Original Locations

Based on the previous studies, most researchers assume that cones were placed on the outer wall of the tombs, above the entrance. However my research has revealed two other possibilities so see below for more details about the all three locations.

Contents

On the façade of the tombs

The reasons for this assumption are as follows:

1. Wall decorations

In the wall paintings of the tombs, such as TT 41, TT 49, TT 55, TT 159, TT 178, TT 181, A.21, cones are depicted as being placed on the outer wall, above the entrance (Figs. 1–8). Also, to the best of my knowledge, there currently exist two papyri (Two parts on a papyrus for Nakht housed in the British Museum: 10471/7, 10471/14 and Louvre: N3068 [Fig. 13]) in which cones have been depicted in two rows above the entrance wall.

2. Old researchers' attestations

• Rhind 1862

Some researchers have reported that they actually found cones placed there. Despite the fact that the actual finding of cones on the outer wall is considerably rare, the following three excerpts from articles prove this claim. The first report is by Rhind as follows:

...Above the scarp, and flush with it, there remained about two feet of coarse building, in continuation, as it were, of the elevation of the front of the tomb; and I mention this here because, imbedded in the building, and stretching very nearly its entire length, were two rows of clay cones, impressed with a hieroglyphic subject on the ends turned to the light. 

(Rhind 1862: 136-137. The tomb is probably TT 47 but according to Manniche, 'The cone depicted by Rhind is that of Userhet (TT 47), but Rhind himself describes how the cones he took as a sample from the row in situ was packed with others. On arrival in England the labels had rubbed off. The statement in the Topographical Bibliography I2, 1, p. 87 that this was the tomb in which he saw the cones in situ should perhaps be taken with some caution' (Manniche 1988a: 199, n. 8). Thomas suggested the tomb to be TT 48 without any evidences. Thomas 1980: 59-60. However, see also the sentence below about the new in situ cones discovered by Waseda University)

• Reeves and Ryan 1987; Vandenbeusch and Taylor 2024 [BMSAES 27]: 100, 127.

The second report can be found in Henry Salt's manuscript, which is preserved in the British Museum and was published by Reeves and Ryan & Vanderbeusch and Taylor:

...An ancient brick, with Hieroglyphics upon it: and a fine collection of stamped seals which have been found arranged over the door of a Tomb, found by me at Thebes. 

(Reeves & Ryan 1987: 47-48; Vandenbeusch and Taylor 2024 [BMSAES 27]: 100, 127)

Reeves and Ryan suggest that the potential owner of the tomb to which Salt has referred to is TT A.9. However, till date, no concrete or convincing evidence has been provided. Nevertheless, Reeves and Ryan insist that the cone which Salt refers to is Davies & Macadam # 54, which was purchased by the British Museum in 1823 and is still in their possession. Vandenbeusch and Taylor also posit that the 'stamped seals' in the text may indicate # 54 (EA 9671-EA 9696), though it should be noted that cones EA 9692-EA 9696 are not # 54, but # 153.

3. Archaeological results 

• Winlock 1928

A hard evidence was afforded by Herbert Winlock. He discovered a tomb with cones above its entrance at Deir el-Bahri (Fig. 9).

Based on the above evidence, Borchardt, Königsberger, and Ricke reconstructed the outward appearances of the following three tombs: TT 157, TT 288/289, and TT 181 (Figs. 10–12).

• Polz 2003b

Another evidences was revealed by the Polz-lead DAIK mission to Dra Abul Naga. He states as follows:

...Sehr viel ergebnisreicher war dagegen die bislang ebenfalls nur teilweise erfolgte Freilegung des kleinen Vorhofes der Grabanlage: Hier fand sich ein größerer Teil der Lehmziegelmauer, die einst oberhalb der Felsfassade des Grabes errichtet war. Durch den Einsturz der Decke des Querraumes stürzte auch die Fassadenmauer in den Vorhof. Zwischen den einzelnen, zum Teil noch im Verband aufgefundenen Ziegeln dieser Mauer lagen große Mengen von Cones eines Typs (Abb. 25. DAVIES/MACADAM nr. 214), mit denen die Fassade ursprünglich verziert war (Taf. 63a). Zu den bislang insgesamt 39 Exemplaren, die aus dem Mauerversturz im Vorhof der Anlage stammen, kommen weitere 34 Examplare, die sich verstürzt in den unterhalb von K01.1 gelegenen Grabungsflächen auffinden ließen. Der ursprüngliche Anbringungsort dieser Cones, d.h. die Fassade oberhalb der Grabanlage K01.1 ist also gesichert. Damit ist auch die Identität des Grabbesitzers klar, der nach der Inschrift auf den Cones ein nfw n Hm nTr tpj n Jmn . "Kapitän des Hohenpriesters des Amun", namens Nb-an-n-sw war227. Die Grabanlage dieses herrn liegt demnach nicht in Khokha, wie bislang angenommen, sondern eben inmitten des Hügels von Dra' Abu el-Naga228. 

