Daughters of Isis - Joyce Tyldesley Read online

  Preserved on the wall of the Theban tomb of Djehutynefer, a New Kingdom Royal Scribe and Overseer of the Treasury, is a complete sectional plan of his comparatively spacious town house, built in one of the more salubrious areas of uptown Thebes. It appears to have been at least three storeys high, although given the conventions of Egyptian art these layers may actually represent various parts of the house lying one behind the other. The lowest floor, or basement, was apparently the servants’ quarters, where the mundane domestic activities such as breadmaking, brewing and weaving could proceed out of sight of the owner and his family. The elegantly tall public reception rooms on the first floor had high windows designed to maximize coolness and must have been suitably impressive for distinguished visitors, while the top level included the private and less formal family and women’s rooms. Five conical grain-silos were placed on the flat roof, which was also apparently used for some cooking and food processing, although the logic behind placing the grain storage on the roof is not immediately apparent; perhaps it reduced the number of vermin infesting the grain? Such luxurious town houses were very much a privilege of the wealthy, and artisans lived in far less splendid accommodation, rarely having access to more than three or four narrow rooms plus the flat roof which could be sheltered from the sun by simple screens and used as an outdoor room.

  Fig. 13 Woman carrying domestic provisions

  The homes built for the Theban necropolis workers at Deir el-Medina were all identically long and narrow, measuring about 15 × 5 metres. They included a square reception area leading into a larger inner room, a storage room or small bedroom, and a small courtyard which served as a kitchen and which often included an underground storage area. External stairs led up to the roof where the entire family probably slept during the heat of the summer. At Amarna, a less prosperous town, the most menial labourers were housed in very cramped accommodation, with each of the seventy-two housing units measuring only 5 × 10 metres. These houses were divided into a main living area, a bedroom or storage area and a kitchen, while the porch was used to shelter animals and the roof served as an additional room. Dotted among these rather squalid houses were the larger homes built for the artisans; square-shaped dwellings with a large, columned reception room, several bedrooms and storage rooms and an outside cooking area.

  To expel fleas in a house: sprinkle it throughout with natron water until they pass away.

  To prevent mice from approaching: fat of cat is placed on all things.

  To prevent a serpent from coming out of its hole… a bulb of onion is placed in the opening of the hole and it will not come out.

  Housekeeping hints from the Ebers Medical Papyrus

  Given the heat, the overcrowded conditions, the lack of basic sanitation and the presence of both foodstores and animals within the home, it is not surprising that domestic pests became a constant nuisance almost impossible to control. Many harassed housewives resorted to perfuming every room in the house with a sweet-smelling incense blended from myrrh, frankincense and spices; this had the dual benefit of masking any unpleasant odours while efficiently fumigating both the house and its contents. Flies must have been an ever-present menace and, although the smoke from the cooking fire may have deterred some of the less determined insects, proven repellents such as ‘oriole fat’ were much in demand. The lack of an efficient waste-disposal system unfortunately meant that all types of domestic refuse, including decaying food and human-waste products, had either to be carried to the local dump or tipped in the nearby river or canal; many householders could see no reason to go to all this trouble and simply threw their trash out into the street, causing the level of the ground to rise almost imperceptibly from year to year. Fortunately, the hot climate ensured that the domestic refuse decomposed relatively quickly if rather malodorously. The unsavoury heaps of decaying refuse between the houses were obviously highly attractive to vermin, and many of the homes which have been excavated give evidence of large-scale infestation by mice and rats. Pets may have helped to reduce the numbers of rodents and perhaps have deterred snakes, but those faced with more persistent problems had to use mechanical trapping devices or simply resorted to blocking the holes with stones or cloth plugs.

