Ancient Egypt, Middle Kingdom, ca. 2040 to 1802 BCE. A hand-carved, three-dimensional wooden boatman, with classic Egyptian face (large, dark-outlined eyes), a cropped haircut, and a white loincloth. He is in a seated position, with long, articulated arms, which probably would have been raised to hold oars in his original placement. During the Sixth Dynasty, it became common to place wooden models of lifelike scenes in Egyptian tombs; by the Middle Kingdom, they were placed in the tomb chamber, around the coffin, although some very rich tombs had a separate chamber just for wooden models. Two ships are found in almost all tombs that have models from this time period, and those ships are, during the Middle Kingdom, staffed by boatmen like this one. This boatman was made to be a servant in the afterlife, ready to row the deceased upon the eternal Nile, as real boatmen would have done in life. Size: 2.6" W x 6.6" H (6.6 cm x 16.8 cm)

Provenance: Ex-Private Florida collection

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