Pistol Wrote:
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> I hope you have a copy to look at, because here
> again I am reminded of your accurate description
> of a sanguine moon (lunar eclipse) especially in
> register two, note that gold/yellow paint is used
> throughout each of the four registers. Their are
> many examples of yellow/gold sun-discs throughout
> Faulkner's publication...and many sanguine
> discs...which all seem to be in the context of
> stellar (night time) or Lunar deities... for
> example just look at the bottom of p. 43, a
> perfectly accurate color of a sunrise.
>

Hi Pistol - Yes, I have a copy of Faulkner's (1985) translation, and I see the color distinctions you are talking about. Very interesting. A number of things in reply - First, the three depictions on pp. 42 and 43 are each from different papyri, and so the ink compositions of each were likely somewhat different. In addition, even had the compositions been the same, each ink could have aged differently due to the specifics of its location over all those years. The point being that the differences in color seen here may have little or nothing to do with original intent.

Second, the lines you referred to earlier appear to me to be due to the lines inherent in the underlayment of the papyrus paper itself, and not lines sketched in by the scribe in order to indicate a glyph Aa1.

Third, being that the disc is on the Horus falcon's head in the first register of the vignette on p. 42 would seem to make it highly unlikely that there is any hint of a lunar connection being made here. Or am I misunderstanding where you were going with this? If so, apologies.

Perhaps there is a case to be made in regard to deities of a clearly lunar nature, I don't know. As a result of looking into this, though, I have been interested to see that the word "djshr" was used so broadly in referring to all kinds of gradations of the color red (CDME p. 316). Given as how this is the word for "flamingo", I would have supposed it to have been used for the more brighter reds, with perhaps other words more specific for the browner reds. I'd just never really thought about it before.

But then again, I've never been to Egypt and so have never seen the colors there first-hand. Thanks for your insights on some of this. For me this all raises the question of just what type of color red did they envision for both the red crown and the red linen of the PT's?