Sailko (Wikimedia Commons), Re-use in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons licence (CC BY 3.0), CC BY 3.0
The Broighter Boat
- Non-identified artist
1st century
- National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
Creator(s)
Title(s)
Date of creation
1st century
Materials and techniques
Gold
Place of conservation
External links
Rights
In 1991, the Palazzo Grassi Museum in Venice held an exhibition entitled The Celts: a reflection of one Europe. At the centre of this, displayed on its own darkened room, was the Broighter boat, a tiny gold model of the symbolic of the links between European cultures at the turn of the first millennium.
This miniature boat is made from a thin sheet of beaten gold. Miraculously, it and its delicate gold fittings have survived over 2,000 years. Apparently modelled on an ocean going-vessel of the period, it is an exceptional artwork and yields an important glance into marine culture at the dawn of the early historic period in north-western Europe.
