TIMBER IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Author(s): D. M. DIXON
Source: The Commonwealth Forestry Review, Vol. 53, No. 3 (157) (September 1974), pp.
205-209
Published by: Commonwealth Forestry Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42605377
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 TIMBER IN ANCIENT EGYPT

By D. M. DIXON*

The main conclusion that emerges from study of the varied evidence - the classical
writers on Egypt, Egyptian texts, archaeological remains, including faunai and floral
remains - is that Egypt and Nubia have undergone no basic change in climate since
before the dawn of the Dynastic period, i.e. c. 3200 bc. However, this does not mean
that there have been no environmental changes at all. There certainly have been; if a
resurrected ancient Egyptian were to be deposited in his former haunts today, he would
hardly recognize them. Of course, the hot sun blazing in a virtually cloudless blue sky
(particularly in Upper Egypt), the Nile, and the vivid green of the cultivation would be
familiar, but when he came to look more closely, he would find a very different situa-
tion to that with which he had been familiar. Gone would be the great papyrus marshes
with their attendant fauna, crocodile, hippopotamus and aquatic birds of many kinds.
Gone too would be the large desert animals and birds - lion, wild cattle, and ostrich -
which he had hunted. In their place he would see new animals and plants : the ungainly-
looking water-buffalo and the camel (dromadary), cotton, sugar-cane, rice, maize, and
citrus fruits. Perhaps the saddest change of all that our ancient Egyptian would notice
would be in the Nile regime itself; since the erection of the High Dam at Aswan there
is no longer an annual inundation.
All these changes, however, and many more besides, have been brought about,
directly or indirectly, by the activities of man and his domestic animals. Among the
latter should be mentioned the goat and the camel, both particularly destructive of
vegetation and prime factors in bringing about the onset of soil erosion and the spread
of desert conditions. The goat, so far as can be judged, has always been in Egypt; the
camel, on the other hand, though known in Egypt at an early date, seems to have come
into general use there only in the early Ptolemaic period, i.e. from about the third
century bc on.
Although the Nile Valley does not appear to have been ever very abundantly wooded
in historical times, what evidence there is indicates that the situation was not as bad as
at the present time when Egypt has to rely heavily on imported timber which is ex-
tremely expensive.
In antiquity Egypt possessed, and still does, a number of trees capable of providing
timber. Although trees are frequently depicted on tomb and temple walls, they are
usually drawn in so conventional a manner that only very few can be identified with
certainty. The main trees that grew in Egypt in Pharaonic times of which the wood was
used in carpentry and joinery were the acacia, the sycomore-fig, and the tamarisk. The
wood of other trees, however, was also sometimes used, particularly that of the date-
palm, the dum-palm, the sidder, the persea and the willow.
Although the woods used by the ancient Egyptians have attracted a certain amount of
attention over the years, it should be stressed how much more work still needs to be
done before a detailed account of the subject can be written. In particular a great deal
remains to be done in the matter of the identification of ancient specimens.
A number of different varieties of acacia grow in Egypt and the wood was certainly
used as far back as the Predynastic period (prior to c. 3200 bc). It is mentioned in
Egyptian texts as having been obtained from Middle Egypt during the Sixth Dynasty
and from Wawat in Lower Nubia. It was used for the construction of boats and war-
ships, and Herodotus, who was travelling in Egypt during the fifth century bc, refers to
the use of acacia wood not only for boat building but also for masts. Another Greek
writer, the botanist Theophrastus, states that acacia was used for roofing and for the
ribs of ships.
The date palm ( Phoenix dactylifera) has been cultivated in Egypt since very early
times and is frequently represented on the walls of rock-cut tombs at Thebes dating
* Department of Egyptology, University College of London.
Commonw. For. Rev. 53, 3. Printed in Great Britain