  The washerman launders at the riverbank in the vicinity of the crocodile… His food is mixed with filth, and there is no part of him which is clean. He washes the clothes of a menstruating woman. He weeps when he spends all day with a beating stick and a stone there…

  Extract from the Middle Kingdom Satire of the Trades

  Despite the lack of concern over hygienic waste disposal, great importance was attached to personal and household cleanliness. The Egyptians were famed throughout the ancient world for their sparkling white clothes, and Herodotus remarked approvingly that their garments were ‘constantly fresh washed and they pay particular attention to this’. Those who were wealthy enough to take advantage of a commercial laundry service enjoyed the luxury of having their dirty linen collected at the door and returned when clean, dry and ironed or re-pleated. In spite of the rather deprecatory quotation given above the professional washer-man was not necessarily a despised or lowly individual, and the chief washerman of the royal household was often a young man of noble birth who was universally recognized as occupying a position of some privilege and who was ranked only slightly lower than the king’s sandal-bearer. It is very unlikely that such an exalted and well-bred officer would ever have stooped to a degrading manual task, and he would instead have confined his duties to supervising the work of others less privileged than himself.

  Unfortunately, the professional washermen were mainly employed to undertake the extensive laundry of the large temples and the more wealthy households, and laundries were an undreamed-of luxury for most women. The family washing therefore became an important, time-consuming and physically demanding chore which had to be performed on a very regular basis. On washday, the dirty garments were piled into baskets and carried to the bank of the river or a nearby canal where they were rolled into a ball and wetted. Natron-soap was then applied, and the laundry was either pounded vigorously with a wooden paddle or rubbed repeatedly over smooth stones before rinsing thoroughly in running water. The clean linen was then shaken, wrung out and left to dry and bleach in the sun. When dry the cloth was ironed or smoothed, carefully folded, and taken back to the house where it was replaced in its basket or storage chest. The few laundry scenes which have been preserved in tombs show that washing was a developing science; during the Middle Kingdom the professional washermen used the same simple methods as the housewives but by the end of the New Kingdom the washermen were heating large jars of water at the riverbank. This innovation allowed the washermen to give the clothes a hot wash and presumably remove far more dirt.2

  The house itself was cleaned with the aid of a short-handled broom made from stiff vegetable fibres, and several contemporary illustrations show crafty servants first sprinkling drops of water to encourage the dust to settle and then using remarkably modern-looking brushes to sweep the floor clean. Linen rags, the useful remnants of household sheeting and clothing too small to be saved for funeral bandages, were recycled and served as dusters. The houseproud housewife was helped in her dusting by the scarcity of furniture, carpeting and curtains to trap dust particles; even the most luxurious homes were somewhat bare by modern western standards, and most of the furniture which has been recovered has come from the excavation of tombs rather than from houses. Although the internal mud-brick walls were often plastered and painted with bright and elaborate scenes, furniture was to a large extent considered both unnecessary and a waste of space, and the concept of decorative but non-functional ornaments and knick-knacks was unknown.

  It was both customary and comfortable to sit or squat on the floor and, although roughly made stools, some as low as 16 cm high, were used by all the people, formal chairs with backs and arms were relatively expensive status symbols used only by the upper classes. Short footstools were highly popular with t
he chair-using élite. Small individual tables or eating-stands were manufactured to co-ordinate with the chairs, but again these were by no means considered essential domestic equipment and, as in modern rural Egypt, food was usually served on woven mats spread on the floor. The diners sat or squatted round the mats and helped themselves to whichever dish they fancied. Although spoons and knives were used in the preparation of food, eating with the fingers was considered perfectly polite at all levels of society. We even have a delightfully informal depiction of King Akhenaten enjoying a large joint of beef while Queen Nefertiti holds a whole roast bird in her right hand.

  How great is the lord of his city. He is a cool room that allows a man to sleep until the dawn.

