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Funerary cone of Amenhotep

Egyptian
New Kingdom, Dynasty 18–20
1550–1070 B.C.

Medium/Technique Pottery
Dimensions Height x diameter: 4.1 x 6.7 cm (1 5/8 x 2 3/4 in.)
Credit Line Hay Collection—Gift of C. Granville Way
Accession Number72.1780
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsArchitectural elements

Catalogue Raisonné Davies & MacAdam 27
DescriptionFunerary cone fragment with cone end missing; circular stamp on opposite end with three horizontal registers.

Translation of text:
"Page of Amen,
Amenhotep, begotten by the High Priest of
Hathor, Nomarch of Thebes Amenemhat"

Flanking registers: "True-of-Voice"

Transliteration:
Xrd n kAp n
Imn Imn-htp ir.n. Hm-nTr tpy n
Hwt-Hr Hry-tp WAst Imn-m-HAt

Flanking registers: mAa-xrw

Funerary cones were components of a frieze, inserted above the doors of private tombs, particularly in the Theban region. They have been variously interpreted as: name-plates of sorts to identify the tomb owner, decorative memorials, boundary markers for a tomb, dummy bread loaves or meat offerings, symbolic roof beams, or (for the visible circular head) depictions of the sun disk.

Davies and Macadam, A Corpus of Inscribed Egyptian Funerary Cones (1957), type #27.



ProvenanceBy 1836: Robert Hay Collection, Linplum, Scotland; 1863: to his son, Robert James Alexander Hay; 1868-1872: Way Collection, Boston (purchased by Samuel A. Way through London dealers Rollin and Feuardent, 27 Haymarket); 1872: given to the MFA by Samuel's son, C. Granville Way.
(Accession date: June 28, 1872)