Drawing of a boat

((:navis))


Description of Drawing (English): boat
Findspot: Smyrna, Basilica (Agora.1)
Drawing Category: Boats
Writing Style: charcoal
  • Graffito Height: 25
  • Graffito Length: 75
Bibliography: Bagnall, R. S. et al., Graffiti from the Basilica in the Agora of Smyrna (2016): 193.
Pfuhl, E. and H. Möbius. 1977. Die ostgriechischen Grabreliefs. Mainz am Rhein, vol. 2, no. 1184, p. 291.
Pomey, P. 2006. “Les graffiti navals de l’agora. Etude preliminaire.” Anatolia Antiqua 14: 334–5, figs. 25–27.
Commentary: The ships in this bay have been previously published as Bay 15-T26 A, B, C in Pomey 2006: 334–5, figs. 25–27. Dipinto of a ship, sailing on port tack, without any indications of mast, yard, sails, or oars. A thick black streak outlines a flat keel, a rounded stern, and a sharply oblique prow. Neither the ἄφλαστον nor the στόλος is clearly defined. On the hull, a second line runs parallel to the gunwale. It can be identified as the upper part of the bulwark, suggesting the presence of a deck that extends to the end of the stern, where four short lines define a very schematic aplustre. From the side of the stern, a triangular element tied to the ship by a rope is identified by Pomey as a stone anchor. Very faded traces of an earlier dipinto are visible below and around this ship: the extant lines suggest that it could have depicted a larger ship largely obliterated by the later, and smaller, vessel. The overall shape of the vessel is comparable to a similar one on a gravestone, said to come from Ankara, dated to the second century CE. See Pfuhl and Möbius 1977: vol. 2, no. 1184, p. 291.
Suggested Citation: AGP-SMYD00152, The Ancient Graffiti Project, <http://ancientgraffiti.org/Graffiti/graffito/AGP-SMYD00152> [accessed: 25 Apr 2024]
Contributions:

Editor: Roger S. Bagnall

Principal Contributor: Roger S. Bagnall

Last Revision: 2016-10-03