  Middle Kingdom Hymn to King Senwosret III

  The bedrooms were similarly stark. Indeed, specific bedrooms were a luxury enjoyed only by the more wealthy who could afford to be extravagant with their space; most families had fairly informal sleeping arrangements, needing only a mat or a folded linen sheet and a curiously hard curved stone or wooden headrest to be sure of a good night’s dreams. This portable sleeping paraphernalia could easily be packed away at dawn when the room needed to resume its daytime function. Those rooms which were specifically intended to be bedrooms often had a low brick platform built along one wall to serve as the base for a mattress of thickly folded linen sheets which prevented cold, damp and perhaps insects reaching the sleeper. The wooden beds which were available were both costly and space-wasting, an important consideration in the overcrowded houses, and were consequently used only by the very wealthy who greatly prized them as status symbols; Scribe Ipuwer repeatedly lamented that during the anarchical First Intermediate Period ‘He who did not sleep on a box owns a bed’, and ‘Those who owned beds are on the ground, while he who lay in the dirt spreads a rug.’ His sense of outrage at this impropriety and reversal of the natural hierarchy was only calmed with the coming of law and order, when he was able to report:

  It is good when beds are made ready and the masters’ headrests safely secured. When everyone’s need is filled by a mat in the shade, and a door shut on him who sleeps in the bushes.

  The best of the beds were fitted with integral ‘springs’ made from rushes and interlaced cord. Curiously, some of the earliest beds had such a pronounced slope towards the foot that it was apparently necessary to employ a footboard to prevent the unconscious sleeper from slowly sliding downwards. This design defect was corrected during the New Kingdom when beds became far flatter and presumably more comfortable for the restless sleeper. The remaining bedroom furniture was minimal. There may have been a low stool to sit on while dressing the hair and applying makeup, and elaborate cosmetic and jewel boxes would have been prominent in the boudoirs of the wealthy. Perhaps because of the shortage of good Egyptian wood, fitted bedrooms were unknown and wardrobes, cupboards and chests of drawers were rarely used. Instead, a wide range of chests, boxes and woven baskets with tie-fasteners was used to store folded clothing, linen and personal possessions.

  One item which could be found in all the rooms of the house was the lamp. The sun sets both quickly and early during the Egyptian winter, and there was a need for some form of artificial lighting if family life was to continue after the evening meal. Lamps ranged in design from very simple oil-burning bowls with floating cloth wicks to sophisticated and surprisingly modern-looking standard lamps; long carved wooden pillars designed to support a large pottery oil-burning lamp. Fires, torches and portable braziers were all used to increase this rather dim light while providing welcome warmth during the colder winter evenings. Nevertheless, the Egyptian house must have been a rather gloomy place after dark, and the majority of the population rose at daybreak and retired to bed at dusk.

  The kitchen was extremely simple by modern standards, typically including a cooking fire, one or more small circular ovens, grinding equipment, pottery vessels and storage space for all the food and utensils necessary for the preparation of the household meals. As wood was both expensive and in short supply the fuel used in cooking was almost invariably dried dung which had the advantage of burning with a long-lasting, odourless and clean heat and was free to those who had access to animals. Sheep dung in particular burns for a very long time, and ready-prepared cakes of sheep droppings mixed with straw have been recovered from some of the Amarna kitchens. The manure had to be collected on a daily basis and moulded into suitable firebricks by mixing with water and straw before drying in the sun, a rather time-consuming and unglamorous duty which, just as in modern Egypt, was presumably delegated to the more junior females and the children. Once laid, the fire could easily be lit by means of a simple bow drill or the spark from a struck flint.

