Ancient Mediterranean

Digital Project

Galley

Cat. No.

C42

Date

Cypro-Archaic

Findspot

Cyprus, further provenance unknown

Dimensions

L: 17 cm; H (amidships): 3 cm; beam (amidships): 5 cm

Medium

terracotta boat model, buff clay with painted bichrome decoration

Accession Number

British Museum 1938,1130.6

References

Basch 1987: 251, no. 530; Dolan 2023: 405-406, no. 36; Göttlicher 1977: 35, no. 152a, pl. 10; Gray 1974: G. 31, 3. h); Hermary 1996: 16-17; Karageorghis 1996: 73, no. V(a):4, pl. XLI:8; Westerberg 1983: 37, no. 41, fig. 41

Flat hull with a pronounced tumble-home and a flat gunwale except towards the bow where it rises gradually in an unbroken curve into the horn. The stempost rises vertically, ending in an outward pointing slightly curved horn. The ram resembles a snout -- it is thick, rounded and points slightly downward. The bow has a large almond shaped "eye" with a pupil and eyebrow painted in black on either side. The incurving sternpost rises upward near vertically, its tip damaged. The hull decoration is near identical to the previous model with a few small differences. The zigzag line is red-colored. The horizontal motif is framed by two vertical parallel black lines running from gunwale to keel not only at the bow but also at the stern. This creates a rectangular panel with two vertical bands at each end. The bow has an additional horizontal line below the eye, at a somewhat lower level than the lowest horizontal line on the hull amidships. There are no interior fittings.

Flat hull with a pronounced tumble-home and a flat gunwale except towards the bow where it rises gradually in an unbroken curve into the horn. The stempost rises vertically, ending in an outward pointing slightly curved horn. The ram resembles a snout -- it is thick, rounded and points slightly downward. The bow has a large almond shaped "eye" with a pupil and eyebrow painted in black on either side. The incurving sternpost rises upward near vertically, its tip damaged. The hull decoration is near identical to the previous model with a few small differences. The zigzag line is red-colored. The horizontal motif is framed by two vertical parallel black lines running from gunwale to keel not only at the bow but also at the stern. This creates a rectangular panel with two vertical bands at each end. The bow has an additional horizontal line below the eye, at a somewhat lower level than the lowest horizontal line on the hull amidships. There are no interior fittings.

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.

Hermary, A. 1996. "Figurines en terre cuite des fouilles Anglaises d’Amathonte 1893-4," Cahiers du Centre d’Études Chypriotes 26: 13-22.

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

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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