Examples of terracotta models of Nile boats from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Symbolism and significance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26485/AAL/2023/69/4Keywords:
model of a boat, terracotta, Ptolemaic-Roman EgyptAbstract
The subject of this article is terracottas depicting boats, whose original designs could have been utilized for navigation on the Nile. Like other terracotta artefacts they are prone to various interpretations, including religious, cultic, symbolic, and even more prosaic interpretations. The primary hypothesis presented in this text suggests that their symbolic significance is associated with the household cult of individuals particularly connected with navigating the waters of the Nile.
References
Bailey M.D. 2008. Catalogue of the Terracottas in the British Museum, vol. VI, Ptolemaic and Roam Terracottas from Egypt, London.
Bricault L. 2020. Isis Pelagia: images, names, and cults of a goddess of the seas, Leiden.
Butzer W. K. 2001. Nile. In D.B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Vol. 2, Oxford, 543-551.
Frankfurter, D. 2018. Christianizing Egypt. Syncretism and Local Worlds in Late Antiquity, Princeton, Oxford.
Jędraszek S. 2019. Terakotowe wyobrażenia psów z okresu ptolomejsko-rzymskiego. Wybrane przykłady. In Borkowska E., Borkowski A., Kozak E., Długołęcka-Pietrzak M., Stelingowska B. (eds.), Pies w literaturze, kulturze, języku i mediach. Studies, Animals, Plants, 2019:13-37.
Khalil E. 2010. The Sea, the River and the Lake: All the Waterways Lead to Alexandria, Bollettino di Archeologia online I 2010/ Volume specjale: 33-48.
Kruse, T. 2013. The Nile Police in the Ptolemaic Period. In Buraselis K., Stefanou M., Thompson J. D. (eds.), The Ptolemies, the sea and the Nile: Studies in Waterborne Power, Cambridge, 172-184.
Landström B. 1970. Ships of the Pharaohs: 4000 years of Egyptian Shipbuilding, Doubleday
MacDougall B. 2016. The Book of Isis and the Myth of Er, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 137, No. 2: 251-285.
Perdrizet P. 1921. Les terres cuites grecques d’Égypte de la collection Fouquet, Nancy‒Paris‒Strasbourg.
Rossi L. 2022. Sailing on the Nile during the Hellenistic Age: Nautical Environments, Practices, Norms. Dialogues d’histoire ancienne, 25. Special Issue 25: 165-192.
Tooley J.M.A. 1986. An Unusual Type of Model Boat, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 72: 189-192.
Van’t Dack E., Hauben H. 1978. L’apport égyptien à l’armée navale lagide. In H. Maehler, V.M. Strocka, Das ptolemäische Ägypten. Akten des internationalen Symposions 27.-29. September 1976 in Berlin, Mainz, 59-93.
Vanhulle, D. 2018. Boat symbolism in Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt: An Ethno-Archaeological approach, Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, 2018; 17:173-187.
Vinson S. 1994. Egyptian Boats and Ship, Shire.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Łódzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
