Naviguer vers l’éternité. Les modèles de bateau en terre cuite chypriotes et leur association à la navigation eschatologique

Abstract

This paper suggests a review of the symbolic and functional interpretation of the models of boats found in Cypriot tombs since the Middle Bronze Age to the Classical Period . Furthermore , it proposes an alternative hypothesis to the commonly admitted one , which consists in understanding these terracottas as a souvenir of the activity of mariner or fisher that the dead had eventually carried out during his life . Considering their iconography and their shape , it is possible that these models of boats and the rituals connected to their offering are to be put in relation with the eschatological navigation , a belief developed in a number of Mediterranean civilisations , and particularly in Egypt , where we find the most convincing parallels : some Cypriot models could in fact be local imitations of Egyptian funerary boats . So , these terracottas provide an additional element of the influence of Egypt on the some peoples of the island , and maybe also on their beliefs .