Fake – boat model FAK-0014

Date : 19th–20th century AD

This model is one of the very few dubious examples to have undergone laboratory analysis to determine its authenticity. The Oxford Authentication Unit dated the boat to less than 150 years old. However, this is the date of the last firing: ithe boat itself may be genuine, with the figure added in modern times, likely to increase its monetary value. The most favourable context for the manufacture of this object is the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20th century, so when Predynastic archaeology was at its peak (c. 1890–1930).

Several arguments can be made against the production of models of boat containing a deceased person during the 4^th millennium BC in Egypt. Funerary boats do not appear until the pharaonic period, particularly the Middle Kingdom in the context of the development of the Osirian religion. It is at this time that wooden models are developed, of which some are funerary boats loaded with a coffin. During the Predynastic period, the boat is never represented as a vehicle carrying the body of the deceased to the grave. Even in the Old Kingdom, not a single boat is shown carrying a corpse among their numerous representations on mastabas reliefs. They are often simple boats used for hunting and fishing, while in religious iconography, processional boats and well-known solar boats are depicted. Those painted  on D-Ware vessels (Naqada IIC–D), which are generally found in tombs, never contain a deceased person, except on a few artefacts that are considered modern, forged decoration applied to genuine ceramics.