Egyptian Funeral Boat

A paper replica of a wooden model of a funeral barge which was made for an official who lived during the Twelfth Dynasty in Egypt, about 1900 BC. The shape of the barge resembles that of an ancient papyrus raft where bundles of reeds were tied together at either end. Such a boat might have been used to transport the dead man across the Nile to the west bank where the cemeteries were situated. Or it may have been intended to convey him on a pilgrimage to Abydos, the legendary burial place of Osiris, ruler of the Afterworld. On the deck of the boat, the mummified body of the dead man lies on a couch beneath a canopy accompanied by a priest, two female mourners and a helmsman.