TOOLS, POSSESSIONS AND EVERYDAY ITEMS IN ANCIENT EGYPT

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN POSSESSIONS

Queen Hetepheres funerary bed Walls were sometimes decorated with paintings. Mats made from reeds or straw covered the floors. Lamps were comprised of saucers of oil with a wick floating in it. Rich people had beds, stools, couches and chairs. There weren’t many tables. Pillows stuffed with pigeon feathers have been found.

Beautiful chests made of wood, ivory and pottery was used to store linens, cosmetics and jewelry. Some furniture was overlaid with precious metals and inlaid with precious stones and ebony and ivory. Carpets were woven from linen and ornamented with sewn-on patches made from colorful dyed wool. Cosmetic pots often contained kohl, which the ancient Egyptians applied like eye-liner, perhaps to screen out the sun.

Cooking was done in pottery bowls placed in an open fire or in clay ovens. Food and water was stored in large pottery jars. Other possessions included beer jars, glass bottles, trays for sifting grain and flour, fish hooks, flints, flint knives, wine strainers, baskets, and seals inscribed with images of the sun god Amon-Re, the falcon god Horus and Min, the God of fertility.

In ancient India and Egypt ice was sometimes derived from water set in the ground that froze due to cooling evaporation. As early as 3000 B.C., Egyptians were able to make ice in the desert by taking advantage of a natural phenomena that occurs in dry climates. Water left out at night in shallow clay trays on a bed of straw would freeze as a result of evaporation into the dry air and sudden temperatures drops even though the temperature was well above freezing.

Websites on Ancient Egypt: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Discovering Egypt discoveringegypt.com; BBC History: Egyptians bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians ; Ancient History Encyclopedia on Egypt ancient.eu/egypt; Digital Egypt for Universities. Scholarly treatment with broad coverage and cross references (internal and external). Artifacts used extensively to illustrate topics. ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt ; British Museum: Ancient Egypt ancientegypt.co.uk; Egypt’s Golden Empire pbs.org/empires/egypt; Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org ; Oriental Institute Ancient Egypt (Egypt and Sudan) Projects ; Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre in Paris louvre.fr/en/departments/egyptian-antiquities; KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt kmtjournal.com; Ancient Egypt Magazine ancientegyptmagazine.co.uk; Egypt Exploration Society ees.ac.uk ; Amarna Project amarnaproject.com; Egyptian Study Society, Denver egyptianstudysociety.com; The Ancient Egypt Site ancient-egypt.org; Abzu: Guide to Resources for the Study of the Ancient Near East etana.org; Egyptology Resources fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

Ancient Egyptian Mirrors, Fans and Umbrellas

Egyptian mirrors were made from polished metal. They had elaborate handles made in the shapes of animals, flowers and birds. Some had ebony and ivory handles. A copper alloy mirror from the 2nd Millennium B.C. has a handle made out of stone that looks like a column of papyrus.

Tomb paintings and texts, some as old as 3000 B.C., contains images of fans and "fan servants and "royal fan bearers," whose responsibility it was to wave huge fans made from palm fronds or woven papyrus reeds to keep their masters cool.

Umbrellas were used in Mesopotamia as early as 1400 B.C. for protection from the sun not rain and they were also symbols of status and rank. By 1200 B.C. umbrellas became symbols of the god Nut, a celestial goddess who presided over an umbrella-like sky.

Tools in Ancient Egypt

ancient Egyptain mirrors

André Dollinger wrote in his Pharaonic Egypt site: “Quite a lot is known about ancient tools thanks to the importance the Egyptians attributed to their use in the next world. The graves of craftsmen often contained tools or models of tools, and tomb walls were at times decorated with scenes of artisans at work demonstrating their techniques. And just to make sure that one would not be left without the necessary implements some had lists of tools carved into the walls. [Source: André Dollinger, Pharaonic Egypt site, reshafim.org.]

“The 6th dynasty official Kaiemankh had such a list: a thousand adzes (an.t), a thousand axes (mjb.t), a thousand mnx-chisels , a thousand DAm.t-chisels, a thousand sA.t-chisels, a thousand gwA-chisels, a thousand saws (tfA). He also did not forget to supply some raw materials like bD.t, apparently chunks of metal (bD refers to a crucible or mould), and Tr, a mineral brought from Elephantine.

“Wood, ivory, bone and stone have been used for making tools since earliest times. Wood has marvellous qualities for which it is used and loved to this day. It combines toughness and pliability and can be given almost any shape. It was part of many tools, generally forming the handle. But some tools were made entirely of wood and remained so through the millennia.