227 Zu dem Namen siehe RANKE, PN I. S. 183 [25].

228 PM I, 12, S. 305 identifiziert den Besitzer der Grabanlage TT 204 in Khokha aufgrund zweier Angaben mit unserem Kapitän: Reste der Deckeninschriften in TT 204 scheinen den Namen Nebanensu beinhaltet zu haben ("name and remains of title of deceased"), der Titel ("sailor of the first prophet of Amun") kommt aber offenbar von einem Cone ("title from cone"). KAMPP folgt dieser Zuweisung vorsichtig, sie scheint aber keine den Namen Nebanensu enthaltenden Inschriften mehr vorgefunden zu haben (Die thebanische Nekropole. S. 490). Es ist demnach sehr wahrscheinlich, daß in den "remains of title of deceased" bei PM nur der Teil erhalten war, der den Namen des Gottes Amun enthielt, was wegen des recht seltenen Personennamens Nebanensu für PM eine Gleichsetzung dieser Person mit der des bekannten Cones Nr. 214 nahelegte. Die Reste der Deckeninschrift in TT 204 könnten sich aber auch auf einen Herrn gleichen Namens mit dem Titel "servant of Amun" beziehen, dessen Statue aus Theben sich in Berlin befindet (so PM I. 21, S. 782, Inv. Nr. 10338) und der vielleicht der eigentliche Besitzer des Grabes TT 204 war.

(Polz 2003b: 380-381.)

• Colin 2021 and Colin et al. 2021

The IFAO mission to Asasif, adjacent to TT 33, has revealed many examples of uninscribed cones in situ (Figs. 20-21). However, this case does not suggest the 'original' site, because the cones were made and first used in the Middle Kingdom, and then used in a small wall called the 'hague' to prevent it from collapsing in the 18th dynasty. In other words, to be precise, their use in the 18th dynasty is a secondary use.

On the floor

• Leemans 1840

Leemans describes one of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden's object (sould house, current inv. no. AT 99. Note that this object is supposed to be dated in the Middle Kingdom or in the First Intermediate Period):

146. Terre cuite. Modèle de l'entrée d'une HYPOGÉE sépulcrale à deux portes; dans la cour, devant l'hypogée, une quantité d'offirandes, telles qu'une table avec trois vases, un grand vase, une table à libations, une tête et divers membres d'un bœuf, au milieu de quatre cônes ou sceaux funéraires. V, Partie III. § Y. — Long. 0.31 , larg. 0.31, haut. 0.18.

(Leemans 1840: 104-105)

Nous croyons que cette destination est rendue certaine par le MODÈLE DE L'ENTRÉE D'UN HYPOGÉE, dans le MUSÉE (v IIe  Partie, Sect I § 4. n. 146). Dans la cour, devant l'entrée, parmi les diverses offrandes on a figuré quatre de ces CONES tournés avec leur plus grand diamètre vers I'HYPOGÉE. Ils étaient donc offerts au défunt avec les autres objets, qu'on plaçait dans le tombeau. — Les inscriptions contiennent ordinairement les noms propres et les titres du défunt, quelquefois aussis les figures et les noms d'offrandes. — Ces inscriptions nous ont fait connaître un grand nombre de ces monumens appartenant à un même défunt, et trouvés apparemment tous dans un même hypogée. 

(Leemans 1840: 306)

However, note that Boeser, who published another catalogue of the same museum, described the conical object in the court not as funerary cones but as 'vier kegelförmigen Broten' (Boeser 1910: 2).

