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Funerary cone of Amenhotep
Egyptian
New Kingdom, Dynasty 18–20
1550–1070 B.C.
Object Place: Egypt, Likely from Thebes (Dra Abu el-Naga)
Medium/Technique
Pottery
Credit Line
Hay Collection—Gift of C. Granville Way
Accession NumberRES.72.330
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Egypt, Nubia and the Near East
ClassificationsArchitectural elements
Catalogue Raisonné
Davies & MacAdam 151
DescriptionFragment of a wedge-shaped funerary cone or a brick fragment employed as a funerary cone, fashioned of reddish clay. Faint traces of red paint. One side stamped with a circular impressions of hieroglyphic text arranged in an undivided field to identify the owner as "One Honored by Osiris, Acolyte of Amen of the 4th phyle Amenhotep, True-of-Voice" (imAxy xr Wsir imy-st-a n Imn Hr sA 4-nw Imn-Htp mAa xrw).
Funerary cones (and objects employed similarly) 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, customarily circular head) depictions of the sun disk.
For other examples of this tomb owner see: Res.72.325; Res.72.326; Res.72.327; Res.72.328; Res.72.329; 72.1812; 72.1813.
Davies and Macadam, A Corpus of Inscribed Egyptian Funerary Cones (1957), type #151.
Funerary cones (and objects employed similarly) 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, customarily circular head) depictions of the sun disk.
For other examples of this tomb owner see: Res.72.325; Res.72.326; Res.72.327; Res.72.328; Res.72.329; 72.1812; 72.1813.
Davies and Macadam, A Corpus of Inscribed Egyptian Funerary Cones (1957), type #151.
ProvenanceProbably from Dra Abu el-Naga (Thebes). By 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)
(Accession Date: June 28, 1872)