Abstract
On the west bank of the Nile, 8 km north-east of Giza, the site of Abu Rawash is located at the northern edge of the great Egyptian necropolis of Memphis. From 1913 to 1914 Pierre Montet excavated there a series of elite mastabas tombs that he dated to the Ist dynasty. Since 2008, the Institut francpais d'archeologie orientale (IFAO, Cairo, Egypt) has undertaken, in collaboration with Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia), the study of the Cemetery M at Abu Rawash and its large mud-brick mastabas. This program aims to re-excavate the monuments partially cleared by P. Montet, in order to gather new information about the funerary architecture of the period and the Early Dynastic Memphite society at the dawn of Pharaonic civilization. During the 2012 season, the team uncovered the remains of a wooden boat deposited at the north of mastaba M06. The boat was designed according to the technique of lacing ligatures. Based on material associated, stratigraphy and more importantly a set of I4C dates, the boat of Abu Rawash is currently believed to be the oldest boat ever found in Egypt. Transported to the conservation laboratory of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) at Giza, it will be exhibited soon in the galleries of the future museum. It study of the boat, and the other boats discovered during the 2013 season, will provide a better understanding of shipbuilding techniques in the early periods of Egyptian history.
Translated title of the contribution | Boats on the Nile ... the Mo6 mastaba of Abu Rawach and his funeral boat (1st Dynasty, Kingdom of Den): discovery of the oldest Egyptian boat currently preserved in Egypt |
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Original language | French |
Pages (from-to) | 563-588 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | Bulletin de l'Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale du Caire |
Volume | 114 |
Issue number | 2 |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |