Geographical Distribution

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.  

Contents

Naga ed-Deir

Reisner 1908.

This led after a turn to the south and again to the west to a chamber in the floor of which was a shallow burial pit (filled with water). In this burial pit was found an uninscribed carnelian scarab and a few beads such as are usually ascribed to the twelfth dynasty. About the entrance to the corridor, a number of red baked clay cones (not inscribed) were found in the surface debris. 

(Reisner 1908: 66)

(snip)

The tomb (N. 3062=Zenihiro added) was completely plundered. Even the mud floor was broken into. In the dirt one complete pottery cone was found and several broken ones such as were found near the 12th dyn. tomb on the northern edge and in many other 12th dynasty tombs at Sheikh Farag and in cemeteries 3500 and 100. 

(Reisner 1908: 71)

A total of six cones (Museum no. 6-1200, Museum no. 6-1201, Museum no. 6-1202, Museum no. 6-1203, Museum no. 6-16615; Museum no. 6-16662) from Reisner's excavation at Naga ed-Deir are now housed in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. According to the object cards of the museum, the first four of them were from the Cemetery 1500. 

von Bissing 1926.

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)

Abydos

Daressy 1926 [ASAE 26].

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.

(Daressy 1926 [ASAE 26]: 18-19.)

Simpson 1995: 79-80.

Dendera

Polz 2007: 269-272. 

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]" feststellen1067. 

1067  Freundliche Mitteilung von DIETER ARNOLD (brieflich im Juni 2000).

(Polz 2007: 272.)

Naqada

Arnold 1968: 35.

Thebes (Luxor)

