Egyptian Furniture
Headrest (Vatican Museum)
Most Egyptian houses didn't have much furniture in them. The floor was plain dirt or clay. People slept on woven straw mats. They didn't have pillows. Sometimes they used wooden stands to rest their heads on when they were sleeping (no, really they did!).
Straw basket from the New Kingdom
(Vatican Museum)
During the daytime, if they were inside, people sat on the mats too, or on small wooden stools. Or they took the mats or stools out to their courtyard. They ate squatting or sitting on the ground or on mats, with their bowl in their hand or on a low stool. They kept their clothes and toys in straw baskets like this one.
(Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Rich people had wooden chairs to sit on. They also slept on wooden beds with thick string pulled tightly across them and straw pads on top. There were only single beds - no double beds yet.
To find out more about Egyptian architecture, check out these books from Amazon.com or at your library:
Make This Egyptian Temple (Usborne Cut-Out Models), by Iain Ashman (1999)
Pyramid, by David Macaulay (1982).
The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (Yale University Press Pelican History of Art), by William Stevenson Smith and William Kelly Simpson (revised edition 1999). The standard for college courses.
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