Ancient Mediterranean

Digital Project

Ship model

Cat. No.

C47

Date

Cypro-Archaic

Findspot

Believed to be from Amathus

Dimensions

unknown

Medium

terracotta boat model

Accession Number

Gołuchów Castle, Poland (lost)

References

Dolan 2023: 518-519, no. 86; Göttlicher 1978: 37, no. 166, pl. 12; Kapera 1969: 45-46; Westerberg 1983: 40, no. 47, fig. 47

Crescentic hull with a painted horizontal ladder motif along the gunwale which must represent an open rower's gallery or a bulwark, similar to Nicosia no. 1935 C.57. The stempost has an outward incline and extends above the gunwale, ending in a knob-like device. At its base is a triangular ram, with a smaller subsidiary ram immediately above it. The sternpost rises sharply in a near vertical manner, and has no decorative device.

The origin and circumstances of discovery of this model are unknown. The model used to be in the collection of Gołuchów Castle, Poland until World War II, when it was lost.

Dolan thinks that the model may have been part of the collection of the Prince Władysław Czartoryski, drawing from another model in his collection which bears similarities. He thinks that the model therefore most likely came from Amathus (Dolan 2023: 519)

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 Unpublished DPhil Thesis.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.

Kapera, Z. J. 1969. “Die Terrakottaflotte des Kinyras,” Bibliotheca Classica Orientalis 14: 45–46.

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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