• Davies 1913b

N. de G. Davies also states as follows:

The burnt bricks on which the stamp is also impressed are curious (Plate Ll, Fig. 3). Pieces of about a dozen of them were found, in the course of the excavations, lying outside the door of Senmen’s chamber. Roughly square in shape, they have one curved edge, as if they had been employed as one of the two corbels which, with a hollowed beam resting on them, make up the false Egyptian arch.11 The advisability of providing for this purpose a brick which would not crush would account for its being burnt, a procedure never otherwise adopted. I do not know of any similarly shaped bricks having been found; their use here might be due to the unusual need of vaulting the little chamber. But tapering burnt bricks, stamped with the cone-stamps, are common, and these would serve for voussoirs, and for nothing else which I can suggest. The ordinary funerary cones, too, are eminently fitted to form a dome with, but neither bricks nor cones have ever been found built into an arch, or with mortar adhering. The building, if any, must have been dry. Two of these bricks of Senmen were close to the doorway, and might well have fallen from an arch over it. Perhaps it may be found that bricks and cones are foundation-deposits placed in the court and representing, the one the building materials, the other the bread supplied, either to the dead or to the labourers.

(Davies 1913b: 284)

• Bruyère 1927

Bruyère attested as follows:

...Il résulte des opinions ci-dessus que les cônes funéraires ont été jusqu'ici découverts seulement dans les cours des tombes, soit disposés en tumuli, soit fischée en terre, la pointe en bas, alignés côte à côte sur un ou plusieurs rangs sur le périmètre de la cour.

(Bruyère 1927: 19-20)

• Davies 1933b

N. de G. Davies also states as follows:

...Whether the pottery cones of Nefer-ḥotep were ranged as a finishing and protective line at the top, as was sometimes the case, may be doubted. Only about fifty of these cones are known, thirty-four of them having been found in our excavation of the site. Unless there has been a throw-out beyond the limits of our clearance, this is quite insufficient to furnish even one row along the frontage. Two rough holes were found in the floor of the court, one of which, however, may belong to the adjacent (intrusive) tomb. These little pits might have been meant to hold the cones as a kind of foundation deposit, but it is doubtful if they could contain as many as fifty. This point must, therefore, be left quite undecided.

(Davies 1933b: 6 & Pl. I [Fig. 15])

• Mond and Myers 1934.

At a Middle Kingdom cemetery in Armant, uninscribed funerary cones were discovered:

...Amongst the offerings may be seen the groups of bars, and in some cases the bars show alternate ends thickening. The same feature occurred on plates of a slightly different type from two Middle Kingdom tombs at Armant, 1213 and 1214 (Cemeteries of Armant I, unpublished), and here we gained a clue to their meaning. Some, in which the bars are of even thickness throughout their length, may well represent ribs of beef, as has been previously suggested, but those which are conical in shape undoubtedly represent the pottery cones, about 40 cm. in length, which were found in the same tombs, and these in their turn (the prototypes of the stamped cones of the Eighteenth Dynasty) are probably imitation loaves of bread...

(Mond and Myers 1934: 77)

• Mond and Myers 1937a and 1937b

As for the same cones, they described as follows:

...Fig. 2 shows some pottery cones lying inside one of the entrances, and possibly in situ...

(Mond and Myers 1937a: 22 and 1937b: Pl. XI. [Fig. 16])

• Mond and Myers 1937a and 1937b

From the same tomb in Armant described above (tomb no. 1214), some offering plates were discovered. Mond and Myers suggest there are funerary cones represented on them:

...The most interesting features of the tables are the complete oxen, trussed in 1-9 and 11, and free in 13, and the miniature pottery cones in 11. These are probably miniature copies of the loaves which the large cones presumably imitate. There are also some shorter, more abrupt cones, both on 11 and 10....

(Mond and Myers 1937a: 59 and 1937b: Pl. XXII. Note that they are wrongly described to have been found from the tomb 1213)

• Brack and Brack 1977

A discovery made by Annelies and Artur Brack may shed new light on this discussion. During their expedition conducted in 1973–1974, they unearthed cones located in the courts of the tombs (Fig. 14). The cones were placed neatly side by side, which allows us to assume that these cones were in situ, though Brack and Brack themselves assumed the cones to have come from the fallen façade. Interestingly, these cones were facing to the entrance of their tomb (TT 74).

(Brack and Brack 1977: 59, Taf. 52a)

It can be deduced that in some instances cones were placed on the floor, and not on the tomb façades.

