87

Daressy #: 24

Owner: Nakhtmin (tomb undiscovered, perhaps at Khokhah)

Reasons: --

Transliteration: jmj-rA st-wrt sS-nswt nxt-mnw. Dd=f nn Dd=j grg nn jrj=j bw Dw

Translation: Overseer of the great storeroom, king's scribe, Nakhtmin, who says: 'I did not tell a lie, I did not do evil'.

Date: Hat. - T. III (Owner of this cone had his second tomb, TT 87. cf. Remarks below).

Length: --

Colours: Red face and stem (? 01-039 in Davies's notebook).

Findspots:

• One from the robber’s deposit in shaft B of TT 254 (Strudwick and Strudwick 1996: 128, 155).

• Four from TT 47 area (Kondo 2025, June).

Remarks: 

• The ascribed owner is identical to that of # 89, # 91, # 113, # 147, and # 177 from the inscription and provenience.

• The widely accepted opinion about this cone is that it belongs to TT 87 of Nakhtmin (01-039 in Davies's notebook, 03-060 in Macadam's Red file, Stewart 1986: 56–57; Kampp 1996: 341; Kondo 1998: 38; Vivó 2002: 24). I do not share this view for the following reasons: both # 87 and # 89 were found in the same place which is far from TT 87; moreover, this cone has a different type of seal impression from that of # 147 and # 177, which we know with certainty to belong to TT 87. This implies that the maker of # 87, # 89, # 91, and # 113 was different from that of # 147 and # 177. Since the two cones were owned by TT 87, we can safely say that # 87, # 89, # 91, and # 113 belonged to another tomb. However, since the titles inscribed on # 87, # 89, # 91, and # 113 are the same as those of Nakhtmin from TT 87, it is logical that he had two tombs: TT 87 and the one at al-Khokhah which has not yet been identified. Therefore, with regard to the order of making the cones, # 87, # 89, # 91, and # 113 were made for Nakhtmin's first tomb at Khokhah. Subsequently, # 147 and # 177 were made for Nakhtmin's second tomb, TT 87. For more details on my idea, see Zenihiro 2017.

• It may be noted that the four types of cones set up in Nakhtmin’s first tomb constructed at Khokhah are each represented by several examples, recovered in roughly equal numbers. This suggests that, whereas for his first tomb he had four types of cones produced, for his second tomb he chose not to commission multiple types but in effect restricted himself to a single one (not both # 147 and # 177, but the latter only; for details, see the Remarks on # 147 and # 177). The motivation for this change remains unknown.

• See also 05-065 in Macadam's DALEX file 1, and 06-078, 081, 102, & 109 in his DALEX file 2.

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