Ceci n'est pas un bateau: Reassessing terracotta boat models in Late Bronze and Iron Age Cyprus

Abstract

Cypriot boat models eschew consistency. They vary formally, stylistically, contextually, and regionally, yet remain inextricably grouped by their basic subject matter: boats. I aim to show how a multifocal approach, grounded in a new theoretical methodology, and with equal weight afforded to form, context, and provenance, can shed new light on these enigmatic objects. This approach, which emphasises reference, association, and shared cultural environment, is intended to draw together many disparate strands of data. These are brought together to create a model for understanding how figurines and models functioned; and how they acted – across various contexts and over traditional chronological junctures – as vessels for individual expression while remaining parts of a larger terracotta tradition. It includes an up-to-date catalogue with a reassessment of dates, provenance, and object histories, which forms the basis of the statistical and interpretative analysis. The central question of this thesis is why were boat models made, used, and deposited? The thesis draws on a wide range of both data and theory, developing a new model for understanding the process of objects’ accumulation of meaning and how objects, landscape, memory, and narrative can influence a person’s identity (that is, their perception of themselves) and exentity (that is, the perception of that person by other people) and vice versa.

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