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206 COMMONWEALTH FORESTRY REVIEW

from the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1580-14 bc). Th

used for roofing, for example in a tomb at Saqqara dat
Dynasty ( c . 2850-2600 bc). In the Graeco-Roman town
wood was used in the houses, mainly for roofing in the
dinally into long or short beams with semicircular cross
The dum-palm ( Hyphaene thebaica ) is depicted on the w
of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the representations showin
bifurcation of the trunk. Although the dum-palm grew,
from about the vicinity of Abydos southwards, it does
probably never did. Theophrastus describes the wood as
At the beginning of the nineteenth century it was used in
was therefore probably employed for similar purposes
joiners.
The wood of the Persea tree ( Mimusops Schimperi ), which is mentioned by a number
of the classical writers on Egypt, was used occasionally. For example, a head-rest of
New Kingdom date has been identified as being made of persea.
A species of sidder ( Zizyphus spina Christi , known in Egypt as the nabk) provided
small pieces of timber which could be used for the manufacture of dowels, sticks,
mummy-labels, and other small objects.
The sycomore-fig (Ficus sycomorus ), which has no connexion with the so-called
sycamore of colder climates which is actually a species of maple ( Acer pseudoplatanus ),
is often referred to in Eypgtian texts and frequently represented on the walls of Theban
tombs. Its wood was used for a variety of purposes including the manufacture of
statues, column bases, sarcophagi, coffins, and boxes. The tree is still a characteristic
feature of the Egyptian countryside.
The use of tamarisk wood is attested as far back as Neolithic times, and Herodotus
states that certain rafts used in connexion with boats were of tamarisk. Specimens of
wood from two species of tamarisk (T. nilotica and T. articulata) were found at Karanis
in the Fayum (Graeco-Roman period).
The Egyptian willow tree ( Salix safsaf) was employed for a wide variety of purposes :
boxes (an example is known from the Third Dynasty (c. 2650-2600 bc)), chariot-poles,
mummy labels, etc. A Greek papyrus dating from 243 bc mentions willow for making
tent poles.
Although indigenous trees were exploited for a wide variety of purposes, supplies of
native timber were not unlimited. There was a natural reluctance to fell trees which
were valuable for their fruit-bearing capacity and shade-giving properties, i.e. date-
and dum-palms, sycomore-fig and common-fig ( Ficus carica ). Native timber also had
inherent limitations. Reference has already been made to the use in roofing of the
split trunk of the date palm. The wood of this tree, however, is quite unsuitable for
joiners' work on account of its loose fibrous texture. Indigenous trees could certainly
not provide beams of the size and quality required, for example, to manufacture
temple flag-staves or the roofing logs used in large tombs. To obtain such timber it
was necessary to turn to areas outside Egypt. The importation of foreign wood is
attested as early as the First Dynasty, and even earlier if account is taken of small
fragments of cedar and cypress wood of Predynastic date.
For constructional timber the main sources of supply were the slopes of the Lebanon,
the Taurus mountains of Asia Minor, and later Cyprus. Ornamental woods were
imported from Western Asia; and from, or via, Nubia and Punt (an area lying on the
African Red Sea coast south-east of Egypt) were obtained ebony, which along with
ivory was much used in inlay work. Of the woods obtained from lands to the north of
Egypt, the main ones were box, cedar, cypress, elm, juniper, pine, and yew.
The box-tree ( Buxus semper virens), which grows in Europe, Western Asia and North
Africa, was employed in the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1776 bc) for inlay panels and
from the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty parts of a carved chair and other smaller
items of boxwood are attested.

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 TIMBER IN ANCIENT EGYPT 207

