Household equipment
What
would it be like to live in Byzantium ?
What about the rooms inside a house, the furniture and the utensils?
Unfortunately,
hardly any objects have come down to us from then; many years have passed, and everyday
objects were made of cheap materials. All the same, we do have information
about them from descriptions in written texts, and we can see them in
manuscript illustrations and church frescoes .As
is true today, the type and quality of equipment in a Byzantine house depended
on what the owners could afford and the position they had in society. The
commonest
materials
used by the poor were
wood, clay
and
glass. Richer people used clay
and metal, while kings and high officials had things made of precious metals
(gold, silver), ivory or even jewels.
The most important piece of furniture in the house was the
bed, usually made simply of single mattresses stuffed with straw, cotton, rags
or down. These were placed directly on the floor or on built-in benches along
the walls of the triclinum , or main
room. There were also beds of boards on a frame, supported on two tripods or
four legs and occasionally covered in gold or silver leaf. They were made up
with various types of bedding such as blankets, pillows and sheets of dyed
linen, wool, or even silk, embroidered or woven with gold threads along the
upper edge. Tables were usually wooden, though there were others made
of silver and gold or inlaid with ivory tiles. Low tables were not only used
for serving food, but also as workbenches or desks. Chairs and stools, low
seats with two or four legs, were used for sitting. Longer benches called macroskamnia could fit more people. The
throne was the official seat of the emperor, the patriarch, bishops and abbots,
and was usually accompanied by a footstool. Furniture was covered in fabrics (skamnalia) to prevent wear.
Byzantine house furnishings also included storage boxes
or chests, and built-in cupboards (cabinets).
Boxes
locked for security, and were used for storing bread and other foods, fabric
and clothes, money, gold and silverware, jewellery or books. Clothes were kept
in fabric or leather bags called. There were even special boxes for storing
drugs and medical supplies.
Floors were covered with carpets of varying size and
thickness, while heavy curtains hung from the ceiling to divide off different
living areas. These were of plain or multicoloured linen or silk, decorated
with embroidered or woven patterns. Some curtains in the palaces were even
woven from gold thread. The walls were often hung with pictures, though in mansions one
might also see bows, swords
or other
arms, as well as mirrors.
House lighting came from candles and oil lamps. Candles
were made entirely of beeswax; lamps were of clay or metal filled with oil or
grease, with a burning wick at one end. They were usually either portable or
rested on fixed wall stands. Large areas in churches and palaces mainly used
round metal chandeliers suspended from the ceiling by chains.
Lanterns
were used as night lighting devices outside the house.
Household equipment also included tableware. Dishes,
trays, bowls, goblets, cups, jugs and salt shakers were made of clay or wood,
or less often of metal. Mention is also made of bronze utensils, and even of
silver or gold plated ones, decorated with precious stones or agate, sardonyx,
alabaster or rock crystal. Some of these are now in the safe-deposits of
churches in the West, where they ended up after the fall of Constantinople
to the crusaders in 1204.
Just like today, there were all sorts of kitchen
utensils. These included trivets and iron tripods (bases) for clay cooking pots
and pans. Metal pots called koukoumia
were in most cases made of bronze, and were used for heating water, hand washing
and so on. One permanent fixture of the hearth was the grill rack. Food was
fried in pans of all sizes, and stirred with spoons and ladles kept in a
special box. There were stone mortars for grinding spices, cereals and legumes,
and even pepper mills. Finally, clay bowls or basins were used for washing dishes
and hands.
The cellars below houses had clay jars
of various sizes for storing oil, wine, cereals and legumes. To
provide better insulation from the outside environment (so as to maintain a
constant temperature) these jars were stuck into the ground. Smaller ones were
used to store butter, cheese and foods preserved in salt. There were also clay
pitchers to store and transport water, and smaller versions for serving water,
wine or oil at table. Finally, water was kept cool in special jugs made of lead
alloys.
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