No 20

Location: On the left frame of door No. 52, eastern wall of the southern gallery.

Material: Marble surface, 6th century.

Dimensions: Height 12 cm, length 14 cm, at 170 cm from the floor level.

Condition: Shallow, clearly carved, not intersected by others.

Technique: Incised.

Description: A medieval galley viewed from its starboard side. It has a long, low hull with a flush deck. The stem and sternpost are rounded. A horizontal parapet is marked along the top of the side, from which a single row of 20 densely spaced, slanted lines emerges.
At the ship's bow, a short, forward-projecting double beakhead is visible. Resting on the stem, which rises slightly above the deck, is the aft end of a flagstaff angled sharply forward, topped with a diamond-shaped finial and carrying an elongated, pointed flag with a cross on it. Above it, at the very foremost point, is an upright flagstaff with a small triangular flag bearing an inscribed cross.
The stern lacks both a rudder and steering oars. At its aft end, a rectangular superstructure, hatched with intersecting diagonal lines, rises. In front of it stands a flagstaff with a flown triangular flag that has a diagonal notch at its top.

Type: C/Ia.

Attribution: Light galley.

Publications: Tomov, Potajnostite na "Sv. Sofia", 112-117.

Commentary: Tomov, Potajnostite na "Sv. Sofia", 113-117.

Date: 14th–15th century AD.