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Houses
Relatively few examples of houses have survived.
Houses were built of perishable materials, and they were also
continuously leveled and rebuilt over the centuries so that the
original plans and structures have been lost. There are a few
surviving towns, however, that were built for a specific purpose,
occupied briefly, and then abandoned so that there was only one
level of occupation. From these Kahun, Deir el-Medina, and Amarna
village (all royal workmen’s towns), and Amarna (the capital built
for king Akhenaten’s monotheistic cult) it is possible to study the
architecture of the houses.
Additional information is derived from illustrations of houses in tomb scenes and models of houses placed in the tombs, which sometimes include gardens with representational trees and pools. There appear to have been two main types of houses: the townhouse, which existed in the long-established cities as well as in the purpose-built towns, and the villa, situated where there was sufficient space to incorporate a garden. The houses, constructed of mud brick, were similar to those found today in modern country villages throughout Egypt. All Egyptian houses were quite dark. The use of glass for windows was unknown; small, sometimes barred windows were set high into the walls of some main rooms or, as at Deir el- Medina, small holes were left in the roof construction to provide some light. Doors would also have been left open to increase the natural light supply, and in the larger houses open and partly colonnaded courts brought sunlight to the inner living areas. Natural light was augmented by the use of lamps and wicks. .
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Villas
Villas, exemplified by those uncovered at Amarna, sometimes included small chapels in their gardens for family worship. Wealthy houses had rooms on two stories plus a basement for storage. The master greeted his guests in a columned reception hall located on the ground floor, with access provided from the main door. This was furnished with low divans where the guests could relax. The bedrooms and women’s quarters formed the private area of the house, which was often situated on the first floor. At the front of the house there was frequently a terrace facing north where the owner could sit in the evenings. In the larger villas the conical silos, stables, kennels, storerooms, servants’ quarters, and kitchens were located in an area of the garden. These houses also had bathrooms and lavatories, and they were generally furnished to provide a luxurious lifestyle. At Kahun houses had reception areas, women’s quarters, a washing/bathing room, a kitchen, cellars, and circular granaries. Some of the officials who were associated with the administration of the pyramid or temple lived in large houses. Five mansions were built along the north wall and followed one plan. Leading from the street to the south, a doorway with a stone lintel (facing a doorkeeper’s room) gave access to the house. Behind it there lay three separate means of entry to the rooms beyond, which visitors would take according to their individual business; thus, these houses were used for both the owner’s private and public activities. At the left-hand side of the entrance, a passage led to the offices and rooms of the male servants and guests. In the center of the house, reached by a large passage from the main entrance, a group of private chambers opened onto a four-pillared hall; behind this was a reception hall, partly colonnaded and partly open to the sky, where the master met his guests. Private chambers used only by the owner and his family led directly off this hall; these included the master’s own colonnaded court with a sunken tank for washing, which was used by the family possibly in connection with their domestic worship. From the main entrance a third passage on the right-hand side led to several small rooms and another columned hall, which had direct access to the main reception hall. This comprised the women’s quarters, and it was the most private area of the house. Generally, each mansion had large, cool rooms and a roof supported by stone or wooden columns set in stone bases. These columns were fluted or ribbed with capitals decorated with plain abaci or the palm leaf motif. The houses were inwardly centered, with halls and chambers where the outside heat and dust of the street could be forgotten. .
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Workmen’s Housing
By contrast, in the streets of workmen’s terraced houses, each dwelling had either four or seven rooms (depending on their location within the town). The rooms were grouped together, with one entrance to the street. Built of mud brick, they had one story; the flat roof was probably used for sitting out or sleeping and to store fuel and straw, since a series of steps provided access to this area. Some houses were roofed with a barrel vault of brickwork (indicating that the arch was already in common use), but most roofs were built of beams of wood supporting poles onto which bundles of reeds or straw were lashed; the inner and outer surfaces were subsequently coated with mud plaster. Semicircular arches of brick spaced with chips of limestone formed the doorways, and wood was used for door cases, thresholds, doors, and door bolts. In each block of houses the design followed a repetitive scheme, and the dwellings were obviously built to meet precise official requirements. The roofs over the larger rooms were supported by octagonal, wooden columns set in stone bases, and the inside walls of the best rooms were mud plastered and decorated. In the kitchen there were conical, brick granaries plastered on the inner and outer surfaces and frequently arranged in pairs; the cooking fire was generally located at one side of the room in a depression in the floor. In the Amarna village the workmen’s houses followed a uniform design with an outer hall, living room, bedroom, and a kitchen that gave access to the roof. Two distinct types of brick were used in construction, perhaps indicating that the government had supplied proper mud bricks and an architect to build the enclosure wall and the foundation courses of some houses and that subsequently each family provided its own materials, including inferior bricks or rough stones. At Deir el-Medina the houses were all arranged in blocks of terraces. The earliest were built entirely of mud brick, but later ones had stone or brick basements and stone walls topped with mud brick, and stone was used for some of the thresholds. They had one story, and the flat roofs were constructed of wooden beams and matting. Stone or wood was used for the door frames, and on the doorjambs and lintels hieroglyphic texts painted in red assisted in the identification of the occupant. These houses all opened directly off the street and had four rooms. First, there was an entrance hall with a brick structure resembling a four-poster bed, which was decorated with painted figures of women and Bes, the household god of marriage and happiness. This may have been an altar for domestic worship or a “birthbed.” Niches in the wall held painted stelae, ancestral busts, and offering tables, and the room probably served as a domestic shrine. Off the entrance hall was the main living room. Here, the roof level was higher and one or more columns supported it, allowing small windows to be set high in the walls to provide some light. There was also a low, brick platform that was used as a bed or divan. One or two other rooms lay behind and probably provided a sleeping area or storage space, and finally at the rear of the house there was a kitchen. This was walled but open to the sky and contained storage bins, a small brick or pottery oven for baking bread, an open hearth, and an area for grinding grain. There was a staircase leading from the first, second, or fourth rooms that gave access to the flat roof, and some houses had underground cellars that were used for additional storage. The government apparently built all the houses within the original enclosure of the town and assigned them to particular tenants, but gradually occupancy became hereditary and families passed on the tenancies from one generation to the next. .
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Houses
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