An Unpublished Disc in Egyptian Museum

Abstract

This study is aiming to publish terracotta disc kept in Egyptian Museum, with motifs on its two faces, through comprehensive descriptive and analytic study of these motifs. As well as we try to date of this disc through comparative between its motifs and other examples motifs. The study also answers many questions that come to mind regarding to use of this disk and the function for which it was made, and the connection between it and its decoration. Is this disc used in a ritual or special ceremony? What are these rituals and ceremonies? The Custom of stamping bread and holy cakes was known in Greco-Roman Egypt and continued in late Roman period, there were many causes for stamping the bread and cakes: to take the place of the actual offering, symbolize general religious ideas, possibly connected with the sanctuary or local cult, and serve as additional object in funerary rituals. This stamp back to the Late Roman Period through circular shape and diameter and style of its motifs.

Keywords

• Disc
• Stamp
• Bread
• Holy cake
• Festivals
• Funerary Rituals
• Bawit