Ancient Egyptian Head Cones: A Puzzle only Recently Solved
Ancient Egypt was very kind to archaeologists. They lived in a very dry environment, perfect for preserving their dead, and they helpfully built monumental buildings in stone, covering the walls with their history.
To be sure, these monumental edifices which survive are only the peak of Egyptian architecture, with many more basic buildings lost to time. But what does survive is enough to give us more detail on the Egyptians than any other comparative civilization.
Amongst the answers however there are puzzles. One such comes from the repeating images of Egyptians with small, pointy cones over their heads. The men and women in these images are shown with head cones, depicted artistically.
These depictions were not just in images but also survive in papyrus scrolls, and on sarcophagi. These are obvious common and recognizable depictions, which would be well know to the Egyptians but which seem obscure to us.
These depictions of the pointy cones resemble that these objects were used in divine rituals and royal feasts. Women are depicted in images giving birth while wearing these pointy cones.
It seems that they are associated with specific gods. But, even though these head cones were common in all forms of Egyptian art for over 1,000 years, their existence and purpose were still a mystery.
That mystery has finally been solved now with the help of professional archaeologists with over years of research and analysis. At last we think we know what these are.