“Ploughs did not have a European-style ploughshare. There was no need to turn over the soil, as the Nile deposited nutrients with every yearly flooding. Used only to break up the topsoil, they continued to be lightly built. Hoes, rakes and grain scoops too were made of wood as were some tools mostly women used, such as spindles and looms. Carpenters' mallets were often just blocks of wood with a handle. Fire drills consisted of a wooden bow and a plant fibre string. Many of these tools changed but little over the centuries. The spindles of the twelfth dynasty for instance had whorl of greater depth than those of the New Kingdom and at the top a long spiral groove for the thread. In Roman times this groove was replaced by a metal hook.”

James Harrell of the University of Toledo wrote: “Stones exploited for tools and especially weapons were progressively supplanted by metals, initially copper in the late Predynastic Period, then the harder bronze beginning in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030–1640 B.C.), and finally the still harder “iron” (actually low- grade steel) by the end of the Late Period (712–332 B.C.). These metals, however, never completely replaced the stone tools and weapons, and crushing and grinding were almost always done with stones throughout antiquity. [Source: James Harrell, University of Toledo, OH, Environmental Sciences, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2012, escholarship.org ]

Stone Tools in Ancient Egypt

bobbins

James Harrell of the University of Toledo wrote: “The utilitarian stones of ancient Egypt were those rocks employed for implements and other mundane articles. Most of these fall into three categories: 1) tools for harvesting, food preparation, and stone working; 2) weapons for hunting, war, and personal protection; and 3) grinding stones for cereals and other plant products, ore rocks for gold and other metals, and raw materials forpaint pigments and cosmetics. Rocks were also used for other ordinary purposes, especially for weights (e.g., loom and net weights, plumb bobs, boat anchors, and measuring weights for balances). Objects from the first two categories, when produced by knapping (i.e., percussion and pressure flaking), are collectively referred to as “lithics.” [Source: James Harrell, University of Toledo, OH, Environmental Sciences, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2012, escholarship.org ]

André Dollinger wrote in his Pharaonic Egypt site: “Stone has basically three functions for which it is suited: pounding, grinding and cutting. A relatively high specific weight and hardness give it much more impact power than a similarly sized piece of timber would have. This hardness is also what restricts its use as a hammer, because it splinters easily. [Source: André Dollinger, Pharaonic Egypt site, reshafim.org. ]

“The stone was either chipped or ground into the desired shape depending on the kind of stone: Fine sandstone, limestone and the like were ground serving as grinding stones and the like, while flint was generally chipped and used for cutting. “Some materials like granite could only be worked with spherical hammerstones made of diorite, a stone of even greater hardness. Thanks to their roundness and composition these hammerstones rarely splintered. Applied with measured force they were used to slowly pulverize and shape the workpiece.

“The possibility of creating cutting edges is due to the hardness and crystallinity of the stone. It would be wrong to think that one could just bend down, pick up any stone and make a blade of it. Few kinds of stone are suitable for knapping, the most widely used being flint and chert. Such stone was often found far from the population centres and had to be mined and transported. Desert flint is found in the eastern desert in the form of small cobbles while tabular flint contained as nodules in limestone is quarried: Upper Egyptians got much of their flint from the quarries near Thebes, while Lower Egyptians were possibly supplied from Abu Roash.

“Opaque flint was preferred by the toolmakers to the clearer varieties. It seems the resulting flakes were longer and straighter, their edges tougher and they did not splinter as easily. Because of the flint's brittleness little pressure should be exerted on thin blades. Stone knives had therefore often no real handle. At one end the blade was left blunt for a few centimetres and wrapped with some fabric and string to give a minimal amount of grip, just enough for cutting, but not enough for breaking the blade. But the knowledge of how to make proper handles and how to fasten them to blades dates back to prehistoric days.”

