Ancient Mediterranean

Digital Project

Ship model

Cat. No.

C37

Date

Cypro-Archaic

Findspot

Amathus, Site E, tomb 73

Dimensions

L: 17.5 cm; H (amidships): 3.2 cm; beam (amidships): 7.2 cm

Medium

terracotta boat model, coarse buff clay with bichrome decoration (black and red/purple paint). Part of hull missing.

Accession Number

British Museum 1894,1101.282

References

Basch 1987: 254, 256, no. 547; Dolan 2023: 368-370, no. 23; Göttlicher 1977: 36, no. 165, pl. 10, pl. 12; Gray 1974: G. 31,3 f, pl. G. IV c, d; Karageorghis 1996: 76, no.V(b): 25, pl. XLIII: 7; Murray et al 1900: 112, 139, fig. 164, 17; Walters 1903: 35, A 204; Westerberg 1983: 27-28, no 31, fig. 31

Crescentic hull with a rounded bottom and vertical, near symmetrical posts ending in a flat, undecorated extremity. The posts project above the gunwale by 5.7 cm, with one of them curving inwards slightly while the other one is completely vertical. The extremity of the incurving stem flares out slightly. There is a thwart/cross-beam near each stem and a raised mast-socket amidships. The gunwale is painted red, with black and red horizontal lines on the hull. The excavation records note two other terracotta figurines of a horse and a bird.

Basch, L. 1987. Le musée imaginaire de la marine antique. Athens: Institut Hellénique pour la preservation de la tradition nautique.

Dolan, M. 2023. Ceci n'est pas un bateau: Reassessing terracotta boat models in Late Bronze and Iron Age Cyprus. University of Southhampton. Unpublished DPhil Thesis.

Göttlicher, A. 1978. Materialien für ein Korpus der Schiffsmodelle im Altertum. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.

Gray, D. 1974, Seewesen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.

Karageorghis, V. 1996. The coroplastic Art of ancient Cyprus. VI. Monsters, Animals and Miscellanea. Nicosia: A.G. Leventis Foundation.

Murray, A. S., Smith, A. H. and Walters, H. B. 1900. Excavations in Cyprus: (bequest of Miss E. T. Turner to the British Museum). London: Trustees of the British Museum.

Walters, H.B. 1903. Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum. London: Order of the Trustees.

Westerberg, K. 1983. Cypriote Ships from the Bronze Age to c. 500 B.C. (SIMA, Pocket-books, 22). Göteborg: P. Åströms förlag.

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