On the side wall of the court

• Eigner 1984

Though not in the 18th dynasty, which saw the prosperity of funerary cones, Padihorresnet's TT 196 (from the 26th dynasty) has yielded some cones (# 515 and # 605) scattered around at the foot of the enclosure walls, not just at the foot of one side. Eigner believes the cones have not moved since their collapse, though such a case is rare:

Analog dem Ergebnis der Untersuchungen von BORCHARDT und RICKE, entsprechend auch der Fotografie WINLOCKs und der Beschreibung RHINDs kann aber der Ort für die Grabkegel am spätzeitlichen Oberbau ziemlich sicher angenommen werden: Unterhalb der Hohlkehle, die den oberen Abschluß der Außenmauern und Pylone bildet. Knapp unterhalb des Rundstabes, in einer Lage, die dem umlaufenden Schriftfries in den „Lichthöfen“ entspricht. Eine dichte Anordnung in zwei oder drei Reihen übereinander kann angenommen werden (Abb. 84). Am Fuß der nördlichen Außenmauer des Padihorresnet-Grabes wurden von den Ausgräbern Grabkegel gefunden, deren Lage nach ihrem Absturz von der Außenmauer nicht mehr gestört worden war. Dadurch ist der Beweis gegeben, daß die Kegel nicht nur auf den Pylonen angebracht waren, sondern vermutlich den ganzen Oberbau in einem umlaufenden Fries umgaben. Das muß durchaus nicht für alle Oberbauten der Spätzeit gelten. Beim Grab der Mutirdis scheinen die Kegel nur auf die Pylone beschränkt gewesen zu sein. DIETER ARNOLD konnte dort die eindeutige Zuordnung bestimmter Grabkegeltypen zu einem bestimmten Pylon feststellen, erwähnt aber keine Funde am Fuß der Außenmauern199. Auch die nördlichen Eingangspylone am Hatschepsutaufweg (Monthemhet, Padineith, Pabasa, Scheschonq) waren mit Kegeln geschmückt. Am Fuß des Padineith-Pylons wurden vom Verfasser zwei Grabkegel in ursprünglicher Absturzlage gefunden.

199 DIETER ARNOLD in MDAIK 21 (1966), 83.

(Eigner 1984: 110)

• Kondo et al. 2016 and Kondo et al. 2017

The archaeological mission to TT 47 by Waseda University revealed five funerary cones placed in situ on the side wall of the court (Kondo et al. 2016: 120, 122-123). They were placed in a horizontal line at nearly regular intervals (Fig. 17). Considering this case, cones were placed on side walls, too. In fact, there is a model house that probably shows the side wall cones. It is the Middle Kingdom object called 'soul house (UC18400)' and is housed in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at UCL (Fig. 18). The soul house has many circular protruding objects on the façade as well as side walls. If these small objects may refer to funerary cones, it might not be rare that cones were place on the side walls of each tomb court. For other soul houses with round protruding dots, see ROM: 918.32.23, BM: EA32610, EA32613, and MMA: 20.2.13.

Also, Waseda excavation team found a stamped brick in situ on the same wall, just below the funerary cones described above (Fig. 19). This is the first report that informs us of such an in situ stamped brick. This brick was not placed at the upper part of the inner wall of the court but at the foot level. This testifies the purpose of TT 47 funerary cones, made at the later period of the Amunhotep III's reign, is not the symbol of the wooden beam.

In the doorway of the tomb's small pylons

• Schreiber 2017

Regarding some of the specific type of # 337 bricks, Schreiber states:

Judging by the placement of the stamp, bricks of this type must have been built in an upright position in a way that the stamp on them (7x4.5 cm) be seen on the surface of the wall they decorated. Except for the doorway giving access to the cult chapel, the wall faces of the forecourt in Amenhotep’s tomb did not have a figure decoration but were ornamented with a whitewashed plaster only. Considering that the same chalky white wash is visible on the stamp of the said brick, one may presume that it served as a decorative element in the forecourt, probably built in the doorway of the tomb’s small pylons.

(Schreiber 2017: 100)

On the wall (?)

In 1911, E. Schiaparelli excavated the tomb of Iti and his wife Neferu at Gebelein, dating back to the First Intermediate Period. The two pictures (Figs. 22 and 23) show unstamped cones in situ. One of the mysterious features of the cones is that it is unclear how they were originally arranged, despite being found in situ. As the cones appear to have been placed on the dismantled wall, it is uncertain what the original placement looked like.

Figs.