Stone Tool Materials in Ancient Egypt

flint knives

James Harrell of the University of Toledo wrote: “The three most common rock types used for these purposes were chert, dolerite, granite, metagraywacke, and silicified sandstone. A total of 21 ancient quarries are known for these stones...Chert was the material of choice for most stone tools as early as the Palaeolithic and continuing through the Dynastic Period. This rock consists of microcrystalline quartz and occurs as nodules in limestone. The terms “chert” and “flint” are variously and inconsistently defined and, for the purposes of this article, are treated as synonymous. Ancient Egyptians referred to chert as ds kilometers (des kem) when it was dark brown or gray, ds HD (des hedj) and ds THn (des tjehen) when of lighter color, or sometimes simply as ds (des). Chert was one of the toughest stones available to the Egyptians and had an abrasion (or scratch) hardness superior to that of all the metals, including the best quality iron. It was easily shaped by knapping, but its principal advantage was its ability to provide tools with a sharp, durable edge. It was therefore widely employed for all types of cutting blades, especially knives and sickle teeth, as well as adzes, awls, axes, burins, drill bits, pick heads, and scrapers, among others. Although chert was used throughout the Dynastic Period, the variety of tools and quality of workmanship declined over time as the use of metals increased, with only chert knives and sickle blades remaining relatively common until the Late Period. [Source: James Harrell, University of Toledo, OH, Environmental Sciences, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2012, escholarship.org ]

“Chert is common wherever limestone occurs, which is in the Nile Valley walls and on the adjacent desert plateaus between Cairo in the north and Esna in the south. There were undoubtedly many ancient chert quarries but relatively few of these have been reported. From Palaeolithic to Predynastic times chert cobbles were extracted from pits dug into gravel deposits on the Nile River terraces of Middle Egypt, and at Ain Barda in the Eastern Desert’s Wadi Araba. Pits were also dug into chert-bearing weathering deposits on top of the limestone in the Refuf Pass area of Kharga Oasis during the Predynastic Period. It was, however, probably more commonly the case in these early periods that chert was not excavated but merely harvested from natural surface accumulations of already loose pieces of rock. Such sources are often referred to as “quarries” in the archaeological literature, but this is a misnomer, as no significant digging occurred. It was only during the Dynastic Period that chert nodules were quarried directly from the limestone bedrock.

“Dolerite is a black igneous rock that is compositionally similar to basalt but coarser grained. It was the favored material for pounders (also called mauls and hammerstones), which broke and crushed rock through blunt force. Pounders were used in quarrying hardstones, such as Aswan granite and many other ornamental stones, and also in mining gold and other metals. They were additionally employed for sculpting the same hardstones into architectural elements, statues, sarcophagi, stelae, vessels, and other objects. Pounders were largely replaced by iron tools (hammers, picks, chisels, and wedges) toward the end of the Late Period, but they continued to be used whenever metal tools were either unavailable or too costly. The smaller pounders were usually elongated pieces of stone with a narrowed waist where a wooden handle was affixed with leather strips. The larger pounders, commonly up to 30 centimeters across but sometimes larger, were unhafted and so hand- held. In their most familiar form, these are well-rounded, subspherical balls.

Stone Tools Manufacturing in Ancient Egypt

André Dollinger wrote in his Pharaonic Egypt site: “The amount of work a knapper invested in making a tool was dependent on the length of time it could be expected to be used. Axes which received harsh treatment and therefore broke quickly were generally fashioned with a few well-placed strokes. The heads were fastened to the handles by cutting a socket into the wood, inserting the blade and tying it with a cord two or three feet in length. No cement was used.

“Broken tools were often reshaped and dull edges resharpened. Axe heads were sometimes ground down to such an extent that little stone was left protruding from the socket, before they were discarded. Knapping was quite a difficult craft and became specialised in pre-historic times. Workshops producing stone tools have been found in 4th millennium Hierakonpolis.

“The advancing bronze age saw a decline in the frequency of use and quality of stone tools, not just because metal displaced stone but possibly also because the best craftsmen preferred the material which offered the more interesting possibilities. Bronze tools must have been significantly more expensive than flint and therefore less affordable. Knapping, a specialized profession once, probably became one of the tasks which labourers who were not very expert at it but too poor to be able to purchase metal tools, had to perform of necessity. The quality of the stone had deteriorated as well. Deposits closer-by were being exploited despite the poor quality of the flint. But the knowledge of manufacturing basic stone blades continued until Roman times.

Metal Tools in Ancient Egypt

ancient Egyptian surgical tools

Early tools were made from copper and later bronze. Egyptian bronze tended to be around 88 percent copper and 12 percent tin. Iron was introduced by the Hittites in the 13th century but wasn't common until the 6th or 7th century B.C.

According to Plumbing & Mechanical Magazine: “The Egyptians were quite skilled in working metals. They melted metal in a crucible over a super-hot fire, the intense heat provided by men fanning the fire with blowpipes made of reeds tipped with clay. The molten metal was poured out and allowed to cool, then beaten out with smooth stones into sheets of the required thickness. It was then cut to shape. One explanatory picture in a tomb chapel describes the process as “causing metal to swim.”“ [Source: Plumbing & Mechanical Magazine, July 1989, theplumber.com]

Sculptures made of copper, bronze and other metals were cast using the lost wax method which worked as follows: 1) A form was made of wax molded around a pieces of clay. 2) The form was enclosed in a clay mold with pins used to stabilize the form. 3) The mold was fired in a kiln. The mold hardened into a ceramic and the wax burns and melted leaving behind a cavity in the shape of the original form. 4) Metal was poured into the cavity of the mold. The metal sculpture was removed by breaking the clay when it was sufficiently cool.

