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A Phoenician stone model boat with dedicatory inscription image 1
A Phoenician stone model boat with dedicatory inscription image 2
A Phoenician stone model boat with dedicatory inscription image 3
Property from a Princely Collection (Lots 1-74)
Lot 41*

A Phoenician stone model boat with dedicatory inscription

Antiquities
4 July 2024, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

£20,000 - £25,000

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A Phoenician stone model boat with dedicatory inscription
Circa 5th-4th Century B.C.
42.5cm long

Footnotes

Provenance:
Anonymous sale; François de Ricqlès, Drouot-Montaigne, Paris, 11 November 2001, lot 160.
Property from a Princely Collection, acquired at the above sale.

This unusual model boat is inscribed on one side with a text in Phoenician characters, likely being a proper noun meaning 'the protégé of Baal'. The type of small vessel depicted was used for coastal work, or transporting cargo from larger ships. Though the precise function of this sculpture is unknown, the model-scale and inscription suggests that it was dedicatory. The Phoenicians were phenomenally successful mariners, as geography demanded of them: 'confined to a narrow coastal strip with limited agricultural resources, the sea formed their natural outlet...they realized its potential for economic growth - not only as a vehicle for commercial exchange but as a channel for prospecting abroad' (G.E. Markoe, Phoenicians, London, 2000, p. 12). The image of a boat was emblematic of Phoenician culture, as Markoe notes, 'in the final analysis, it is as seafarers that the Phoenicians will be remembered' (ibid.).

Additional information

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