Almost all the cones have been crafted by hand. However, in some very rare cases, such as Davies & Macadam # 138 and # 215, it appears as if they were made on a wheel. This deduction is based on the fact that their bodies are hollow and their bottom surfaces retain the concentric traces of the wheel (See below: EA 9720 & EA 9730). Moreover, these hollow cones may have contained sand or liquid, such as water or alcohol, suggesting that they may have had uses other than to be set on the outer walls or courts of the tombs. I believe that these objects initially played an important role in the funeral ceremonies as containers of sand, liquid, or gelatinous material, and were subsequently converted into cones.
It is worth noting that Amelia B. Edwards, a writer and an archaeologist, vividly depicted cones in her book, 'A Thousand Miles up the Nile'. She refers to them in the following manner on her arrival at Abu-Simbel:
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.(Edwards 2008: 113; Underline added.)
Although Edwards rejected the objects that had 'no stamps and were much shorter and more lumpy in shape', stating that they were in no way like the funerary cones known to have existed in Thebes, it is interesting to note that they were like the bottoms of amphorae. This implies that concentric lines were present, similar to Davies & Macadam # 138 and # 215.
Last updated on 11th Feb. 2010.