Copper Tools in Ancient Egypt

A wide variety of copper tools, fish hooks and needles were made. Chisels and knives lost their edge and shape quickly and had be reshaped with some regularity or simply thrown out. In the Old Kingdom (2700 to 2125 B.C.) there was only copper. Copper-making hearths have been found near the pyramids. Reliefs found nearby show Egyptians gathering around a fire smelting copper by blowing into long tubes with bulbous endings.

copper cymbals used in magic rituals

André Dollinger wrote in his Pharaonic Egypt site: “Copper may have been the first metal to be worked in Egypt, even before the metallic gold. The ores had a 12 percent copper content and given the scarcity of fuel and the difficulties of transportation one may well marvel at the fact, that they succeeded at extracting copper at all. In the beginning it was probably worked cold. In early Egyptian graves copper ornaments, vessels and weapons have been found as well as needles, saws, scissors, pincers, axes, adzes, harpoon and arrow tips, and knives. [Source: André Dollinger, Pharaonic Egypt site, reshafim.org. ]

“This wide array of tools made of a metal difficult to cast and even with tempering too soft to be of use with any but the softest stone and wood shows the urgent need people felt for tools more flexible than what could be made of wood and stone.” Much of the copper used in Egypt was mined in the Sinai.

“Pure copper (like silver or gold) has a hardness factor of 2.5 to 3 on the Moh scale which is just about the same as limestone's. Naturally occurring copper is somewhat harder due to metallic impurities. Thanks to tempering, copper chisels and saws could be used to work freshly quarried limestone from the 4th dynasty onwards, but annealing with fire and hammering also rendered the tools more brittle. Because of the metal's softness, copper tools lost their edge quickly and had to be resharpened frequently. When cutting and drilling grit was probably used, which lodged itself in the edges of the soft copper bits and performed the abrasive action.

“At first copper and bronze tools were similar to their stone equivalents, but soon the properties of the metal, among them malleability, began to influence their design. Fishing hooks were given barbs. Knives grew longer. Sowing needles were fashioned less than 1½ mm thick. Copper tools found at Kahun: 1) Piercer or bradawl with wooden handle; 2) Barbed fishing hooks; 3) Needle; 4) Pin; 5) Netting bobbin; 6) Hatchet; 7) Knives; 8) Chisel.

Bronze Tools in Ancient Egypt

bronze knives used in mummification

André Dollinger wrote in his Pharaonic Egypt site: “Bronze implements found at Gurob, 18th-19th dynasty Bronze was a great improvement on copper. The oldest real bronze found in Egypt dates to the 4th dynasty and consists of 90 percent copper and 10 percent additional metals, which is about the best combination. Brittler than pure copper, it was easier to cast and could be hardened by repeated heating and hammering. [Source: André Dollinger, Pharaonic Egypt site, reshafim.org. ]

“The first bronze tools were not the result of a deliberate attempt at improving the metal, but of the natural mix of copper and other metals in the smelted ore, in Egypt mostly arsenic. This poisonous metal was replaced during the second millennium by tin.

“Adding more tin results in a harder alloy which cannot be worked cold, but has to be heated to temperatures of between 600 and 800 °C. Tools and weapons were generally made of this harder bronze, while softer metal was preferred for casting statues and vessels which were subsequently hammered and engraved. Bronze tools found at Gurob: 1) Chisel with tang; 2) Chisels; 3) Adze blade; 4) Hatchet]; 6) Rasp; 7) Hatchet; 8) Nails; 9) Arrow head; 10) Lance head; 11) Knife of unknown use; 12) Switching blade; 13) Barbless fishing hooks,

Iron Tools in Ancient Egypt

Iron was made around 1500 B.C. by the Hitittes. About 1400 B.C., the Chalbyes, a subject tribe of the Hitittes invented the cementation process to make iron stronger. The iron was hammered and heated in contact with charcoal. The carbon absorbed from the charcoal made the iron harder and stronger. The smelting temperature was increased by using more sophisticated bellows. About 1200 B.C., scholars suggest, cultures other than the Hittites began to possess iron. The Assyrians began using iron weapons and armor in Mesopotamia around that time with deadly results, but the Egyptians did not utilize the metal until the later pharaohs.

