TAA i.3.1.29

                                                      Boats of Ceremony.

          In this section are included those models which repre-

sent vessels which were not used in the ordinary life of 

the Egyptians of Tutankhamen's time, and of which it is at 

least doubtful whether they represent anything which then 

floated on the water. More probably such "boats" were only 

carried in processions.

          These models include two which are decorated to repre-

sent reed canoes, two of the type generally known as "Moon" 

boats/<Barks"><,> with incurving lotus ends<,> and four of the "Solar Bark" 

type<,> with vertical lotus ends.

          The two models of the reed<->canoe design definitely 

represent wooden<->built boats which have been painted in 

the fashion of reed canoes, in green and blue, bound with 

yellow<, rather than structures made of reeds.>

          The actual reed canoe<,> or float, which is so frequently 

shown in hunting scenes from the Sagg/<aqq>ara period onwards con-

sist of a more or less hollow mass of papyrus reeds<,> bound 

together into the form of a canoe and having in its centre 

an independent bundle of reeds on which the hunter stood. 

This added bundle was of great importance as it provided 

further, and very necessary, buoyancy, while the canoe<->form 

of the outer body facilitated progress through the water. 

The added bundle can be plainly seen <with unusual definition> in a fresco in the tomb 

of Nakht<,> dating from the XVIII Dynasty. 

          Similar papyrus canoes are still in use on Lake Tana, 

the source of the Blue Nile, where the independent bundle 

of reeds makes it possible to transport coffee in a reason-

able dry condition.

          Both models, however, show no sign of this feature, 

while the edges are very much too sharp to represent an actual 

reed construction. 

          The ends of the model curve upwards slightly but are 

very much flattened-out above, while they are painted to