Figure 8A.1. Late Helladic IIIC lb sherd from Ashkelon depicting a bird-head post ornament with the lower portions of the legs of a man who is standing on it (drawing by P. Sibella. Courtesy of L. E. Stager and the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon)
Additional Evidence
In recent years, additional depictions of ships of Aegean Bronze Age tradition have come to the attention of scholars. These are valuable contributions to our corpus of ship representations.
Ashkelon, Israel
A sherd uncovered at Ashkelon bears a ship’s post ending in a bird-head device (Fig. 8A.1).1 Although found in a fill, the sherd’s fabric is typical of Late Helladic IIIC lb ware found at Ashkelon and is believed to have been made at the site. The painting on the sherd is a fragment of a larger scene that originally must have contained at least one ship.
The post—it is not possible to determine whether this is a stem or sternpost, or whether it faces inboard or outboard—essentially is horizontal at its extremity. The bird-head device capping the sternpost is formed by a simple circle, with the eye represented by a central dot. The beak continues the curving lower line of the post. Theoretically at least, this could also represent the head and neck of a device in the shape of a bird, as on the ship depictions from Tragana and Enkomi as well as on Geometric period ships (Figs. 7.17, 28: A; 8.42–43). The latter possibility seems unlikely, however, judging from its size relative to the preserved legs of a man standing upon it.
The post is decorated with single zigzag lines along its upper and lower edges. Similar ornamentation appears on the vertical bow of the Tragana ship (wavy and zigzag lines are also shown rising skyward from this ship’s steering oar), on a terra-cotta ship model from Tiryns, on three Cypriot ship askoi, as well as on a fourth askos from the Athenian Acropolis, and on the bird-head device from Maroni (Figs. 7.17, 45, 48: A–B, 49; 8.48).
The muscular legs of a man standing on the post have been preserved up to thigh level. The figure’s legs are slightly bent at the knees and, assuming a frontal view, the heel of his left foot is planted forward, on top of the bird-head device, while his right foot is placed behind it, on the post. The left foot has a line rising vertically from it near the toe. If the artist’s intention was to depict footwear curving at the toe—known from the Aegean as well as Asia Minor—that attempt was unsuccessful.2 Behind the figure’s legs is another curving line, which may perhaps represent either the curving profile of a shield (compare Figs. 7.8: A, 15) or the arm of a bow (compare Fig. 7.16).3
Warriors are often depicted on Aegean ships standing in the fore and sterncastles adjacent to the posts. Such is the case at Medinet Habu on ships N. 1–2, 4 and 5 (Figs. 8.3–4, 6–8, 10–12). Warriors are situated at the bow on all three of the ships from Kynos described above (Figs. 7.8: A, 15–16). Additionally, men facing outboard at the bow and the stern appear on a ship from Phaistos (Fig. 7.27). The closest parallels for figures actually standing on post ornaments come from a depiction of an Attic Geometric galley dating to the middle eighth century B.C. and a seventh-century B.C. Beotian bronze fibula found in Crete.4
Figure 8A.1. Late Helladic IIIC lb sherd from Ashkelon depicting a bird-head post ornament with the lower portions of the legs of a man who is standing on it (drawing by P. Sibella. Courtesy of L. E. Stager and the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon)
The appearance of a ship with a bird-head device on a Late Helladic IIIC lb sherd from Ashkelon is dramatic evidence that the ships used in the waterborne invasion of Egypt continued to be used by the Sea Peoples/Philistines after their settlement along the Canaanite coast.5
Nahal ha-Me’arot, Carmel Coast, Israel
In 1967 E. Wreschner and M. W. Prausnitz discovered a number of rock graffiti at Nahal ha-Me’arot, next to the Carmel Caves.6 Among these, they noted a graffito of a ship near the top of the valley’s northern bluff.7 More recently, during a regional survey carried out to complement her excavations at Tel Nami, M. Artzy and her team located numerous other boat representations there, and another near the entrance to Nahal Oren, a large valley situated five kilometers north of Nahal ha-Me’arot.8
Preservation varies among the graffiti. Some are badly eroded, while others are clearly visible. Artzy defines three types of vessels. Based on what appear to be bird-head devices on their stems (?), Artzy compares one group of these ship graffiti to the Sea Peoples’ ships portrayed at Medinet Habu (Fig. 8A.2: A; compare also Fig. 7.41). She notes that all the known ship graffiti of this type have a bird head at only one extremity, and that in all cases the bird-head faces the Mediterranean in the west.
Figure 8A3. Grafitto of an Aegean-style (Mycenaean/Sea Peoples?) ship carved on a rock at Teneida, in the Oasis of Dakhla, Egypt (after Basch 1994A: 24 fig. 14)
A second group she parallels to the Aegean ship representations on the altar from Acco, as well as at Kition (Fig. 8A.2: B; compare Figs. 7.33–35, 8.20). A third group bears more than a passing resemblance to an Aegean ship type with a straight hull, stem projection, vertical stem post and recurving stern (Fig. 8A.2: C). Compare these elements to similar ones on the ship representations appearing, for example, in Figs. 7.7: B, 17, 19, 21, 27, 29, 30: A, 36: A.
The documentation and future thorough publication of the Nahal ha-Me’arot ship graffiti will be a valuable contribution to our growing corpus of Aegean ship representations.
Egypt
During his survey of rock graffiti undertaken in 1937–38, H. A. Winkler photographed a ship graffito carved on a rock at Teneida, on the eastern border of the Oasis of Dakhla.9 Winkler’s photograph of this ship remained unpublished until recently, when L. Basch, in a penetrating study, pointed out the distinct similarities this vessel has with the Aegean ship tradition (Fig. 8A.3).10
The ship faces right and is portrayed with a straight keel/keel plank, a vertical stem and a diagonal sternpost. The line of the keel/hull continues past the stem as a ram-like cutwater. It has a mast in the center of the hull. A two-level forecastle is nestled behind the stem (compare Fig. 7.28: A). A diagonal line from the sternpost to the mast top may represent a halyard. Unfortunately, the top of the stem, where we might expect to find a bird-head device, is broken. At left, a large quarter-rudder descends from the sternpost in a manner reminiscent of that found in a ship depiction from Phaistos (Fig. 7.27).
On and around the ship, however, are at least nine figures. Next to four of these are what Basch has reasonably identified as model boats (Fig. 8A.4). The models have a straight hull, with vertical stem and sternposts. A single vertical line rising from each of the hulls presumably represents the model ships’ masts. Each of the models’ stems is crossed by a single horizontal or slightly rising line, which Basch interprets as representing a bird head with an exaggerated, long beak. Similar but smaller decorations face inward from the sternposts.
Figure 8A.4. Ship models(?) held by four of the figures in the Teneida ship graffito (after Basch 1994A: 25 fig. 15)
The figures are decidedly un-Aegean, with long appendages (hats or masks?) on their heads and exaggerated genitals. Basch connects the appearance of an Aegean ship in the oasis with the bands of Libyans, including the Meshwesh, that participated in the Sea Peoples’ alliance in their battles against Ramses III.
There is evidence for contact between the Oasis of Dakhla and the Nile Valley during the New Kingdom.11 The earliest historical reference to the oasis dates to the ascension of Amenhotep II.12