7th century iron tools from Italy

André Dollinger wrote in his Pharaonic Egypt site: “Rare meteoritic iron has been found in tombs since the Old Kingdom, but Egypt was late to accept iron on a large scale. It did not exploit any ores of its own and the metal was imported, in which activity the Greeks were heavily involved. Naukratis, an Ionian town in the Delta, became a centre of iron working in the 7th century BCE, as did Dennefeh. [Source: André Dollinger, Pharaonic Egypt site, reshafim.org. ]

“Iron could not be completely melted in antiquity, as the necessary temperature of more than 1500°C could not be achieved. The porous mass of brittle iron, which was the result of the smelting in the charcoal furnaces, had to be worked by hammering in order to remove the impurities. Carburizing and quenching turned the soft wrought iron into steel.

“Iron implements are generally less well preserved than those made of copper or bronze. But the range of preserved iron tools covers most human activities. The metal parts of the tools were fastened to wooden handles either by fitting them with a tang or a hollow socket. While iron replaced bronze tools completely, bronze continued to be used for statues, cases, boxes, vases and other vessels.”

Iron Working in Ancient Egypt Developed from Meteorites

It appears that iron working in ancient Egypt developed from meteorites. The Guardian reported: “Although people have worked with copper, bronze and gold since 4,000 B.C., ironwork came much later, and was rare in ancient Egypt. In 2013, nine blackened iron beads, excavated from a cemetery near the Nile in northern Egypt, were found to have been beaten out of meteorite fragments, and also a nickel-iron alloy. The beads are far older than the young pharaoh, dating to 3,200 B.C. “As the only two valuable iron artifacts from ancient Egypt so far accurately analysed are of meteoritic origin,” Italian and Egyptian researchers wrote in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, “we suggest that ancient Egyptians attributed great value to meteoritic iron for the production of fine ornamental or ceremonial objects”. [Source: The Guardian, June 2, 2016]

“The researchers also stood with a hypothesis that ancient Egyptians placed great importance on rocks falling from the sky. They suggested that the finding of a meteorite-made dagger adds meaning to the use of the term “iron” in ancient texts, and noted around the 13th century B.C., a term “literally translated as ‘iron of the sky’ came into use … to describe all types of iron”. “Finally, somebody has managed to confirm what we always reasonably assumed,”Rehren, an archaeologist with University College London, told the Guardian. “Yes, the Egyptians referred to this stuff as metal from the heaven, which is purely descriptive,” he said. “What I find impressive is that they were capable of creating such delicate and well manufactured objects in a metal of which they didn’t have much experience.”

King Tut's metorite iron dagger

The researchers wrote in the new study: “The introduction of the new composite term suggests that the ancient Egyptians were aware that these rare chunks of iron fell from the sky already in the 13th [century] B.C., anticipating Western culture by more than two millennia.” Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley, of the University of Manchester, has similarly argued that ancient Egyptians would have revered celestial objects that had plunged to earth. “The sky was very important to the ancient Egyptians,” she told Nature, apropos of her work on the meteoritic beads. “Something that falls from the sky is going to be considered as a gift from the gods.”

“It would be very interesting to analyse more pre-Iron Age artifacts, such as other iron objects found in King Tut’s tomb,” Daniela Comelli, of the physics department at Milan Polytechnic, told Discovery News. “We could gain precious insights into metal working technologies in ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean.”

Dagger in Tutankhamun's Tomb: Made from a Meteorite

In 2016, scientists announced in the in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science. that a dagger entombed with King Tutankhamun was likley made with iron from a meteorite, The Guardian reported: “In 1925, archaeologist Howard Carter found two daggers, one iron and one with a blade of gold, within the wrapping of the teenage king... The iron blade, which had a gold handle, rock crystal pommel and lily and jackal-decorated sheath, has puzzled researchers... ironwork was rare in ancient Egypt, and the dagger’s metal had not rusted.[Source: The Guardian, June 2, 2016 */]

“Italian and Egyptian researchers analysed the metal with an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer to determine its chemical composition, and found its high nickel content, along with its levels of cobalt, “strongly suggests an extraterrestrial origin”. They compared the composition with known meteorites within 2,000km around the Red Sea coast of Egypt, and found similar levels in one meteorite. That meteorite, named Kharga, was found 150 miles (240km) west of Alexandria, at the seaport city of Mersa Matruh, which in the age of Alexander the Great – the fourth century B.C. – was known as Amunia. */

