Ancient Mediterranean

Digital Project

Ship model

Cat. No.

C54

Date

Cypro-Archaic

Findspot

Yialousa (probably)

Dimensions

L: 19 cm; H (amidships): 3.5 cm; beam (amidships): 5.5 cm

Medium

terracotta boat model of yellow-red clay with trades of red painted decoration on the outside. Rough outside surface, smooth inside

Accession Number

Nicosia Museum 1937/VI-8/3

References

Basch 1987: 258, no. 556; Dolan 2023: 175, 241-242, 542, no. 99; Gray 1974: G. 31, 3.j; Karageorghis 1995: 129 no. II(VI)4, pl LXXVI:1; Westerberg 1983: 21, no. 21, fig. 21

Low hull with a flat bottom and a flat, albeit uneven gunwale. The stempost is straight with a forward slant, ending in an outward facing bird-headed device with eyes and traces of incised grooves. The incurving sternpost rises above the gunwale, its tip broken off. There are two seated figures facing each other, one larger than the other. They have protruding noses, chins and ears and topped caps. The larger figure at the stern has both arms outside of the gunwale and holds and oar 6 cm long. He is probably the helmsman.

Low hull with a flat bottom and a flat, albeit uneven gunwale. The stempost is straight with a forward slant, ending in an outward facing bird-headed device with eyes and traces of incised grooves. The incurving sternpost rises above the gunwale, its tip broken off. There are two seated figures facing each other, one larger than the other. They have protruding noses, chins and ears and topped caps. The larger figure at the stern has both arms outside of the gunwale and holds and oar 6 cm long. He is probably the helmsman.

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 Unpublished DPhil Thesis.

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

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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