The object cards and register books housed in the Penn Museum (C. S. Fisher who belonged to the museum excavated Dra Abul Naga in 1922-23); Davies's notebook; Macadam's Red file; Macadam's Green file; Lepsius 1849-1859: 259, 261, 284, 288; Virey 1891: 313; Wiedemann 1891 [PSBA 13]: 34; Loret 1892 [PSBA 14]: 209; Carter 1902 [ASAE 3]: 119; Carter 1903a [ASAE 4]: 47-48; Carter 1903b [ASAE 4]: 178; Mond 1904 [ASAE 5]: 98, 101, 103; Mond 1905 [ASAE 6]: 65, 91-96; Weigall 1906 [ASAE 7]: 132; Northampton, Spiegelberg, and Newberry 1908: 14-15, Pls. 23-25; Gauthier 1908 [BIFAO 6]; Chassinat 1910 [BIFAO 7]: 156-161; Carnarvon & Carter 1912: 8-10, 22, 24, 26-27; Davies 1913a: 5, 30-31; Davies 1913b [PSBA 35]: 283; Winlock. 1914 [BMMA 9]: 16; Davies and Gardiner 1915: 2; Davies 1917: 42; Gauthier 1919 [BIFAO 16]; Gauthier 1920 [ASAE 19]: 7, 9; Davies 1923a: (Vol. II) 62; Davies 1923b: 21; Davies 1923c: 136; Bruyère 1924: 62; Davies 1926: 34; Yeivin, 1926 [AAA 13]: 13; Winlock and Crum 1926: 17; Bruyère 1927: 17-18, 53-57; Mond and Emery 1927 [AAA 14]: 17, 23-24, 33; Mond and Emery 1929 [AAA 16]: 53; Bruyère 1929: 17; Davies 1933b: 6; Bruyère 1934: 71, 89; Borchardt, Königisberger, and Ricke 1934 [ZÄS 70]: 26, 31; Bruyère 1937: 12, 63; Fakhry 1937 [ASAE 37]: 34-35; Fakhry 1943 [ASAE 43]: 409-410; Anthes 1943 [MDAIK 12]: 64, 66. Davies & Faulkner 1947 [JEA 33]: 40. n. 3; Bruyère 1952: 44, 46; Bruyère 1953: 70, 83; Habachi 1958 [ASAE 55]: 332; Heyler 1959 [Kêmi 15]: 87; Arnold and Settgast 1966 [MDAIK 21]: 83; Dabrowska-Smektala 1968 [ASAE 60]: 130; Lipinska 1968 [ASAE 60]: 173-174, 204, Pl. LXIX; Arnold 1974 [MDAIK 30]: 157; Collins 1976 [JEA 62]: 32-36, 38-39; Brack and Brack 1977: 73, 78; Guksch 1978: 40; Kunsthistorisches Museum 1979: 112-113; Brack and Brack 1980: 67-70; Habachi 1981: 112; Hegazy and Tosi 1983: 30; Eigner 1984: 43, 110-111; Feucht 1985: 148; Beinlich-Seeber and Shedid 1987: 148-150; Mysliwiec 1987: 181, Taf. XXXII; Shedid 1988: 174, 184-185, 188; Manniche 1988b: 46; Leclant and Clerc 1989 [Orientalia 58]: 389; Heyes 1990: 35; Reeves 1990: 174, 179, and 312; Seyfried 1990: 181-187, 199, 205-206, 209, 212, 215, 225, 231, 237, 269, 274; Assmann 1991: 243-244; Seyfried 1991: 91-93, 98, 102; Dziobek 1992: 113-115; Gaál 1993: 30, 120; Nasr 1993 [SAK 20]: 201-202; Manniche 1993 [ASAE 72]: 49-51; Ockinga 1993b: 46; Redford and Redford 1994: 23; Kákosy 1994: 30-31; Gabolde et. al.1994 [BIFAO 94]: 180; Dziobek 1994: 42, 60; Bosticco 1994 [Vicino Oriente 9]; Guksch 1995: 24-25, 120-121, 125, 178; Polz 1995a: 216; Redford 1995 [KMT (6(1))]: 66, 68; Seyfried 1995: 85; Mostafa 1995: 76, 79; Strudwick and Strudwick 1996: 4-5, 103-106, 113, 115-116, 120-121, 123, 126, 128, 130, 155; Kampp 1996: 507-508; Ockinga 1996: 70-71; Guksch 1997 [GM 158]: 9-13; Gnirs et al. 1997 [MDAIK 53]: 72; Nasr 1997 [Memnonia 8]: 218-222; Leclant and Clerc 1998 [Orientalia 67]: 386; Strudwick 2000 [Memnonia 11]: 257; Leclant and Minault-Gout 2001 [Orientalia 70]: 433; Leblanc 2001/2001 [Memnonia 12-13]: 57; Bács 2002 [Studia Aegyptiaca 17]: 54; Kondo and Ishibashi 2002: 72-74, 84; Graefe 2003: (Text) 201-203; Kondo and Ishibashi 2003: 131-135, 178; Ockinga 2003; Teeter et. al. 2003: 173-187; Strudwick 2003: 20-22; Polz 2003a [MDAIK 59]: 376; Polz 2003b [MDAIK 59]: 382, 384-385; de Simone 2003: 461; Ockinga 2004: 2; Gomaá 2004 [Memnonia 15]: 194-195; Fábián 2005 [ASAE 79]: 43-44, 47; Ockinga 2005: 2; Polz 2005: 5-6; Polz 2006a: 8; Polz 2006b: [ASAE: 80] 301; Betrò and Vesco 2006 [Egitto e vicino oriente 29]: 26; Fábián 2006: 50; Leblanc 2006 [Memnonia 17]: 30, 34; Redford 2006: 123, 125, 130, 139, 141, 145, 148, 151, 154, 158; Leblanc 2007 [Memnonia 18]: 41; Ishibashi 2007: 95-101; Galán and Borrego 2006 [Memnonia 17]; Fábián 2007: 37; Polz 2007: 151, 161; Smythe 2008; Tefnin & Bavay 2008 [ASAE 82]: 368; Bács 2009a: 79; Dorn & Paulin-Grothe 2009 [GM 222]: 11; Ryan 2009: 23; Kondo et al. 2009: 51 and 53; Fábián 2009: 18-19; Polz 2009: 338-339; Kondo et al. 2010: 58-59; Budka 2010: 318, 735-736, 738-740; Shirley 2010: 285, 297 n. 52; Redford 2010: 367-368, 379; Betrò 2010 [EVO 33]; Górecki 2011 [PAM 20]: 227 and 230; Leblanc 2010 [Memnonia 21]: 37; Kondo et al. 2011: 55-56; Leblanc 2011 [Memnonia 22]; Fábián 2012: 3-4; Kruck 2012: 157-158; Kondo et al. 2012: 10-11; Ockinga and Binder 2012: 224-225 and 227; Pereyra 2011: 6-8; Betrò 2013; Fábián 2013a; Fábián 2013b; Fábián 2013c; Kondo et al. 2013: 114-116; Redford 2013 [Memnonia 24]: ; Kondo et al. 2014: 43-57; Kopp 2014; Kondo et al. 2015: 19-44; Bács 2015: 14-15; Kondo et al. 2016: 120, 122-124; Fábián 2016: 37-38, 43-44; Strudwick and Strudwick 2016: 53; Beabesh 2017; Kondo et al. 2017: 46, 48-51, 53, 55-58; Bács 2017: 32-36; Fábián 2017: 23, 70-71, 76; Schreiber 2017: 102-103; Kondo 2017, October 29; Kondo et al. 2018: 27-30; Betrò, Vesco, and Miniaci 2018: 10-11; Missione Italiana at Dra Abu el-Naga 2018: 5; Kondo et al. 2019: 33-34, 36; Kondo et al. 2020: 80, 82-83; Aglan 2020: 46, 201-211, 228-229, 272-274, 283-284, 289-290, 292, 294, 296, 301, 353-355, 359-360, and 362-363; van den Hoven 2020-2021: 116, 118; Kondo et al. 2021: 10, 12, 14; Loprieno-Gnirs 2021: 74; Ivanov 2021; Colin et al. 2021; Colin 2021a: 22-23; Colin 2021b; Aglan 2022; Al-Amir and Saad 2023: 709 and 718; Pellini and Lemos 2023: 111; Barrios Mufrege 2023; Hartenstein 2023; Binder 2024; Kondo 2025 June.