“The researchers also stood with a hypothesis that ancient Egyptians placed great importance on rocks falling from the sky. They suggested that the finding of a meteorite-made dagger adds meaning to the use of the term “iron” in ancient texts, and noted around the 13th century B.C., a term “literally translated as ‘iron of the sky’ came into use … to describe all types of iron”. “Finally, somebody has managed to confirm what we always reasonably assumed,” Thilo Rehren, an archaeologist with University College London, told the Guardian. Rehren, who studied the nine meteoritic beads, said “there never has been a reason to doubt this outcome but we were never really able to put this hard data behind it”. He added that other objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb, including jewelry and miniature daggers, are believed to made from meteorite iron. */

“The blade may not be the only item derived from falling rocks on Tut’s person. In 2006, an Austrian astrochemist proposed that an unusual yellowish gem, shaped as a scarab in King Tut’s burial necklace, is actually glass formed in the heat of a meteorite crashing into sand.” */

Furniture in Ancient Egypt

pillow According to Minnesota State University, Mankato: “The typical Egyptian house had sparse furnishings by modern standards. Wood was quite scarce, so large furniture items were not common. By far the most common pieces of furniture were small 3 and 4 leg stools and fly catchers. Stools have been found in common houses as well as in Pharaohs’ tombs. Other items of utilitarian furniture include clay ovens, jars, pots, plates, beds, oil lamps, and small boxes or chests for storing things. [Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com +]

“The ever present stool was made from wood, and had a padded leather or woven rush seat. The stools’ 3 or 4 legs were very often carved to look like animal legs. Wealthy people had their stools and all furniture in general was richly decorated with gold or silver leaf. The more common people would have things painted to look more expensive than they were. +\

“The Egyptian bed was a rectangular wooden frame with a mat of woven cords. Instead of using pillows, the Egyptians used a crescent-shaped headrest at one end of the bed. Cylindrical clay ovens were found in almost every kitchen, and the food was stored in large wheel-made clay pots and jars. For common people, food was eaten from clay plates, while the rich could afford bronze, silver, or gold plates. The ruling class also commonly had a throne chair with a square back inlaid with ebony and ivory. Almost everyone also had a chest for storing clothing and a small box for jewelry and cosmetics. Walls were painted, and leather wall hangings were also used. Floors were usually decorated with clay tiles.” +\

Chairs, Mats and Squatting in Ancient Egypt

Klaus P. Kuhlmann of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo wrote: “For most people in Africa and the ancient Near East—worldwide, in fact—“squatting” was and is the common position of repose, as it was also for the ancient Egyptians. Amongst ordinary Egyptians, mats (tmA) remained the most commonly used piece of “furniture” for sitting or lying down.’ The ancient Egyptian word for throne is derived from their word for “mat” with the implication being that the Pharaoh on his throne ruled over “the mats,” i.e., his “lowly” subjects . [Source: Klaus P. Kuhlmann, German Archaeological Institute, Cairo, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2011, escholarship.org ]

“ There is evidence, however, that this basic household item originally conferred “status” to its owner, a fact in tune with modern ethnographic data from Africa. Gods are said to be “elevated” on their mats, or the justified dead will be granted the privilege of sitting on “the mat of Osiris”. Archaizing tendencies during the late stages of Egyptian history resulted in the use of the reed mat (= pj wpj, “split,” i.e., reeds) as a word for “throne.”

“Although forcing a posture, which “squatting” people generally experience as being less relaxing, stools and chairs were eagerly adopted by Egypt’s nobility because the raised position signaled “superiority” rather than being a means of achieving more comfort. Ancient Egyptians even attempted to “squat” on a chair. Like a crown or scepter, the chief’s chair became one of ancient Egypt’s most important royal insignia as the quintessential symbol of divine kingship.

Everyday Items from Tutankhamun’s Tomb

Tutankhamon chair

Robert Partridge of the BBC wrote: “In 1922 the discovery of the virtually intact tomb of Tutankhamun became probably the best known and most spectacular archaeological find anywhere in the world. The small tomb contained hundreds of objects (now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo), many richly decorated and covered in gold, that would be needed by the king in his afterlife. [Source: Robert Partridge, BBC, February 17, 2011]

“Tutankhamun's bed: Several beds were found in the tomb (including one that folded up for travelling). This example is of gilded wood, with an intact base of woven string. A headrest would have been used instead of a pillow, and the rectangular board at one end of the bed is a foot-board (not a head-board as in modern beds). The frame of the bed is supported on feline legs. |::|

