Speakers

Mr Mohamed  Ragab
Conservator, Conservation Center, Grand Egyptian Museum, Ministry of Antiquities, Egypt

Biography:

Mohamed Ragab is an Objects Conservator at the Conservation Center of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). He holds an MA in the effect of pH value on wooden artifacts from the Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University. He obtained a certificate in conservation from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). He is also interested in the application of multi-spectral imaging techniques and the identification of wooden species.

Abstract:

Abu Rawash Boat: Preliminary report
Mohamed Abd El-Maguid
Basem Gehad
Mohamed Ragab
​Nour Badr

In 2012, a joint venture between of the IFAO and Macquarie University, revealed a boat related to the Mastaba no.M06, in the archaic cemetery (M) at Abu Rawash; the boat pit was located towards the northern side of the Mastaba, with an axis east-west. The boat's grave measures approximately 16m long and 1.5m wide. Only 6.53m long and 1.30m wide wooden planks remained forming about 55% of the hull. In situ molding/coping of the profile or the section of the pit was made using molded and reshaped wood to fit accurately with the pit shape or section. This wooden copy was taken to the laboratory in order to calculate depth, profile and curvature angel. The remains of the wooden boat, now housed in GEM, were scanned using a 2D-high-resolution scanner; the remains of the boat were then compared to most of the boat findings from Ancient Egypt; a 3D model was created based on the information, which confirms that the hull shape was a flat bottom boat, which could be found nowadays in Egypt, functioning as a means of transportation in small river canals.