So far, it is known that various places have yielded funerary cones with or without preserving their original locations. In this page, I introduce all places, from North to South, at which cones were found, as well as their references.
So far, it is known that various places have yielded funerary cones with or without preserving their original locations.
In this page, I introduce all places, from North to South, at which cones were found, as well as their references.
Im Jahre 1913 sah ich an den Gräbern des Neuen Reichs in Naga ed Deïr neben einem Topf des Neuen Reichs etwa zehn mit roter Farbe überzogene, unbeschriebene Grabkegel der üblichen Form liegen; es sind m. W. die einzigen außerhalb Thebens und Abu Simbels bisher in Ägypten nachgewiesenen.(von Bissing 1926: 171)
J'ai ramassé dans ce cimetière (Note: in Rizeiqât) un certain nombre de cônes funéraires semblables à ceux de Gournah mais sans inscriptions; déjà à Abydos j'en avais remarqué quelques-uns: l'usage de cet objet n'est donc pas spécial à la nécropole de Thèbes. J'en ai rapporté également une table d'offrandes ronde en terre cuite, avec les aliments figurés en relief, et quelques autres simulacres de provisions trouvés épars dans le sable.(Daressy 1926 [ASAE 26]: 18-19.)
In der recht kursorischen Veröffentlichung des Saff-Grabes berichtet Petrie zwar nichts über den Fund von Grabkegeln in oder an diesem Grab bzw. generell in dem von ihm ausgegrabenen Bereich der Nekropole. Allerdings konnte Di. Arnold bei Begehungen noch in den Jahren 1966-68 bei diesem Saff-Grab Grabkegel des "undekorierten, 11.-Dynastie-Typ[s]" feststellen.(Polz 2007: 272.)
Drower and Myers 1940: 101, Pl. 107.
Daressy 1926 [ASAE 26]: 18. See 'Abydos' section above.
Málek 1982: 428.
Sayce 1905 [ASAE 6].
At the north end of the burial-ground were traces of two tombs which must have originally been the chief ones in the cemetery. On the northern side of them the ground had been filled with inscribed terra-cotta cones, the first that have heen found outside Thebes, tho' uninscribed cones of the XIIth dynasty have been discovered at Rizagât and I have picked one up at Gebelên. An Arab building has stood upon the spot, the foundations of which I excavated, and, in the old "kitchen- midden" of the building, I found several of the cones and the fragments of an alabaster jar as well as of a terra-cotta coffin with hatched edge. A comparison of the various cones which I collected gives the two accompanying inscriptions :
1. "The divine scribe, Aa-pehti".
2. "The divine scribe, priest (?) of the temple of Hathor, lady of Âg(e)n, Aa-neter".
The importance of these inscriptions lies in their giving the site of the city of Agn(i), which M. Daressy has conjectured stood near the modern Matâ'na (Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie, X, 3-4, p. 140-141). It would appear that he is right, since the cemetery of Ed-Dêr is opposite Matâ'na, and my enquiries elicited the fact that the old name is still preserved in that of the Wadi Gîn, into which the Nile-water is pumped from Matâ'na, tho' it has been obscured by the map-makers who have changed Gîn into el-Ginn. The size of the cemetery shows that Agni must have been an important place in the age of the XIIth dynasty, and as I discovered nothing later than that age it would seem that its place was subsequently taken by Esna. As Hathor was worshipped there, we may conclude that it was the Aphroditopolis of the Greeks (Strabo 817). The cones of Aa-pehti were large and painted white; those of Aa-neter were, on the contrary, small, hard-baked and unpainted.(Sayce 1905 [ASAE 6]: 163-164.)
Emery and Kirwan 1935.
They show us an example of # 535 of Davies & Macadam as one of the finds found at Kuban, though they wrongly translate the inscription as: 'Pen-Amen, Overseer of the seals of Bakit (?)' (Emery and Kirwan 1935: 50).
Marcks and Steindorff 1937: 187; Steindorff 1937: Taf. 35.
Aanu's cones (Davies & Macadam # 599 and # 607) were found at the place where his cenotaph is (Marcks and Steindorff 1937: 187; Steindorff 1937: Taf. 35)
By shoring up the ground, however, they were enabled completely to clear the landing, which was curiously paved with cones of rude pottery like the bottoms of amphorae. These cones, of which we took out some twenty-eight or thirty, were not in the least like the celebrated funereal cones found so abundantly at Thebes. They bore no stamps, and were much shorter and more lumpy in shape.
