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Boat model
Egyptian
Predynastic Period
Naqada II, 3650–3300 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Marl clay
Dimensions
Height x width x length: 11 x 16.4 x 37 cm (4 5/16 x 6 7/16 x 14 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Emily Esther Sears Fund
Accession Number03.1381
CollectionsAncient Egypt, Nubia and the Near East
ClassificationsModels
This pottery model boat was manufactures using the same technique as contemporary decorated pottery. With a hull adorned with vertical stripes, it is intended to represent a flay-bottomed boar made of reeds or papyrus lashed together. Such boat models may have been intended to transport the deceased symbolically to the afterlife, making them the precursors of the wooden boat models that later became a standard component of Egyptian burial assemblages.
DescriptionMade of pinkish clay and decorated on the hull with vertical lines in reddish paint, it represents a flat-bottomed boat of reeds or papyrus bundles lashed together. The tall prow and stern are now missing. Models like this one, relatively uncommon in the Predynastic Period, have been found in burials at important early cemeteries such as Naqada and Abydos. They may have been intended to transport the deceased symbolically to the afterlife, making them the precursors of the magnificent wooden boat models that came into use beginning in the Old Kingdom.
ProvenanceSaid to be from Naqada. 1903: Purchased for the MFA at Luxor, Egypt from Mohamed Mohassib by Albert M. Lythgoe for £3. Acquired with funds from the Emily Esther Sears Fund. (Accession date: January 1, 1903)