fig. 8. 45 See Győry 1997 (n. 1), 19, no. 1, with further literature. 46 See Kamal 1908 (n. 1), 25. 47 See Babraj and Szymanska 2000 (n. 18), 104-5, no. 57. 48 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. AS 6688. 49 Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts, inv. nos. 51.2131/1, 56.630, and 52.638.