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

HEDVIG GYŐRY: On the Collars of the Gamhud Coffins

or those of the regions further south, such as Ashmunein

86 or Assiut, and the comparable archaeological record for the coffins of the Fayoum regions, like Abusir elMeleq, Sedment, or Hawara, is also rather sparse.

87 Hence, the Gamhud coffins were most likely the products of a local tradition. The homogeneous appearance, as well as the peculiar combination of motifs indicates that these coffins may have originated from the same workshop(s). On the other hand, several groups should be distinguished on the basis of different decorative patterns, which could be attributed either to various masters, or to distinct periods.

88 A. A group including bulked coffins with collars whose decoration is focused generally on the rosette pattern accompanied by the naturalistic lotus and papyrus designs could be taken as the earliest type in the cemetery. These patterns often coincide with the wedge-shaped lotus pattern ( 1.) regularly traced very carefully with a double line. Coffin inv. no. 51.2015 (fig. 1) is characterised by a sketch-like decoration of the collar and the neck-band: usually only the outlines of the patterns are given on a cream-coloured background, and - judged by the traces of pigments - were only exceptionally coloured. With the help of the remnants of painting on the inner surface of the right lappet of the wig, the original appearance of the neck-band can be almost fully reconstructed. It was composed of five stripes: lines of rosette and square pattern were interposed between the lines with the wedge-shaped lotus pattern. Hardly anything of the collar has been preserved, so no more can be stated than it was also executed in the sketch-like manner. The same holds true for the collar of another bulked coffin, inv. no. 51.1996, where again the naturalistic patterns and the rosette design predominate. Fortunately enough, the better condition of the decoration betrays that the wedge-shaped lotus pattern was applied in almost every second row. B. The dominance of the wedge-shaped lotus pattern outlined with a double line could have subsisted on the Gamhud collars for a long period of time, since it is typical for the majority of coffins in Budapest. On a group of them, this pattern occurs alternating with the disk pattern, its sequence occasionally being interrupted by the square or chessboard patterns, and rarely in combination with the strokes or papyrus flower motifs (fig. 2).

89 86 Cf. Hakin Abou Seif, "Rapport sur deux sarcophages découverts à Touna el Gebei," Annales du service des antiquités de l'Egypte 28 (1928), 61-65; S. Gabra, "Un sarcophage de Touna," Annales du service des antiquités de l'Egypte 28 (1928), 66-79. 87 O. Rubensohn and F. Knatz, "Bericht über die Ausgrabungen bei Abusir el Mäleq," Zeitschrift fiir Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 41 (1904), 9, fig. 7; 15, fig. 12; Schmidt 1919 (n. 96), 239, nos. 1385-1386; E. H. Naville, Ahnas el-Medineh (Heracleopolis Magna) with chapters on Mendes, the name of Thot, and Leontopolis, Egypt Exploration Fund, vol. 11, London 1894, 13, pl. IXA; G. Maspcro, Sarcophage du Fayoum, Annales du service des antiquités de l'Egypte 2 (1901), 198, pl. 2. 88 It is very likely that people living in Tholthis / t-hlt (modern Talt wal-Quli'a) have been interred in this cemetery, since this locality is mentioned in texts from the papyri retrieved from the Gamhud cartonnages. It cannot be excluded, however, that Tholtis occurs only randomly in the refuse papyri given to the funerary workshops. This was the case in Giza, for instance, when papyri from Lycopolis have been utilised to produce cartonnages (see Fl. Pétrie, Gizeh and Rifeh, London 1907, 29-30), and again, some of the papyri from the el-Hibeh cartonnage sets originate from elsewhere. 89 Inv. nos. 51.1991, 51.1992, 51.2000, 51.2002, 51.2003, 51.2012, 51.2017, and 51.2107.