Works of Art
Neolithic Terracotta boat
Period: Vinca Culture, Balkans, 2nd Millennium B.C.
Culture: Neolithic, European
Category: Array
Dimensions: Height: 17 cm, Lenght: 41 cm
Price: POR
Provenance:
ex. Michael and Judy Steinhardt Collection, New York.
ex. Tkalec AG, Zurich
Condition: The vessel is complete and intact, with some cracks – a long one running across the center of the plate. Much of the original polychrome of the decoration motifs has remained. Nice original dark brown patina on the outer surface of the boat.
Description
This boat is very interesting, not only because of its excellent state of preservation, but also because, apart from a fragmentary piece at the Museum of Belgrade, we do not know of any othercomparable boats. It was probably a cultural object - a libation plate? - modeled in the shape of a grand boat with a raised prow fashioned in the shape of an animal protome (a bull with its horns chopped off?). The floor of the ship is nearly flat, with the sides slightly raised: it rests on two long, narrow feet that could represent the feet of an animal. With the exception of the interior of the boat, the rest of the surface is entirely decorated with stamped geometric motifs and painted with a white paste: garlands, lozenges, spirals and volutes, festoons, lines, etc. Two suspension holes are pierced in the right side, near the edge. The precise significance of this piece is unknown: according to certain archaeologists, for the cultures of the European Bronze Age, the boat - along with the chariot - was the mode of transportation for the sun disk; according to other experts, it often appeared in relation to chtonian cults (death and the rebirth of nature, the cult of the dead).
Bibliography
For early Anthropomorphic boat vessel designs, see:
GIMBUTAS M., “The Language of the Goddess”, Great Britain, 1989, pp.247-249
For a comparable type work, see:
KRUTA V., “L’Europe des Origines”, Paris, 1992, p.139, no.104-105
EBNOTER E., “Vom Toten Meer zum Stillen Ozean”, Sammlung Ebnöter, Schaffausen, Switzerland, p.24