The Dahshur boats are a group of ancient Egyptian funeral boats, originally numbering five or six, discovered near the funerary complex of the

12th Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some s ...

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

Senusret III Khakaure Senusret III (also written as Senwosret III or the hellenised form, Sesostris III) was a pharaoh of Egypt. He ruled from 1878 BC to 1839 BC during a time of great power and prosperity, and was the fifth king of the Twelfth Dynasty of the ...

Excavation

The boats were found during excavations on the plain of

Dahshur DahshurAlso transliterated ''Dahshour'' (in English often called ''Dashur'' ar, دهشور ' , ''Dahchur'') is a royal necropolis located in the desert on the west bank of the Nile approximately south of Cairo. It is known chiefly for several p ...

in 1894 and 1895 by French archaeologist

Jacques de Morgan Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857, Huisseau-sur-Cosson, Loir-et-Cher – 14 June 1924) was a French people, French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Khedivate of Egypt, Egypt during the 19th ...

. His original excavation report recorded six boats; however, later reports by de Morgan stated there were only five. The boats fell into obscurity until two of the boats were studied in the mid-1980s. As of 2022, the locations of only four of the boats are known; The Carnegie boat and the Chicago boat are in the United States, located in the

Carnegie Museum of Natural History The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. Housing some 22 millio ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, and the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, respectively. The Red boat and the White boat were on display in the

Cairo Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display ...

, but were later relocated to the Sharm El-Sheikh Museum.

Characteristics

The boats are each about long and are constructed of

cedar wood Cedar is part of the English common name of many trees and other plants, particularly those of the genus ''Cedrus''. Some botanical authorities consider the Old-World ''Cedrus'' the only "true cedars". Many other species worldwide with similarl ...

. They were once vibrantly painted, with white decks and either green or yellow hulls.

Construction techniques

All four of the boats currently exhibit

dovetail A dovetail joint or simply dovetail is a joinery technique most commonly used in woodworking joinery (carpentry), including furniture, cabinets, log buildings, and traditional timber framing. Noted for its resistance to being pulled apart (ten ...

joints between planks. Dovetail joints are commonly seen in ancient Egyptian furniture, and other wooden objects, such as coffins, but have rarely been observed on watercraft. More commonly, Egyptian boats used a system of rope lashings and

mortise and tenon A mortise and tenon (occasionally mortice and tenon) joint connects two pieces of wood or other material. Woodworkers around the world have used it for thousands of years to join pieces of wood, mainly when the adjoining pieces connect at right ...

joints, which helped to keep the hull planks from separating under stress. The only places this is visible on the Dahshur boats, are the bow, stern, and the uppermost

strake On a vessel's hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of planking or plating which runs from the boat's stempost (at the bows) to the sternpost or transom (at the rear). The garboard strakes are the two immediately adjacent to the keel on ...

. Dovetail joints were also present on sledges found near the boats. A theory has been proposed stating the dovetail joints found on the boats are instead simply lashing cuts that were modified after the boats excavation. However, in 2006, excavations at the 12th Dynasty port of Wadi Gawasis claim to have uncovered boat timbers that employed dovetail joints in the same way as the Dahshur boats.

Function

The boats are thought to have been used to carry the body of the Senusret III down the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

, and were then transported over land to his Pyramid by sledges. These sledges were found buried next to the boats during de Morgan's excavations.

Carnegie boat

The Carnegie boat was donated to the

in 1901 by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

. When he purchased the boat he did not tell the Museum Director, W.J. Holland. When the boat arrived, Holland told '' The Pittsburgh Times'' he “had not been in correspondence with anyone regarding such a relic.” It is on display in the Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt.

Chicago boat

The Chicago boat was acquired by the

in 1900, and has been on display in the museum since then.

Red boat and White boat

The Red boat and White boat were both given their names by de Morgan. However, they are officially known only by their General Catalogue numbers: GC 4926 for the Red boat and GC 4925 for the White boat. The boats were displayed in the

from 1910 to 2020, when they were relocated to the Sharm El-Sheikh Museum. During their move to the Sharm El-Sheikh Museum, the two boats were transported using a stainless steel chassis for easy movement and lifting.

Possible fifth boat

The fate of the possible fifth boat described by de Morgan is unknown. It has been theorized that it was exported to a museum in Europe, or left in Dahshur. It may also have been destroyed by fire, with evidence of fire damage found on one of the other boats.

Images of the boats

File:Field Museum Funeral Boat 01.jpg, The Chicago boat File:Field Museum Funeral Boat 02.jpg, Close-up of the Chicago boat showing an oar File:By ovedc - Egyptian Museum (Cairo) - 013.jpg, The Red boat File:Cairo Dahshur boats00 (1).jpg, The White boat

References

External links

A Further Investigation of The Cairo Dahshur Boats
{{Oldest surviving ships (pre-1919) Dahshur 1894 archaeological discoveries 1895 archaeological discoveries Ancient Egyptian ships Ship burials Senusret III Ancient ships Ships preserved in museums