Can Anyone Identify This Object?

I'm reading a book right now called Stories in Stone - A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography by Douglas Keister. In it there is a chapter devoted to secret societies, in which I found this picture. In the lower left-hand corner there is something rectangular with little squares all over it. The book doesn't explain what it is and I'm totally baffled. So I thought I would see if anyone here might know what it is. This particular gravestone is a Freemason's.

Gravestone
Up Close

It's a barge or boat of some kind, but that's all I'm sure of. I think, though, that the Freemasons did incorporate some amount of Egyptian mythology, so you may want to poke around and see if it's some sort of reference to a solar barque or something.


Edit: Damn, I'm good for being uninformed...

There's a model further down this page:
http://www.galenfrysinger.com/egypt_pyramids_solar_barque.htm

Here's a pic of Khufu's solar barque:
http://www.artsales.com/ARTistory/Ancient_Ships/images/Solar_Barque_of_Khufu_2.jpg

My dear husband says it is the Ark of the Covenant. He says if you look closely on top of the box you'll probably see marks where the two heralding angels would be perched (which may have broken off).

Ilithiya said:

Here's a pic of Khufu's solar barque:

Click to expand...

That is a good idea too! The pictures do look very similar. Oh I hope we solve this mystery

Abrac,
I also have this book, and have assumed it was Noah's ark. This quote might explain why it is on a Mason's gravestone:

"James Anderson (d. 1739), a Scottish Presbyterian minister, wrote the <Book of Constitutions> in which he contrived the "traditional," albeit spurious, history of Freemasonry. Masons hold that God, "the Great Architect," founded Freemasonry, and that it has as patrons Adam and the Patriarchs. Even Jesus is listed as "the Grand Master" of the Christian Church. They credit themselves with the building of Noah's ark, the Tower of Babel, the pyramids and Solomon's Temple. In all, Freemasonry borrows liberally from the history and traditions of cultic groups such as Druids, Mithars, Egyptian priesthood, Rosicrucians and others to weave its own history."
excerpt from:
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/WHATMAS.HTM
I will go search in my Dictionary of Freemasonry to see what light I can further shed on this.

Bodhran

From pg. 91 of the Dictionary of Freemasonry (Robert Macoy):
"The term Noachite belongs to the 21st degree of the old English system, and the rite of Misraim. Dr. Oliver conjectures that it was derived from a more ancient degree called the 'Ark Mariner,' and was of an honorary character."

And from pg. 600 of the same book:
"NOACHIDAE: Sons of Noah; the first name of Freemasons.

Bodhran

Do you know what came into my mind when I saw the image? The legend of Osiris, when he was tricked by Seth to get into a coffin and then was threw to the Nile. I see the box in the boat as that coffin. I might be wrong. This was just a feeling I got.

MoonLitCrystal said:

My dear husband says it is the Ark of the Covenant. He says if you look closely on top of the box you'll probably see marks where the two heralding angels would be perched (which may have broken off).

Click to expand...

Looking closely at the top it does look like there could have been something on top at some point. It also looks like it could be Noah's ark. Both good ideas.

I'm starting to wonder if it might be a bar of soap, a symbol for purity or "clean hands." Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry says:

"The white gloves worn by Freemasons as a part of their clothing, as well as the white gloves presented to the initiate in the Continental and Latin Rites, allude to this symbolizing of clean hands ; and what in some of the advanced Degrees has been called Masonic Baptism is nothing else but the symbolizing, by a ceremony, this doctrine of clean hands as the sign of a pure heart (see Baptism Masonic, and Lustration)."

I don't know what bar soap looked like back in 1821 though. Did they even have it then? LOL

Abrac said:

I don't know what bar soap looked like back in 1821 though. Did they even have it then? LOL

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Just a useless fact: The did have soap back then, but it was made from cattle's fat... The factories would use that fat for candles and soap. YUCKKKKKKK

By some google work I found that the Virgin Lodge no.2 (now no.3) was in Nova Scotia, Canada, and working the Royal Arch degree which includes a symbolism concerning the Deluge. I believe the object is the Noah's Ark.

(It seems Manitoba R.A. brothers recently celebrated their meeting by floating a toy ark on the swimming pool)