Limestone model of a town house

From Egypt
Perhaps Third Intermediate or Graeco-Roman Period, about 800 BC - AD 200

This model shows us what an ancient Egyptian house might have looked like in the later historical periods. It is always referred to as a 'town house', as the vertical storeys suggests that space was confined, in contrast to the spread-out 'villa'-like structures found in the New Kingdom (about 1550-1070 BC) city of Tell el-Amarna. The house in this model seems to have had two storeys and an accessible roof. The windows are indicated on the first floor by two crossed bars, and on the upper storey with a criss-cross pattern, perhaps representing shutters. The roof would have been used for storage, much like houses in Egypt today.

Compare this model with the house shown in the Book of the Dead of Nakht of the late Eighteenth Dynasty (about 1350-1300 BC).

E. Brovarski and others (eds), Egypts golden age: the art of (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1982)

E. Strouhal, Life in Ancient Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 1992)

N. de G. Davies, 'The Town House in Ancient Egypt', Metropolitan Museum Studies, 1 (1929)