Among the pleasures of an Egyptian noble's life were hunting excursions in the Nile marshes to fish and hunt birds. Papyrus rafts or light boats such as this were used for such excursions. Here, Meketre and his son or companion are watching the hunters from a light shelter made of woven reeds and decorated with two large shields. In the prow, two men aim harpoons at some fish, while amidships a kneeling fisherman removes the harpoon from a bolti fish. An earlier catch, a large Mormyrus, is being presented to Meketre. A bunchof coots, caught previously in a clapnet, are presented by a man and a woman, who wears a bead net over her shoulders, brings a duck. The poles of the clapnet are now lashed to the grilles of the shelter; the net pegs lie on the deck. The presence of females from a noble's family in such marsh scenes is a recurring theme in Egyptian art.
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Medium:Plastered and painted wood, linen, linen twine, copper
Dimensions:Boat with rudder and paddles: L. 121.7 cm (47 15/16 in.); H. 34.3 cm (13 1/2 in.); W. 30.6 cm (12 1/16 in.) Hull: L. 112.5 cm (44 5/16 in.); W. 23.7 cm (9 5/16 in.)
Credit Line:Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1920
Accession Number:20.3.6
Excavated by the Egyptian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1920. Acquired by the Museum in the division of finds, 1920.
Breasted, James H. Jr. 1948. Egyptian Servant Statues, Bollingen series, 13. New York: Pantheon Books, 84, pl. 78a.
Hayes, William C. 1953. Scepter of Egypt I: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 167; p. 269, fig. 176.
Hayes, William C. 1959. Scepter of Egypt II: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 142.
Scott, Nora E. 1973. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, new ser., vol. 31, no. 3 (Spring), New York, pp. 166–67, fig. 46.
Roehrig, Catharine H. 2002. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, new ser., vol. 60, no. 1 (Summer), New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 7, 12, fig. 12.
Arnold, Dorothea 2005. "The Architecture of Meketre's Slaughterhouse and Other Early Twelfth Dynasty Wooden Models." In Structure and Significance in Egyptian Architecture: Thoughts on Ancient Egyptian Architecture [Festschrift Dieter Arnold], 33, p. 50n200.
Roehrig, Catharine H. 2015. "Model of a Sporting Boat." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 211–12, no. 150.
Arnold, Dorothea 2015. "Statues in Their Settings: Encountering the Divine." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 19.
Quirke, Stephen 2015. "Understanding Death: A Journey between Worlds." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 220.
Kamrin, Janice 2015. "The Decoration of Elite Tombs: Connecting the Living and the Dead." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 31.
Grajetzki, Wolfram 2015. "The Pharaoh's Subjects: Court and Provinces." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 120, 123.
Arnold, Dieter and Adela Oppenheim 2015. "Excavations by The Metropolitan Museum of Art at Middle Kingdom Sites." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 313.
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The Met's collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 26,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from the Paleolithic to the Roman period.
