Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt | Page 8

beyond the surface of the wall, and the lintel supported a
painted or sculptured cornice. Having crossed the threshold, one passed
successively through two dimly-lighted entrance chambers, the second
of which opened into the central court (fig. 7). The best rooms in the
houses of wealthier citizens were sometimes lighted through a square
opening in the centre of a ceiling supported on wooden columns. In the
Twelfth Dynasty town of Kahûn the shafts of these columns rested
upon round stone bases; they were octagonal, and about ten inches in
diameter (fig. 8). Notwithstanding the prevalence of enteric disease and
ophthalmia, the family crowded together into one or two rooms during
the winter, and slept out on the roof under the shelter of mosquito nets
in summer. On the roof also the women gossiped and cooked. The
ground floor included both store-rooms, barns, and stables. Private
granaries were generally in pairs (see fig. 11), brick-built in the same
long conical shape as the state granaries, and carefully plastered with
mud inside and out. Neither did the people of a house forget to find or
to make hiding places in the walls or floors of their home, where they
could secrete their household treasures--such as nuggets of gold and
silver, precious stones, and jewellery for men and women--from thieves
and tax-collectors alike. Wherever the upper floors still remain standing,
they reproduce the ground- floor plan with scarcely any differences.
These upper rooms were reached by an outside staircase, steep and
narrow, and divided at short intervals by small square landings. The
rooms were oblong, and were lighted only from the doorway; when it
was decided to open windows on the street, they were mere air-holes
near the ceiling, pierced without regularity or symmetry, fitted with a

lattice of wooden cross bars, and secured by wooden shutters. The
floors were bricked or paved, or consisted still more frequently of
merely a layer of rammed earth. The rooms were not left undecorated;
the mud-plaster of the walls, generally in its native grey, although
whitewashed in some cases, was painted with red or yellow, and
ornamented with drawings of interior and exterior views of a house,
and of household vessels and eatables (fig. 10). The roof was flat, and
made probably, as at the present day, of closely laid rows of
palm-branches covered with a coating of mud thick enough to
withstand the effects of rain. Sometimes it was surmounted by only one
or two of the usual Egyptian ventilators; but generally there was a small
washhouse on the roof (fig. 9), and a little chamber for the slaves or
guards to sleep in. The household fire was made in a hollow of the
earthen floor, usually to one side of the room, and the smoke escaped
through a hole in the ceiling; branches of trees, charcoal, and dried
cakes of ass or cow dung were used for fuel.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Wall-painting in a Twelfth Dynasty house.
Below is a view of the outside, and above a view of the inside of a
dwelling. Reproduced from Plate XVI. of _Illahûn, Kahun, and Gurob_,
W.M.F. Petrie.]
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--View of mansion from the tomb of Anna,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]
The mansions of the rich and great covered a large space of ground.
They most frequently stood in the midst of a garden, or of an enclosed
court planted with trees; and, like the commoner houses, they turned a
blank front to the street, consisting of bare walls, battlemented like
those of a fortress (fig. 11). Thus, home-life was strictly secluded, and
the pleasure of seeing was sacrificed for the advantages of not being
seen. The door was approached by a flight of two or three steps, or by a
porch supported on columns (fig. 12) and adorned with statues (fig. 13),
which gave it a monumental appearance, and indicated the social
importance of the family.
[Illustration: WALL-PAINTINGS, EL AMARNA. Fig. 12.--Porch of
mansion, second Theban period, Fig. 13.--Porch of mansion, second
Theban period.]
Sometimes this was preceded by a pylon-gateway, such as usually
heralded the approach to a temple. Inside the enclosure it was like a

small town, divided into quarters by irregular walls. The
dwelling-house stood at the farther end; the granaries, stabling, and
open spaces being distributed in different parts of the grounds,
according to some system to which we as yet possess no clue. These
arrangements, however, were infinitely varied. If I would convey some
idea of the residence of an Egyptian noble,--a residence half palace,
half villa,--I cannot do better than reproduce two out of the many
pictorial plans which have come down to us among the tomb-paintings
of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The first (figs. 14, 15) represent a Theban
house. The enclosure is square, and surrounded by an embattled wall.
The main gate opens