Ancient Mediterranean

Digital Project

ship model

Cat. No.

L39

Date

beginning of 8th century B.C.

Findspot

Achziv cemeteries, tomb context unknown

Dimensions

L: 16.3 cm; W: 5.6 cm; H: 5.5 cm

Medium

Terracotta model, light buff ware. Red painted on the interior, traces of red on exterior and wide red band along curvature of the boat

Accession Number

Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem 44.48

References

Basch 1987: 305, no. 642; Dayagi-Mendeles 2002: 155, no. 18, fig. 7.18; Kahanov 2004: 170

Slightly rockered hull with vertical, near symmetrical posts ending in a slightly flaring extremity with a concave top. The external edge of the posts is hollow/ slightly concave. One of the posts has a small cutwater at its base indicating it must be the stempost. Dayagi-Mendels reads this post as ending in an animal headed device which she proposes to be a horse. This is not very convincing. Based on parallels from Cyprus and the Levant, it is far likelier that this stempost device is actually a stylized bird. There are no interior fittings. The red paint covering both the exterior and interior of the boat is notable.

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

Dayagi-Mendeles, M. 2002. The Akhziv Cemeteries: the Ben-Dor Excavations, 1941-1944. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority.

Kahanov, Y. 2004. “Boat Models from Tomb N.1,” in E. Mazar The Phoenician Family Tomb n.1 at the Northern Cemetery of Achziv (10th-6th Centuries BCE). Sam Turner Expedition: Final Report of the Excavations. Cuadernos de Arqueologia Mediterranea 10. Barcelona: Carrera Edició, Publicaciones del Laboratorio de Arqueología, Universidad Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona, pp. 167-173.

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