This beautiful alabaster boat model remains unexplained so many years after its discovery.
It measures twenty-eight inches in length and consists of a tank with a high central pedestal supporting a boat ornamented with ibex heads at the prow and stern.
Amidships is what appears to be an open sarcophagus under a canopy whose collumns have capitals in two tiers, representing the papyrus and white lotus. Steering the boat is a nude female dwarf and a second nude female kneels on the foredeck and holds a lotus.
–Hetkaptah
Howard Carter thought it was a palace ornament.
Treasures of Tutankhamun
–Dec. 30th, 1923: Carter, Mace and an Egyptian worker carefully roll up the linen pall covering the second shrine.
Picture: Harry Burton/The Griffith Institute/dynamichrome.com
–January 1924: In a ‘laboratory’ set up in the tomb of Sethos II, conservators Arthur Mace and Alfred Lucas clean one of the sentinel statues from the antechamber.
Picture: Harry Burton/The Griffith Institute/dynamichrome.com
–December 1922: A gilded lion bed, clothes chest and other objects in the antechamber. The wall of the burial chamber is guarded by statues.
Picture: Harry Burton/The Griffith Institute/dynamichrome.com
–November 29, 1923: Howard Carter, Arthur Callender and an Egyptian worker wrap one of the sentinel statues for transport
Picture: Harry Burton/The Griffith Institute/dynamichrome.com