The use of cedar in Egypt goes back as far as

wood - coffins, boxes, shrines - are known
was extensively used in the construction of th
at Abydos, particularly for roofing and flo
Tutankhamun, in so far as they could be exa
Objects of cypress wood ( Cupressus semperv
(small pieces) and it was later used for the m
boxes. Parts of the chariots found in the tomb of Tutankhamun were made of elm,
though it was not possible to identify the particular species.
The fragrant red wood of the juniper, of which a number of different species exist,
was apparently confused in ancient times with the cedar - certainly by the Greeks and
Romans. A number of ancient Egyptian specimens are known, but the particular
species represented by them could not be determined with certainty. However, in the
case of a Third Dynasty coffin from Saqqara the wood may be that of Juniperus
phoenicea , which is very plentiful still on the Syrian mountains and in Asia Minor.
The common yew ( Taxus baccatá) grows both in western Asia and in southern
Europe, but it was probably from Asia (the Taurus Mountains) that the specimens of
wood found in Egypt were brought. They are all of fairly early date, the majority
ranging from the Sixth to the Twelfth Dynasties. The finest example of the use of yew
is the famous head ascribed to Queen Tiy (Eighteenth Dynasty) now in the Berlin
Museum.
The main source of ornamental woods was Nubia and Punt. Chief among these woods
was that known as hbny which is mentioned as early as about 3000 bc and frequently
thereafter. Like the English word 'ebony' to which it gave rise, hbny does not appear to
have been the name of a particular species but a general term for a number of species
belonging to different genera and families, not all of which would at the present time be
regarded as ebony producers, and despite the linguistic relationship of the names hbny
and 'ebony', botanically the two do not correspond exactly. The species of hbny
obtained from Africa was Dalbergia melanoxylon , specimens of which have been
identified. It is also possible that some hbny wood was imported from India, perhaps
via Punt.
Although there is no evidence that the Egyptians were aware that destruction of
vegetation was responsible for and accelerated soil erosion, they were aware that their
supplies of timber were not inexhaustible and care was taken that it was not used
thoughtlessly. When a house or other building was abandoned or demolished, all the
woodwork (doors, posts, roofing beams, window frames, etc.) was usually removed for
re-use in new structures.
If it could be avoided, wood was not used for fuel, although a certain amount was
employed for domestic and industrial purposes (the manufacture of charcoal). Instead
ample use was made of animal dung, and reeds and rushes were also employed. In
papyri of the Graeco-Roman period, frequent reference occurs to the use of straw and
chaff for the heating of public baths. In the smelting of metal, however, a wood product
was essential as fuel, namely charcoal already mentioned, and the production of this
over the centuries led to the ruthless felling of large areas of trees, mainly acacia.
The scarcity of good timber suitable for architectural purposes is also apparent from
texts of the Graeco-Roman period, for example reference occurs to interruption in the
construction of a house through lack of wood, and ship-building was brought to a halt
for the same reason. Another papyrus tells how "we looked for wood everywhere but
scarcely found one acacia". Another text contains the good news that building can
commence because wood has been obtained. The Finance Minister of Ptolemy II,
Apollonius himself, has no wood and instructs his agent to buy some "wherever he
can". A tree was a valuable thing for which there was considerable competition among
buyers. In the Ptolemaic Period (332-30 bc) we find the King writing to his Finance
Minister encouraging him to plant conifers on his estate since "this will be useful to
the King". Other papyri attest state control over the felling of trees, and there are

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208 COMMONWEALTH FORESTRY REVIEW

references to the inspection by Government official

taken against people who cut them down without aut
In the Ptolemaic period the planting of trees and bu
ments was subject to Government regulation.
Although it was not until the advent of metal (copp
carving and the crafts of the carpenter and joiner be

Fig. 1 . Remains of a Third Dynasty six-ply wooden coffin

After V. Laurent-Täckholm, Faraós Blomster , Stockho

Egyptian wood working made rapid advances. As earl

life-size wooden statues were produced, and the carve
Dynasty tomb of Hesirē4 at Saqqara are ample proof of
during the Old Kingdom. Particularly noteworthy is a
Dynasty date from Saqqara (Fig. 1), unfortunately fou
and bottom of the coffin consisted of six-ply wood, eac
4-30 cm. wide and of varying lengths. None of the p
for the height of the sides or long enough for the length
to obtain the necessary height, width and length, sep

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 TIMBER IN ANCIENT EGYPT 209

together with flat wooden dowels, and these

pegs.
One of the results of the relative scarcity of timber suitable for straight planks of any
size was the development by the ancient Egyptian carpenters of a technique of "patch-
work" construction, which consisted in joining together small or irregular pieces of
wood by means of flat tongues or dowels, butterfly cramps, various forms of lashing and
pegging, and sometimes in fine work by tongue and groove. Although nails were used
at least as early as the Old Kingdom to fasten metal to a wooden core, they were not
employed in woodwork until the Eighteenth Dynasty.
A very characteristic feature of fine Egyptian woodwork is the use of veneer and
inlay in which articles made of inferior woods were covered with panels or strips of
ebony and ivory. Examples are known from as early as the First Dynasty. The carrying-
chair of Queen Hetepheres of the Fourth Dynasty was veneered with strips of ebony in
which were inlaid gold hieroglyphs. On a coffin and canopic box dating from the
Twelfth Dynasty, veneer of cedar was used varying in thickness from 1.5 mm. to 2.5
mm.

In ancient Egypt bark was used, particularly during the Eighteenth d

decorate wooden objects such as walking sticks, fan handles and bows.
Finally a word should perhaps be said about silicified wood which occu
in Egypt and is widely distributed in both the Eastern and Western de
material was employed occasionally for carving, and tools of this mater
from the Neolithic period and slightly later.

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