Of Cretan wood and an Aegean shape, adorned with Quadruple Spirals. On the identity of the Keftiu-ship in the Egyptian records.
Résumé
This paper aims to understand how the name “Keftiu-ship” (i.e. "of Cretan type") was coined. This kind of ship is mentioned three times in Egyptian records, from the late Thutmose III to the early Amenhotep II reigns (i.e. second half of the 15th c. BCE). Its meaning remains controversial: earlier Egyptologists and Aegeanists scholars interpreted the term either as an indication of the ship’s destination, the origin of its construction or its home port. A reassessment of the textual documentation (DAUTAIS 2021), however, demonstrates that these ships were built in Egypt by Egyptians, using Egyptian techniques and for Egyptians. By combining the textual evidence with a cross-referenced approach to iconographic and archaeological data from both Egypt and the Aegean, and in the light of the Cretan socio-political context, this paper argues that the appellation “keftiu”, for such a kind of ship, refers to the materialization of iconographic and morphologic transfers coupled with the origin of the raw material.