“Headrest: This elaborate headrest (used instead of a pillow) is made of elephant ivory. When in use, the back of the king's neck would rest on the curved support. The carved figure represents Shu, the god of the atmosphere, and the two lions on the base represent the eastern and western horizons. As well as being a functional object, this headrest has symbolic and ritual meanings too. |::|

“King's firelighter“: Along with all the rich and elaborate objects, the tomb contained some more humble and practical objects, such as this firelighter or fire stick. The end of the spindle would be placed in one of the holes in the base block, and then rotated rapidly by using a bow. The resultant friction on the base board would generate heat, which would ignite dry tinder and start a fire. |::|

Feathers in Ancient Egypt

Emily Teeter of the University of Chicago wrote: “Throughout Egyptian history, feathers appear in purely utilitarian settings and also in ritual contexts where they ornament crowns and personify deities. Feathered fans were used to signal the presence of royal or divine beings, and feathers identified certain ethnic types. Feathers are known from representations and also actual examples recovered primarily from tombs. [Source: Emily Teeter, University of Chicago, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]

“Feathers appear frequently in ancient Egyptian iconography, they are are referred to in texts, and they are incorporated into hieroglyphic writing. The prestige and value of feathers is attested by New Kingdom tomb paintings that show foreign delegations from Nubia, Libya, Asia, and Punt laden with exotic merchandise, including feathers. Most commonly shown are what appear to be the wing and tail feathers of ostriches and the wing feathers of falcons; however, it is often difficult to associate the representations with specific species of birds. Feathers were obtained by felling birds with bow and arrow and throw stick, by trapping birds with nets, and through trade.

Maat and the feather of truth

“As a hieroglyph, the ostrich feather conveyed the phonetic value Sw, and, when used to write a word, served as the ideogram for Swt (feather) and mAat. It could also serve as determinative for mAat. The same sign was used to write the name of the gods Shu and Maat. In Late Period funerary papyri, a female figure with a head in the form of an ostrich feather may represent Maat or in other cases Imentet). In some personification of the West (vignettes of Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, the judges of the deceased wear an ostrich feather on their head symbolizing their ability to determine the truthfulness (maat) of the deceased’s confession. Feathers could be a distinctive feature of gods, such as Behdety, a form of Horus of Edfu, whose epithet is sAb-Swt (“dappled of plumage”) and who is represented by a winged disk.

“Tall narrow feathers in sets of four are used as the identifying headdress of Onuris. A similar arrangement appears on crowns of Amenhotep IV at East Karnak where they may allude to his association with Shu. Less clear is the symbolism of two ostrich plumes that often flank the crown of Osiris and the single or double ostrich feather with a midrib that is characteristic of the atef crown and the crowns of Amun, Isis, the God’s Wife, and some queens. Statues of Ptah and Menkaret from the tomb of Tutankhamen wear garments of feathers.

“In the New Kingdom and later, the deceased may be shown grasping one or more ostrich plumes in each hand, and feathers may also adorn their hair, probably symbolizing that the deceased is imbued with maat. Many royal and private coffins of Dynasty 17 and the New Kingdom are covered with chevron patterns representing a mantle of feathers (rishi), and the feathered wings of the deities Nekhbet and Wadjet encircle the shoulders and chest.

“Semi-circular feathered fans on long handles were held over a divine presence or a divine intermediary to proclaim its presence in processions and festivals. The phonetic value for “fan” was the same as for shade (Swt). In the New Kingdom, Swt became synonymous with the presence of the god, for example, “the shade of Ra had come to rest upon it” or the god’s shade “being upon his head”. A similar feather fan (sryt) served as a military standard for the army and navy. A tall slender fan (bht/xw or xwyt) of a single ostrich plume accompanied the king or members of the royal family as a sign of rank. “Fan bearer on the right of the king” was a prestigious title born by courtiers and princes. Horses who draw the king’s chariot often wear feathered plumes on their heads.

“Feathers that have been identified as ostrich were worn in the hair of Libyans and Nubians. This ethnic association of Nubians with the feather is so close that the text of a Dynasty 20 letter refers to an escort group as “feather-wearing Nubians”. A deposit of ostrich feathers from a campsite at tomb HK 64 at Hierakonpolis is related to both Nubians and Libyans. This group of deliberately arranged feathers was accompanied by an ostracon that refers to the return of the goddess Hathor from the desert. The texts of the Mut Ritual and the Hymn of Hathor from Medamud relate that the goddess was escorted by Libyans and Nubians who offered her ostrich feathers. The HK 64 deposit has been interpreted as the remains of an annual celebration that heralded the return of the goddess.”