As for the cones like the bottoms of amphorae, see 'Manufacturing methods'.
Given the above information, it is evident that while funerary cones are scattered over a large area extending from Egypt to Sudan, the majority of them have been found in the West Bank of Thebes. The following list indicates the areas of Thebes and the number of tombs located there as well as the number of cone types found at these tombs (see also Figs. 1-2). It should be noted that 3 cones from a tomb at Tombos and 2 cones from 2 tombs at Ed-Dêr have been omitted. Additionally, cone # 261 has been omitted because it is unknown as to which tomb it belonged, TT 71 at Qurna or TT 353 at Deir el-Bahri. Further, while both TT 84 and TT 95 are potential candidates to which cones # 390 and # 400 can be related, they have also been omitted from this list.
| Qurna | 91 types for | 54 tombs |
| Asasif | 37 types for | 8 tombs |
| Naga | 27 types for | 18 tombs |
| Khokha | 18 types for | 14 tombs |
| Qurnet Murai | 9 types for | 4 tombs |
| Total 182 types for 98 tombs | ||
|---|---|---|
In addition, there are many cones which have been unearthed from specific areas, suggesting their original locations. These add up to 114 types of cones for 89 tombs. Concrete information about these cones has been provided in Tables 1–8, in which the number of cells indicates the number of tombs and the number in each cell indicates the types of cones.
Table 1 Qurna
| 38 | 55, 452 | 57 | 85-86 | 134 | 301-302, 359 | 341 |
| 388 | 390, 400 | 433, A.10 | 524 | A.05 | Total 18 types for 12 tombs | |
| 5 | 9, 39 | 15 | 18, 112, 360 | 46 | 69 | 72 | |
| 75 | 96, 304-305 | 101 | 110 | 138 | 146, 179 | 151 | |
| 168 | 172 | 185, 196 | 190 | 198 | 210 | 217, 507 | |
| 245 | 260 | 262 | 272 | 275 | 280 | 293 | |
| 313 | 326 | 334 | 342-343 | 369 | 429 | 448 | |
| 489 | 505 | 520 | 535-537 | 550 | 571 | B.03 | Total 53 types for 42 tombs |
| 73 | 331 | 348 | 568 | 587-588 | Total 6 types for 5 tombs |
| 6 | 13 | 87, 89, 91 | 117 | 178 | 180 | 227, 510 |
| 357 | 362 | 438 | 458 | 511 | 557 | Total 13 types for 16 tombs |
| 35 | 45 | 114, 174 | Total 4 types for 3 tombs |
| 140 | 199 | 404 | 453 | 454 | B.07 | Total 6 types for 6 tombs |
| 228, 246, 590 | Total 3 types for 1 tomb |
| 29, 77 | 58 | 264 | 332 | 405 | 605 | Total 7 types for 6 tombs |
| 261 | Total 1 type for 1 tomb |
Given that the estimations provided in Tables 1–9 are correct, the above list can be revised in the following manner (see also Figs. 1, 3):
| Qurna | 109-110 types for | 66 tombs |
| Naga | 80-83 types for | 60-61 tombs |
| Asasif | 43-53 types for | 13-20 tombs |
| Khokha | 34-41 types for | 27-33 tombs |
| Qurnet Murai | 13 types for | 7 tombs |
| Qurnet Murai | 6 types for | 6 tombs |
| Qurnet Murai | 0-1 types for | 0-1 tombs |
| Total 296 types for 187 tombs | ||
|---|---|---|
Undoubtedly, the figures derived from the above list -45% of cone types for 36–37% of tombs- suggest that the ratios can change drastically in the future. The change and the extent of change are both entirely dependent on excavations. For example, the Spanish-Egyptian mission conducted at Dra Abul Naga unearthed 1,615 cones in 2002–2006 (Galán & Borrego 2007: 195-196). It should be noted that this excavation will affect the figures in Table 3.
I would like to thank Dr Lipkin and Mr Sakamoto for sharing their information with me.
Last updated on 11th Feb. 2010.