Model Paddling Boat
A wooden model boat with a green hull crowded with paddlers, the most brightly colored of the boats found in the tomb of Meketre. Full commentary ↓
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Model Paddling Boat is a textile by an unknown maker (ca. 1981–1975 B.C.) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In the pictureMore than ten paddlers sit in two rows on a long green-painted boat, working short paddles. The bow and stern rise upward in the shape of papyrus bundles; in the middle are a standing figure and a white cloth, and at the stern a large steering oar. The paddlers wear white kilts and have reddish-brown skin. It is 1.3 meters long.
BackgroundThis is one of several model boats from the tomb of Meketre. Boats paddled with short strokes like this were used for traveling through the shallows of the Nile and through marshes. The green hull appears to imitate a papyrus boat, and boats of this kind were used for temple pilgrimages and funeral processions. The paint survives this well after 4,000 years because the tomb's hidden chamber escaped robbers.
Puzzle tipThe green hull, the paddlers in white kilts, and the red paddles and steering oar divide by color. Anchor both ends with the rising curved pieces of the bow and stern, then place the paddlers' small heads row by row. Fill in the gray background last. 48 pieces works well.
- Period
- Middle Kingdom
- Dynasty
- Dynasty 12
- Medium
- Wood, paint, plaster, linen twine, linen fabric
- Dimensions
- L. 132.5 cm (52 3/16 in.), with rudder 138.5 (54 1/2 in.); H
- Credit line
- Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1920
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
- An Afterlife Fleet in Five Pieces from a Hidden Chamber in Meketre's Tomb
In 1920, excavators opened a hidden chamber in a 4,000-year-old tomb and found model boats with their colors intact. Five pieces from Meketre's afterlife fleet.
