Since 2009 the excavations of the Royal Museums of Art and History (Brussels) at the Upper Egyptian site of Elkab have continued to reveal the origins and dynamic development of this provincial town site. From a small community with a subsistence economy that was primarily based on farming and fishing in the Predynastic period, it expanded and developed from the Early Dynastic period onwards into a fully urbanised society. During the excavation of several well-dated 2nd Dynasty domestic house contexts, six fragmentary boat models were discovered. These small objects raise interesting questions regarding daily life in a provincial settlement at the onset of the 3rd millennium BCE. Boat models are indeed well known from funerary or cultic spheres, but few of them have been discovered in a settlement context. Like anthropomorphic and zoomorphic statuettes, they are generally considered to be ex-votos and their presence inside settlements allows us to reconsider the evolution and functions of these remarkable objects.