(Armant)

Mond and Myers 1937a: 3, 22, 59, and 63; Mond and Myers 1937b: Pls. XI and XXII. Mond and Myers suggested that those found at the entrance of tomb 1214 have been in situ cones (Mond and Myers 1937a: 22, Pl. XI). Note that the tomb, in fact, is not in the part of the necropolis of Armant, but is located in the necropolis area of Rizeiqât (see Mond and Myers 1937b: Pls. I-II). The unclear demarcation of the two necropolises from each other led among other things to the fact that A. Eggebrecht lists both Armant and Rizeiqât as sites of grave cones outside Thebes, although they are one and the same site (cf. Polz 2007: 265)).

Drower and Myers 1940: 101 and 116 (Note that the cones were acquired not by excavation but by purchase).

Rizeiqât

Daressy 1926 [ASAE 26]: 18. See 'Abydos' section above.

Also, the ones discovered by Mond and Myers were actually from Rizeiqât. See 'Armant' section above.

Tod

Málek 1982: 428.

Gebelein

JE 54575 (Register book owned by the Egyptian Museum in Cairo).

Il Museo Egizio di Torino has many cones from Gebelein. They are from Schiaparelli's excavation and some of them are complete for example S. 11972, S. 11977, and S. 11987.

Bergamini 2004.

La facciata doveva esser decorata in qualche modo con coni di terracotta, ritrovati in gran numero tra i crolli ai piedi del muro a pilastri della fronte. Sebbene lo stato di conservazione attuale non permetta ulteriori precisazioni, è possibile che i varchi tra i pilastri avessero una copertura ad arco, analoga a quella osservata a proposito di una grande tomba a saff messa in luce dagli scavi Schiaparelli presso la tomba di Iti. Il corridoio era certamente coperto da una volta a botte coassiale, la cui imposta è stata individuata a 80 cm. al di sopra della quota del battuto. Consistenti crolli della copertura sono stati rinvenuti nel cospicuo riempimento del corridoio: il loro esame ha permesso di stabilire che la volta, a botte, era costituita di mattoni lievemente incurvati (31/29x14.5x7 cm.), con un lato (corrispondente all'estradosso della volta) più lungo di quello opposto. Coni di terracotta potevano esser stati infissi anche tra i mattoni della copertura (a giudicare da alcuni resti di malta recanti ancora l'impronta del cono ivi confitto). La cappella, trasversale al corridoio e in asse perfetto con l'intero complesso, era anch'essa coperta con volta a botte, a sesto rialzato: la struttura qui fu ritrovata in migliore stato di conservazione. Curiosamente, pare fosse costituita da un unico guscio di mattoni, la cui intonacatura, sull'estradosso, non mostra tracce di ulteriori murature al di sopra di sé. 

