390
Daressy #: 160
Owner: TT 95 Mery
Reasons: Inscription and provenience
Transliteration: (xtmw-)bjtj jmj-rA Hmw-nTr nw Smaw mHw Hm-nTr tpj n jmn mry jmj-rA pr n jmn jmj-rA Snwtj n jmn mry jmj-rA prwj-HD jmj-rA prwj-nbw n jmn mry jmj-rA jHw n jmn mry
Translation: (Seal-bearer of the) king of Lower Egypt, overseer of the prophets in Upper and Lower Egypt, first prophet of Amun, Mery, steward of Amun, overseer of the double granary of Amun Mery, overseer of the double treasury (house of silver) and overseer of the double house of gold of Amun, Mery, overseer of the cattle of Amun, Mery.
Date: A. II
Length: 12.5 digits (Dorn et al. 2020: 127), 12.8 digits (MNA: E 152. de Araújo 1993: 53), 13.1 digits (CAA 1991: 1938), 14.3 digits (Ibid.: 1667), 14.7 digits (MNA: E 153 (n. cat. 238). de Araújo 1993: 54).
Colours: Painted white (de Araújo 1993: 54).
Findspots:
Six from the 'Mond's magazine (= inner hall of TT 96. See Mond 1904 [ASAE 5]: 100)' and one of them was a brick (01-198 in Davies's notebook).
60 from TT 29 (Tefnin & Bavay 2008 [ASAE 82]: 368).
Five from TT 99 (Strudwick and Strudwick 2016: 53).
Remarks:
Regarding the initial phrase, Vivó proposed reading (xtmw-)bjtj 'seal-bearer of the king of Lower Egypt', rather than bjtj 'bee keeper' (Vivó 2022: 241-242). This appears to be a more credible suggestion.
The ascribed owner is identical to that of # 400.
The reason for Mery creating two different cones, # 390 and # 400, remains unclear. Nevertheless, the handwriting on both indicates that they were most likely produced by the same person and (therefore) at almost the same time. # 390 features eight titles, five of which are common to # 400, which has seven titles. In total, ten titles were stamped, including five non-common ones. It appears that Mery desired to showcase all of his ten titles on the cones. However, the limited surface area of the cones prohibited him from doing so with just a single cone. Consequently, he designed two distinct cones and printed the most important of his titles on both cones.
See also 05-067 & 068 in Macadam's DALEX file 1 and 06-031, 049, 053, 066, 068, 087, 102, 103, & 110 in his DALEX file 2.