Funerary cone

File:Cones-IMG 6354.JPG]]

File:Schiaparelli's excavations - Gebelein, Northern hill, Painted tomb of Iti and Neferu, 1911, photo 3 of 82 - Archivio fotografico Museo Egizio, Turin B00289.jpg. Schiaparelli excavations, 1911.]]

Funerary cones were small cones made from clay that were used in ancient Egypt, almost exclusively in the Theban Necropolis.{{cite web |last1=Zenihiro |first1=Kento |title=Geographical distribution |url=http://www.funerarycones.com/Geographical_distribution/Geographical_distribution.html |website=The World of Funerary Cones |access-date=27 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303173341/http://www.funerarycones.com/Geographical_distribution/Geographical_distribution.html |archive-date=3 March 2016}} The items were placed over the entrance of the chapel of a tomb. Early examples have been found from the Eleventh Dynasty. However, they are generally undecorated. During the New Kingdom, the cones were smaller in size and inscribed in hieroglyphs with the title and name of the tomb owner, often with a short prayer.{{cite web |vauthors=Grajetzki W, Quirke S, etal |author-link1=Wolfram Grajetzki |author-link2=Stephen Quirke|title=Funerary cones |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt//thebes/tombs/conesinfo.html |website=Digital Egypt for Universities |publisher=University College London |access-date=27 September 2023}} The exact purpose of the cones is unknown, but hypotheses exist that they variously served as passports, architectural features, and symbolic offerings, among others.{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/thebes/tombs/cones.html|title=Funerary Cones of the 18th Dynasty (from Thebes)|accessdate=2008-04-20}}{{Cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/view/funerarycones/functions|title=The World of Funerary Cones - Functions|website=sites.google.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-20}}

Fragments of seventeen terracotta cones were found at the 2nd millennium BC site of al-Moghraqa in the Gaza Strip. The cones have no parallels in the Levant, and the archaeologists investigating al-Moghraqa suggested that the cones could have been a local adaptation of Theban funerary customs.{{Cite journal |last=Steel |first=Louise |author-link=Louise Steel (archaeologist) |last2=Manley |first2=Bill |last3=Clarke |first3=Joanne |last4=Sadeq |first4=Moain |author-link4=Moain Sadeq |date=2004 |title=Egyptian ‘Funerary Cones’ from El-Moghraqa, Gaza |url= |journal=The Antiquaries Journal |language=en |volume=84 |pages=323, 329-330 |doi=10.1017/S0003581500045856}}

Funerary cones were first organized into a corpus by Davies and Macadam (1957).Davies, N. de G. and M.F.L. Macadam (1957), A corpus of inscribed Egyptian funerary cones. Griffith Institute, Oxford. This catalog was later supplemented by Vivo and Costa (1997).{{Cite web|last=Vivó|first=Jaume|title=Funerary Cones Unattested in the Corpus of Davies and Macadam (Annex 1)|url=https://www.academia.edu/25841852}} In the 21st century, Dibley and Lipkin (2009) and Zenihiro (2009) have compiled more complete publications, with Theis (2017) contributing additional cones from books, articles, auction and exhibition catalogues for consideration.{{Cite journal|last=Theis|first=Christoffer|title=Funerary Cones from various Auctions and Collections|url=https://www.academia.edu/31615555|journal=PalArch's Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology |volume=14 |year=2017 |pages=1–25|language=en}}