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How the Ancient Egyptians Put
Their Feet Up:
Furnishings in Ancient Egypt
By Ilene Springer
You’ve seen the elaborately carved and curved,
raised headrests the ancient Egyptians supposedly used as
"pillows" on their beds. Did they really sleep on those
through the night? Apparently so, according to archaeologists. But
there is some evidence that they may have also covered the
headrests with some soft material to make it more comfortable.
After the jewelry, some of the most exquisite objects remaining
from the ancient Egyptian world is the furniture the people
crafted and used. Chairs, beds, chests and stools were made not
only for function but for beauty, as well. A beauty that reflected
the philosophy of the ancient Egyptian mind of combining the best
in human artistry while paying homage to the natural world. The
perfect example? A chair made of cedar from Lebanon with inlaid
ivory pieces in the shape of lotus blossoms on the back of the
seat, with the legs of the chair ending in the paws of a lion. A
chair fitting this description now sits in the British Museum;
three thousand years ago it sat in the home of an Egyptian
nobleman. Except for the reed seat, which has deteriorated, the
chair looks as it did three millennia ago. Because most furniture
was made from wood, which deteriorates over time, we don’t have
as many furniture objects as we do other antiquities, such as
jewelry and items made of stone or metal which last. So much of
our furniture information on ancient Egypt comes from paintings on
funerary monuments, stela, coffins and tomb walls.
Out of Egypt
We tend to think of the Egyptians as being entirely
self-sufficient, having everything they needed as their disposal
for construction or artwork. But when it comes to furniture, it
was a different story. "Woods of trees native to Egypt—acacia,
almond, fig, date and dom-palms, persea, poplar, sider, sycamore,
tamarisk and willow," writes James Sibal for Egypt
Revealed magazine, "tend to have knots, poor grain or
poor strength."
So the Egyptians imported wood from other regions for their
furniture. Ash, beech box, cedar elm, fir, lime maple, oak, pine,
plum and yew came from Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, writes Sibal.
From the south, the area known as Nubia, came African Blackwood
and from Ethiopia came ebony. Carob was also imported. According
to Sibal, Sneferu, founder of the Fourth Dynasty, sent 40 ships to
Lebanon to obtain its famous cedar wood.
The comfortable Egyptian home
Bed styles in ancient Egypt remained very much the same for
over 2000 years. They are among the most intriguing of furniture
items because of their structure. Many were slanted down at an
incline from the headboard. A footboard ensured that the sleeper
would not slip off in the middle of the night. Furniture makers
also constructed side rails on many beds. Writes Sibal, "….almost
all beds featured legs in the form of animal legs, ranging from
heavy bull’s legs to gazelle-like forms with hooves, and the
feline type with paw and claw, frequently identified as  lion’s
legs." The mattress was usually made of wooden slats, plaited
string, or reeds, which then held woolen cushions or some other
soft material. Sheets were made of linen.
Then there is the question of the headrest. Perhaps not
everyone used these as pillows, but some physiologists have
pointed out the ergonomic benefits on the spine of sleeping with
the head resting in this position.
The artwork displayed on the headboards, sides and footboards
of the beds featured the animals and plants of the ancient
Egyptian world, including papyrus and lotus blossoms and gazelles
and cats.
 The most common feature in Egyptian homes was the stool, which
was easily moved from place to place. And according to
archaeologists, stools have lasted more than any other furniture
items. Throughout Egyptian history, stools were made of a variety
of materials and styles—wood, wicker or leather; animal-legged
with papyrus side rails, lattice worked stools, three-legged and
squared-legged stools.
One stool that became very popular in the Middle Kingdom
(2000-1630 B.C.E.) was the folding stool, which probably had its
origins in the military as a portable camp stool. Because of the
military  association, the folding stool became a status symbol,
says Sibal, and wealthy homes featured stools with elaborately
inlaid decorations of graceful animal figures, such as ducks.
Many Egyptologists believe that the high-back chairs often
depicted in banquet scenes evolved from the stool through the
addition of a increasingly higher back. The Egyptians enjoyed seat
pads, mattresses and cushions that were often quite plush and
stuffed with goose down or dried leaves.
 Tables, another very common furniture piece in the Egyptian
home, were often made of wood and stone, and sat quite low to the
ground. Therefore, the ancient Egyptians must have stooped down at
them for meals, game playing or writing or other activities. Most
of the tables were small and portable and made for individual use.
According to Sibal, there were other types of tables: There was
the offering table that held food the ancient Egyptians
symbolically gave to their deceased. The people also used
displayed vases and other ceramics on these small tables. The
large permanent dining table that seated several people is only a
couple of centuries old in Egypt.
Finally, no ancient Egyptian home was complete without numerous
chests, boxes and cabinets. They date from Predynastic times and
were made of wood, reed or rush. The Egyptians used them for all
sorts of reasons—to store linen and clothing; hold jewelry,
cosmetics and mirrors and to house items that would be taken into
the afterlife. Chest and box designs ranged from the simple to the
complex, such as those chests covered with ornate inlays. By the
Middle Kingdom, Egyptian craftsmen were making compartmentalized
boxes with sliding lids and drawers. This eventually led to the
development of cabinets with hinged doors.
Fit for a pharaoh
Experts who examine the furniture that has survived the past
four thousand years find that "most techniques known to
modern cabinetmakers were used by Egyptian woodworkers,"
writes Sibal. Caches of ancient Egyptian copper tools that were
excavated at Sakkara and other places show that Egyptian tools
were very similar to that of their modern counterparts.
The Egyptians were experts, as we well know from museum pieces,
in marquetry—decorating furniture with inlays of wood or ivory.
Royal or upper class furniture featured rare woods and elaborate
inlays, such as a box from Tutankahamen’s tomb that is composed
of an estimated 33,000 individual pieces of wooden inlay.
Middle-class furniture was somewhat simpler in style and made from
cheaper materials. Working class Egyptians had a full range of
furniture that still had a sense of style but were made for more
functional than esthetic use. Of course, very poor people might
have only had mud brick benches, covered with mats, in their homes
as their primary furniture.
But for those who could afford it, furniture in ancient Egypt
was much more than something to use for physical comfort. It was,
in addition, another outlet for artistic perfection and connection
with the beauty of the natural world. In royal circles, furniture
was so prized that it was often given as a diplomatic gift—either
in individual pieces or whole suites—to rulers of foreign lands.
Little did they know, these ancient Egyptian craftsmen, that their
extreme skill would still be coveted four thousand years later.
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Ilene Springer writes on ancient Egypt. She is a student of
museum studies at Harvard University.
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