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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2022

The bathroom: A rather singular room in the Egyptian house

Delphine Driaux

Résumé

The notion of being “pure”, as it relates to both moral and physical behaviour, was fundamental to ancient Egyptian society. As a result, the ancient Egyptians rejected anything that related to dirt, stains and impurity. This raises the question of the place occupied by personal hygiene, not only in terms of practices but also the facilities associated with it. Pharaonic Egypt did not know public baths as they appeared with the arrival of the Greeks, from the 3rd century B.C. Before this date, hygiene practices must therefore be considered as individual, belonging to the private sphere. Nevertheless, they remain relatively unknown. The ritual purification scenes on the temple walls give us a glimpse of how people might have washed themselves and indicate that it was not a matter of immersing the body in a bath but rather pouring water over it. The archaeological discoveries made in the houses confirm this idea. The bathroom facilities uncovered show simple but functional installations – kind of primitive versions of our modern showers. They are also perfectly adapted to meet the constraints of water in a domestic architecture built only with mud bricks. From its location in the house, to the materials used specifically for this space, as well as the characteristics of the installations, this paper will present the specificities that make the bathroom a singular room in ancient Egyptian domestic architecture.
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Dates et versions

hal-03932258 , version 1 (10-01-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03932258 , version 1

Citer

Delphine Driaux. The bathroom: A rather singular room in the Egyptian house. Living in the House. Researching the Domestic Life in Ancient Egypt and Sudan, Fatma Keshk; Institut français d’archéologie orientale; Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, Nov 2022, Le Caire, Egypt. ⟨hal-03932258⟩
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