  The oven was a squat, beehive-shaped clay mound about three feet tall, fitted with internal shelving and with a hole at the base designed to allow the removal of ash. It was principally used to bake bread, although food could also be cooked in a saucepan placed on the flat oven-top, and the cook sat or squatted in front of the mouth of the oven while preparing her food. Those who preferred to cook on an open fire used a tripod-like contraption

  Fig. 14 Woman baking

  while boiling and roasting, and were able to bake directly in the embers of the fire. Contemporary illustrations suggest that the oven was occasionally situated on the roof of the house although, bearing in mind the ever-present risk of fire, this seems unnecessarily dangerous; it may be that the artists intended to depict the ovens outside the houses but that differences in artistic approach and perspective have led to misinterpretations by modern eyes. Archaeological evidence certainly confirms that ovens and cooking fires were often situated away from the home, presumably to reduce discomfort from the heat and smoke of cooking as well as the associated risk of fire. For example, at Amarna the kitchens were built on the eastern side of the houses and were connected to the living quarters by means of a covered passageway. Where the oven or fire was inside the house it was generally positioned well away from the door, and the kitchen roofing was provided with airholes to allow some of the heat, smoke and smells to escape upwards. Even so, the atmosphere in the enclosed kitchen must at times have seemed unbearably hot.

  They live on bread made of spelt which they form into loaves… they eat many kinds of fish raw, either salted or dried in the sun. Quails also, and ducks, and small birds, they eat uncooked, merely first salting them. All other birds, with the exception of those which are set apart as sacred, are eaten roasted or boiled.

  Herodotus’ comments on the Egyptian diet

  The provision of a good and plentiful supply of food and drink for the family and its guests was one of the most important duties of the housewife and one which, if performed efficiently, could bring both pleasure and honour to the whole household.3 Almost all peoples enjoy eating a well-cooked and tasty meal with congenial companions, but the Egyptians seem to have been inordinately fond of feasting, drinking and entertaining their friends at home. If the numerous dire warnings against gluttony recorded in the scribal instructions are considered in conjunction with the scenes of epicurean banquets preserved on tomb walls, it would appear certain that the most direct route to the Egyptian man’s heart was via his somewhat bulging stomach. The blatant overeating of the sedentary upper classes was clearly a cause of concern to the more abstemious members of the population:

  When you sit down to eat in company shun the foods you love. Restraint only needs a moment’s effort, whereas gluttony is base and is reproved. A cup of water will quench your thirst and a mouthful of herbs will strengthen your heart… Vile is he whose belly still hungers when the meal time has passed.

  Old Kingdom scribal advice

  This enviable ability to overeat was a direct result of Egypt’s efficient administration of her much-admired natural resources. Egypt, rightly described by Herodotus as the ‘gift of the Nile’, was an extraordinarily fertile country teeming with edible wild plants and animals and home to a flourishing agricultural economy which year after
year yielded vast supplies of grain and meat. Famine among the lower classes, a direct result of the failure of the inundation, was certainly not unknown during the Dynastic period but it was a relatively rare disaster, and the mountains of grain hoarded during the good years were generally sufficient insurance against the future lean. Even the largest of the Egyptian towns and cities was closely linked with the countryside, so that all the population were able to enjoy year-round access to a healthy variety of seasonal fresh foodstuffs.

  The availability of high-quality food had a direct effect upon the evolution of Egyptian culinary techniques, with the top chefs consistently favouring very simple recipes, relying on the quality and freshness of their ingredients to produce appetizing dishes and showing no urge to experiment with adventurous sauces or elaborate combinations of tastes and textures. This fortunate situation may be contrasted with the problems faced by the ancient Roman chefs who, isolated from fresh food by a combination of distance, bad transport links and lack of refrigeration, were forced to devise spicy and highly flavoured dressings and sauces to disguise the repetitive nature of a diet monotonously high in preserved and often slightly rancid foods. The Egyptians had no need to mask the natural flavours of their ingredients and, with the possible exception of stews or soups, the food remained plain and unadorned; it was the variety of different dishes served together which tempted the Egyptian tastebuds. There was therefore little culinary experimentation; contemporary illustrations and the works of later classical authors show that boiling was regarded as the traditional and most fuel-efficient method of cooking meat and vegetables while baking was used for bread and honey- or date-sweetened cakes. Fowl were usually roasted on a skewer and both meat and fish were occasionally grilled.