Funerary Boat being Rowed

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This model of a funeral boat was found with twenty three other models of boats, gardens, and workshops a hidden chamber at the side of the passage leading into the rock cut tomb of the royal chief steward Meketre, who began his career under King Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II of Dynasty 11 and continued to serve successive kings into the early years of Dynasty 12.The green color of the hull of this boat, its vertical prow, backward-curving stern and double steering oars imitate elements of vessels made from papyrus stalks. Even the lashings of the leather sheaths that covered prow and stern of such boats are rendered. Boats of this particular type appear in representations of the "pilgrimage to Abydos" that was part of the Egyptian funerary ritual from the Middle Kingdom onwards. The ritual character of this boat trip is clearly demonstrated by the fact that not the living Meketre but a statue sits under the baldaquin accompanied by a companion (possibly his son) and a large libation vessel. The basic idea of a trip to the major cult center of the god Osiris at Abydos, where the god's death and resurrection were celebrated, is however maintained by the presence of two boats: this one that is being paddled northward from Thebes to Abydos against the prevailing wind by sixteen men whose varied sizes and arm positions create an impression of movement along the line, and another that is just setting out on the back trip under sail. All the accessible rooms in the tomb of Meketre had been robbed and plundered already during Antiquity; but early in 1920 the Museum's excavator, Herbert Winlock, wanted to obtain an accurate floor plan of the tomb's layout for his map of the Eleventh Dynasty necropolis at Thebes and, therefore, had his workmen clean out the accumulated debris. It was during this cleaning operation that the small hidden chamber was discovered, filled with twenty-four almost perfectly preserved models. Eventually, half of these went to the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and the other half came to the Metropolitan Museum in the partition of finds.

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