Funerary Cone of the Scribe Amenemopet

This cone has the impression of a stamp matrix created for a man named Amenemopet (Amen-em-opet) who was also known as Tjanefer (Tja-nefer). He was a scribe who kept accounts of the barley belonging to the god Amun and also had the title Overseer of the Fields. Amenemopet owned Theban tomb 297 (TT 297) which is in the Khokha cemetery of western Thebes, behind Metropolitan House, the former field headquarters of the Museum's Egyptian Expedition.

During the 1914-15 field season, while clearing TT 297 and two uninscribed tombs nearby, the Museum's archaeologists uncovered five cones with the same stamped impression (the others are 15.10.3, .4, .22, .23). Three other cones in the collection have the same stamp (19.185.12, .17, .20). The best preserved impressions are on this cone and number 15.10.23.


Hundreds of ceramic cones like this one have been found in the non-royal cemeteries of the Theban necropolis. The Museum's excavators uncovered a Middle Kingdom tomb with rows of uninscribed cones embedded along the upper edge of the façade (see attached photograph). It seems likely that inscribed New Kingdom cones, like this one, were used in the same way, identifying the tomb owner by name and title. Although some are inscribed with the names of officials such as Amenemopet whose tombs are known, other cones record the names of people whose tombs have not yet been identified. CHR