(Bergamini 2004: 75)

Polz 2007.

Im Zuge der neuen Ausgrabungen wurde ein bislang unbekanntes, weiteres Saff-Grab mit einer 10-Pfeilerfassade entdeckt, das im gleichen Jahr teilweise freigelegt werden konnte. Auch hier fanden sich vor der Pfeilerfassade des Grabes bislang etwa 70 (!) unbeschriftete Grabkegel 1058.

1058 Die Kenntnis der bislang unpublizierten Gebelein-Grabkegel aus SCHIAPARELLIs Grabung im Magazin des Museums von Turin und der Auffindung weiterer Grabkegel vor dem neu entdeckten Saff-Grab in Gebelein verdanke ich ENRICHETTA LEOSPO † . Aus ihren Mitteilungen (brieflich Juli und September 2000) stammt auch das obige Zitat zu den Grabkegeln aus Jtjs Saff-Grab. Zu jüngeren Arbeiten des Museo Egizio, Turin am Grab des Jtj und dem neu entdeckten Saff-Grab, siehe jetzt G. BERGAMINI, in: ASAE 79, 2005, S. 33-39. 

(Polz 2007: 269)

Ejsmond, et al. 2017 [PAM (26 (1))]: 250.

Mo'alla

Manassa 2009.

For the detailed map, see Vivó 2022: 431.

Also present on the surface of this area (i. e. Area H2) are uninscribed ceramic funerary cones, probably contemporaneous with the nearby Eighteenth Dynasty burials, although a Middle Kingdom date is also possible.28

28 Lisa Manniche, "Funerary Cones," in Donald Redford, ed., Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (e-reference edition), (Oxford, July 22, 2009), http://www.oxford-ancientegypt.com/entry?entry=t176.e0258.

(Manassa 2009: 65)

Esna (?)

Davies's Red Notebook: 151.

The description below is for # 160.

A square cone said to come from Esna. 

(Davies's Red Notebook: 151)

Gebelein and Ed-Dêr

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.)

Kuban

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).

Aniba

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)

Abu Simbel

Edwards 1891: 335.

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 1891: 335)

*I do not know for sure if this object can be regarded as funerary cone. 

**As for the cones like the bottoms of amphorae, see 'Manufacturing Methods'.

Tombos

Funerary cones were discovered from the tomb of Tiy (TMB005/1. Edwards and Osman 2001 [GM 182] and # 705/B.78) and from the tomb of Saamun and Uren (TMB005. See # 644/B.17, # 646/B.19, Smith 2003: 142-143, and Smith 2018: 74-75).

Also, the south of TMB005 lies the tomb of Hm-nTr Horemhat, which has a funerary cone (Vivó 2022: 441. See also # 706/B.79).

Map

Given the above information, we can obtain an overview of the geographical location here.

I would like to thank Dr Lipkin and Mr Sakamoto for sharing their information with me.

And also...Gaza

At Gaza, the Palestinian Department of Antiquities discovered 17 cone-like objects, out of their primary context (Steel, Manley, Clarke, and Sadeq 2004). Though the place is far from Thebes and other places that yielded cones, the enigmatic objects look like cones in shape, size, and material. Further, they have stamped inscriptions which read 'mn-xpr[w?]-ra (Thutmose III [IV?])' and 'mAat-kA-ra (Hatshepsut)'. 

On the contrary, there also are some observations which differentiate them from the 'real' cones:

1. Real cones were not made for kings.

2. The 'cones' from Gaza have two inscriptions -one on the face and the other on the side. 

Given these substantive similarities and differences, excavators point out that these are not exact funerary cones, but are of similar function, used in funerary context.