to store and preserve food and beverages, so they had jars,
pots, and fl agons, sometimes kept in a pantry, sometimes in
what amounted to a basement below the house. Th ey needed
to cook food, so they had pots and pans, ladles, and cook
stoves and ovens, in a kitchen or outdoors, depending on the
region’s climate. Th ey needed to dress, so they had not only
clothes but also places to keep them, and they had mirrors to
check their appearance. Th ey needed to eliminate waste, so
they had some type of privy or toilet. When it was dark, they
needed lamps to provide light. Because most households had
to provide many of their own goods for personal use, house-
hold goods usually included tools for carving, cutting, pol-
ishing, sewing, weaving, sharpening, butchering, gathering
crops, cultivating, and any other necessary task.
Th e ancients constructed household goods out of the ma-
terials at hand. In some cases, furniture was made of mud
brick and incorporated into the structure of the building it-
self. Th us, a mud brick bench might have been built into an
interior wall. In many cases, though, furniture was made of
wood. Early furniture was crude, consisting of branches wo-
ven together or small logs assembled into a chair, table, and
the like. As time went on, though, and civilizations became
more developed, many craft smen throughout the world be-
came expert carpenters and wood carvers and created fur-
niture that was not only functional but also decorative. Even
the most luxurious of homes did not contain a great deal of
furniture. In ages before machinery and mass production,
furniture and other household goods were made by hand,
one piece at a time. Rich people could perhaps have aff orded
more household goods, but the goods oft en were simply not
available.
Other materials were used to fashion household goods.
In addition to clay and local wood were metal (including
primarily copper, bronze, and iron but also silver and gold).
In time, luxury goods made of such materials as ivory, glass,
precious and semiprecious stones, and exotic hardwood
from other regions of the world became available to the elite
through trade.
AFRICA
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
It is challenging to determine the sorts of household goods
used by ancient Africans, because the wood and reeds most
Africans would have used to make most of their furniture
and other household goods decays quickly in much of Africa.
Th us, archaeologists have only rock paintings, pottery, stone,
and metalwork to study to gain an understanding.
At one time all Africans were hunter-gatherers. In about
27,500 b.c.e. these ancient hunter-gatherers began painting
on rocks in southern Africa and in the Sahara. Th e people
of southern Africa were the San, also called Bushmen, while
the Saharans were a mixture of ethnic groups. As the Sahara
became drier, its residents changed their ways of life, shift -
ing from hunting and gathering to herding cattle. Aft er 3000
b.c.e. some of these herders began settling at oases and ad-
opted agriculture. Rock paintings off er glimpses of what the
Saharans owned. Herders are shown using sticks to guide their
animals. Sometimes they wear robes, probably for special oc-
casions. One painting from about 1000 b.c.e. is a diagram of
two men drawing water from a well. Th ey use what appears to
be a leather bucket. Th is image suggests that leather was used
to store water, perhaps for use in homes, though this is not
known for certain.
As the Sahara dried, many of its people moved eastward.
Others were probably already part of a culture that included
the forests of West Africa and probably moved south to live
among their own people. Among their descendants may
have been the Bantu speakers. Th ese were an agricultural
people, which meant that they had homes where they lived
year round. Th is contrasts with the San, who were mobile
and ranged far over the land where they lived. Th e San had
some household goods, mostly clay vessels for cooking. Th ese
they made themselves if clay was available, or they traded for
the vessels. On the other hand, the Bantu could accumulate
goods because they did not have to carry them far afi eld. Per-
haps by the 400s b.c.e. they had pottery, woven baskets, and
metalwork they could call their own. By the 100s c.e. Bantu
households had iron utensils for cooking, iron spearheads for
hunting, and iron hooks for fi shing.
Ancient Bantu speakers apparently had little or no
household furniture. People sat on the fl oors of their houses,
which would have been dirt, perhaps covered by matting.
Mats were made out of loosely woven reeds or other grasses.
Bantu speakers’ houses were usually circular, with hearths or
ovens in their centers. Ovens were ceramic, apparently with
one chamber for baking. Most cooking would have been done
on top of the oven.
Cook ing utensi ls seem to have varied f rom place to place,
with ceramic, copper, iron, or presumably wooden spoons
being used to stir, serve, or eat some foods. Th e Bantu speak-
ers had a fairly wide range of foods to cook, including cereals,
roots, milk, and meats, both from domesticated animals such
as cattle and sheep and from wild animals such as elephants
and monkeys. Stew would probably have been common,
cooked in ceramic pots on ovens or in open fi res. Ceramic
cups found in Kenya are associated with the Bantu speakers.
Other household goods included grinding stones for
making fl our. In western Africa people made ceramic pots as
large as human beings to store grain. Th ese pots were elevated
above the ground to keep them safe from termites. Still other
household items included toys, which were small ceramic an-
imals probably made by children, perhaps to introduce them
to an important craft or because children oft en will make
their own toys when none are available.
Somewhat more is known about the household goods of
the major civilizations of eastern and northeastern Africa:
Kerma (ca. 2400–ca. 1550 b.c.e.), Kush (ca. 900 b.c.e.–ca. 350
c.e.), and Axum (ca. 500 b.c.e.–ca. 900 c.e.). Kerma and Kush
were Nubian nations, occupying an extensive region southhousehold goods: Africa 561