Archaeological Evidence of Feathers in Ancient Egypt

Emily Teeter of the University of Chicago wrote: “Only a few examples of feathers are preserved in the archaeological record, and there has been little effort to identify them precisely. What has been described as “large black feathers, possibly the wing or tail feathers of a crow or some such bird” were recovered from a tomb at el-Balabish. Several examples of unidentified feathers, some bound with red-dyed leather (perhaps the remains of fans), were found in C-Group tombs. [Source: Emily Teeter, University of Chicago, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]

“Feathers have been recovered from several New Kingdom tombs. The pillows used to pad the seat of a chair from the tomb of Yuya and Tuya contained what was described as “pigeon feathers” or “down”, and another in the collection of the British Museum is stuffed with “feathers of a waterfowl”. The tomb of Tutankhamen contained eight fans once trimmed with plumes. One fan had alternating brown and white feathers. Although the feathers were not identified by a specialist, their origin is described by decoration on the fan’s semi-circular “palm” that shows scenes of an ostrich hunt and by the inscription on its staff that states that ostriches were bagged by the king while hunting in the desert east of Heliopolis. Another fan from the tomb was fitted with white ostrich plumes.

A hand fan was fitted with well-preserved whitish ostrich feathers that emerged from a shorter row of brown feathers. These fans from the tomb reflect the demand for, and popularity of, ostrich plumes. Carter no. 242 was fitted with 30 plumes, no. 245 with 41, and another with 48. The use of ostrich feathers for these fans, which, according to scenes of royal processions, were held near the head of the king or the deity, may be due not only to the beauty and large size of the feathers, but also because the ostrich plume is the hieroglyph for Maat, the incarnation of truth and cosmic balance. A “carefully laid mass of ostrich feathers” (see above, Feathers as Ethnic Designators) was discovered in a round pit near the central heart of tomb HK 64 at Hierakonpolis. Carbon dating has established a date of the Second Intermediate Period for the deposit. The cache tomb KV 63 in the Valley of the Kings has yielded at least ten pillows stuffed with yet unidentified feathers.

Ostrich Eggshells in Ancient Egypt

ancient Egyptian ostrich egg

Jacke S. Phillips of the School for Oriental and African Studies in London wrote: “Ostriches were hunted in what are now the southern Egyptian, Sudanese, and Libyan deserts for food, feathers, and eggshells from the earliest times. From their eggshells beads, pendants, and vessels were manufactured. Decorated eggshells were used from the Predynastic Period onward and seem to have a religious meaning. [Source: Jacke S. Phillips, School for Oriental and African Studies, London, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]

“Ostrich eggshell has been recovered at prehistoric and Predynastic sites all along the Nile Valley, and in the Fayum and deserts. Individual eggshells, which can be as large as 170 by 130 mm and 3.5 mm thick, have been found in graves of Naqada I– III and some settlement contexts. A few were decorated and occasionally clay “eggs” were used in lieu; one shell even substituted for the missing head of the deceased. Eggshell jewelry is common from Predynastic times through Dynasty 22, mostly as small disc-beads that were shaped, drilled, and strung as simple necklaces. Larger perforated discs may have been ear, forehead, or clothing ornaments. Pendants, likely having amuletic significance, were perforated at one end and cut to a variety of shapes. Eggshell is sometimes painted, but seems not to have been used as inlays in Egypt.

“Vessels are the only other objects known to have been made from ostrich eggshell. Extremely few are published, but the variety of types chiefly dating to Dynasty 18 include a “container” and cup, both featuring a drilled hole (that on the cup probably intended for a wooden handle), and fragments thought to be a vessel. The added anhydrite neck/rim of a flask from Abydos suggests its date is Dynasty 12 or the Second Intermediate Period, despite its 18th Dynasty context. At least six vessels are reported from Hyksos Period tombs at Tell el-Dabaa. Vessels also were produced earlier despite their extreme rarity in the archaeological record, as attested by an elaborate Dynasty 6 perfume vessel recently found in the Dakhla Oasis, and undoubtedly were used as water containers from earliest times before the production of ceramic vessels. Ostrich eggs were exported to the Aegean from the late Old Kingdom onwards and converted to vessels there.

“In Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt ostrich eggs, sometimes painted, have been found in religious contexts, such as at Berenike. In Coptic Egypt, the egg itself came to symbolize the birth and resurrection of Christ, often decorating the church interior. This symbolism has passed down into both the eastern and western churches.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated September 2018