Model of a Sailing Boat

A model boat with the pilot in the bow and the owner resting under a canopy. Boats were the commonest type of funerary models placed in tombs during the Middle Kingdom. They provided the dead person with the magical means of traveling along the waterways of the Underworld.

All the standing sailors except the pilot, as well as the owner, still have the remains of the original fabric skirts. No facial features carved except noses; eyes are painted on. Arms are pegged to shoulders and cut off straight at ends; hands are not shaped.

Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, ca. 1991-1786 BC. Now in the British Museum, London. EA41574