Ancient Mediterranean

Digital Project

Fragmentary ship model

Cat. No.

A25

Date

LH IIIC

Findspot

Asine, house G

Dimensions

L (restored): 15.8 cm; H: 3.3-4.5 cm

Medium

Clay model, cream slip, reddish-brown paint. Half hull fragment

Accession Number

Nauplion Archaeological Museum 332

References

Basch 1987: 141, no. 294; Göttlicher 1978: 62, no. 332, pl. 25.332; Johnston 1985: 33, BA26; Tartaron 2013: 43, 50, figs. 2.8, 3.2; Vichos and Lolos 1997: 332-33, fig. 21; Wachsmann 1982: 302; 1998: 152, fig. 7.50; Wedde 2000: 310, no. 313

Only half of the hull is preserved, the rest is a hypothetical reconstruction. The zoomorphic figurehead is a reconstruction and therefore cannot be trusted. There are three frames/spars painted on the inside. On the outside of the model, the keel, wale, and gunwale are indicated by longitudinal bands. A small circular depression in the center of the model amidships possibly indicates the mast step. The painted ribs are paralleled by other LBA models such as Tiryns, Tanagra, and Phylakopi.

Located in the northern edge of the Mycenaean town, house G had what has been identified as a domestic shrine, possibly part of a house or a larger religious building. The main cult room (XXXII) was rectangular in shape, with two columns along its central axis and a cult bench or shelf in the northeast corner for votive offerings. Around it were found five Mycenaean type female figurines, a large terracotta head of a deity, a kernos, an inverted jug with a deliberately broken bottom, and a stone axe. The shrine was in use only for a short period of time during the LH IIIC period.

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

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

Johnston, P. F. 1985. Ships and Boat Models in Ancient Greece. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.

Tartaron, T. F. 2013. Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Vichos, Y. and Lolos, Y. 1997. “The Cypro-Mycenaean Wreck at Point Iria in the Argolic Gulf: First Thoughts on the Origin and the Nature of the Vessel.” in S. Swiny, R. Hohlfelder, S. H. Wylde (eds.) Res Maritimae, Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean from Prehistory to Late Antiquity. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium “Cities on the Sea,” Nicosia, Cyprus, October 18-22, 1994. CAARI Monograph Series vol. 1. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, pp. 321-337.

Wachsmann, S. 1982. “The Ships of the Sea People (IJNA 10: 187-220): Additional Notes,” IJNA 11: 297-304.

―――. 1998. Seagoing Ships & Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.

Wedde, M. 2000. Towards a Hermeneutics of Aegean Bronze Age Ship Imagery. Peleus Studien zur Archäologie und Geschichte Griechenlands und Zyperns, vol. 6. Bibliopolis: Mannheim and Möhnsee.

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