Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)
HEDVIG GYŐRY: On the Collars of the Gamhud Coffins
The present article aims at studying the decoration of the collars as they appear on the two above-mentioned anthropoid coffin types from Gamhud, since the poor condition of the single classical mummiform-type coffin in the collection (of which just a few small pieces of the lid have been preserved) does not allow the analysis of these lid patterns. Unfortunately, there are further restrictions: the coffins' uneven state of preservation. Occasionally only parts of the motifs are accessible, in other cases the decoration is too faint to promote such an analysis, and so much has been lost from the decoration of inv. no. 51.2004 that it is practically useless in this respect. The Gamhud collars display different proportions than the ones made of beads, 4 or the miniature metal or cartonnage pieces used as amulets 5 : they are broader and come down deeper. The enlargement of the collar as coffin decoration has always been typical 6 ; most likely, it emphasised the collar's role for the deceased. As is stated in Chapter 54 of the Ritual of the Opening of the Mouth, from the New Kingdom at the latest, the usekh collar was identified with Atum-Khephri or with the children of A turn, i.e., the Ennead of Heliopolis, respectively. 7 The god, in the form of the collar, symbolically embraced the deceased, and by doing so, the divine ka could enter the body of the deceased and revivify it. 8 According to Chapter 158 of the Book of the Dead, the golden usekh collar had to be placed onto the neck of the akh to preserve his body. The ritual was still in use during the Ptolemaic Period, and several contemporary temple inscriptions 9 are concerned with the identification and the protective aspect of the ritual. 10 Furthermore, by virtue of its association with the creator god, the collar might have ensured productivity in the afterlife. 11 4 Cf. C. Aldred, Jewels of the Pharaohs. Egyptian Jewellery of the Dynastic Period, London 1971, 145^16; E. Feucht, Halskragen, Lexikon der Ägyptologie, vol. 2, Wiesbaden 1975-1992, 933-35; P. Wilson, Ptolemaic Lexicon, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, vol. 78, Leuven 1997, 260-61. 5 See G. Maspero, "Sur les bijoux d'époque saïte trouvés à Sakkarah," Annales du service des antiquités de l'Egypte 3 (1902), 2-3, pis. II/1-2, (V/2; Kunst der Antike. Galerie Günter Puhze/Freiburg. vol. 12, Freiburg, undated, 30, cat. no. 346. 6 Possibly it also played a part in the development of the so-called Li-collars, too; see Cf. Ch. Riggs, "Forms of the Wesekh Collar in Funerary Art of the Graeco-Roman Period," Chronique d'Egypte 151-52 (2001), 60-68. 7 Middle Kingdom coffin decoration attests its defensive role in the afterlife; see G. Jéquier, "Les frises d'objets des sarcophages du moyen empire," Memories publiés par les membres de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire 47 (1921), 60-66, spec. 66, and probably it was connected to the god Ptah, see B. Scheel, "Ptah und die Zwerge," in Festschrift W. Helck, Miscellanea Aegyptologica, ed. H. Altenmüller and R. Germer, Hamburg 1989, 159-64; E. Otto, Das Ägyptische Mundöffnungsritual, Wiesbaden 1960, vol. 1, 131, vol. 2, 119-120; Jean-Claude Goyon, Rituels Funéraires de l'Ancienne Egypte, Paris 1972, 146-47. 8 E.g., T. Handoussa, "Le collier ousekh," Studien zur altägyptologischen Kultur 9 (1982), 147, n. 38: "Tu as placé tes deux bras autour d'eux comme Ka pour que ton Ka soit en eux." Ibid., n. 40: "O Atum, puisse-tu placer tes bras autour de N pour qu'il vive avec son Ka éternellement." 9 Cf. offering of the wsh collar, see R. Beaud, "L'offrende du coUier-ousekh," in Studies in Egyptology presented to Miriam Lichtheim, vol. 1, ed. S Groll, Jerusalem 1990, 55-61. 10 Edfou VI, 333: "donner le collier ousekh: Arum dans Heliopolis", Dendera I, 47,6-10: "Attacher le collier wsh: a dire: Khepri vient." (Ibid., n. 39); Dendera III, 159,7-8: "Je vous apporte le collier ousekh ... pour protéger votre corps par lui", Dendera I, 47, 6-10: "Pose tes bras derrière eux en protection ... sauvegard leur corps." (Ibid., 148, n. 43). 11 Riggs 2001 (n. 6), 63.
