8 Household Items Every Ancient Egyptian Family Owned

Ancient Egypt might be best known for its pyramids, mummies, and hieroglyphs, but modern archaeologists are still regularly unearthing new and amazing finds from what remains of this extraordinary era. 

Between the drawings, art, writing, and archaeological remnants of this time, we know a lot about how people of this era lived and what they valued. People of ancient Egypt placed a strong emphasis on cleanliness, believing that this was linked to spiritual well-being and the afterlife. Many of their beauty and hygiene rituals, from toothpaste to early variations on breath mints, remain in use today. They also enjoyed board games and even woolly socks.

These eight items could be found in almost every ancient Egyptian home, and were a part of day-to-day life in the land of the pharaohs.

1. Tweezers 
2. Socks
3. Querns
4. Pots
5. Notebooks
6. Stone Pillows
7. Board Games
8. Cosmetics and Perfumes

Tweezers 

The ancient Egyptians placed a great deal of emphasis on appearance. Most families would have kept a pair of tweezers around to remove unwanted hairs from their bodies and faces, as is still common today. Men and women both used these tools, with men normally staying clean-shaven and women carefully removing excess body hair. Often, this was done in front of mirrors at home. 

Many families also had razors they would use to shave away excess hair, and wigs were common among men and women of upper-class families and were seen as symbols of cleanliness and wealth. Larger tweezers may also have been used to hold pots above ovens, for mummification, and other purposes, but archaeological evidence shows that the ancient Egyptians definitely valued their beauty routines. 

Socks

We often think of ancient Egypt as a burning-hot desert, but just as in many deserts today, nights and mornings could sometimes be quite cool. Because of this, some ancient Egyptians possessed pairs of thick, dyed wool socks. These garments were often specially made with split toes so they could be worn with sandals, proving that the socks-with-sandals trend actually has extremely ancient roots. Many of these socks were made with a technique called nålbindning, which involves using a single needle and resembles sewing rather than knitting. 

Querns

Querns are some of the oldest cooking devices out there. They essentially consist of two stones that can be rubbed together to crush grains, spices, herbs, and minerals, and the earliest known models date back to the Early Neolithic period. These devices were common in ancient Egypt, where querns were used in every kitchen to grind grain into flour, which was the first step in baking bread.

They were typically made from granite, basalt, limestone, or sandstone. Women and servants would often spend long hours kneeling on hard floors and moving these stones back and forth to produce flour, a challenging and laborious process that undoubtedly left you feeling pretty sore afterward.

Pots

Go to any ancient Egypt-themed exhibit and you’ll see countless pots, bowls, and vessels bearing various carvings and inscriptions. Every Egyptian family, no matter their social class, possessed a variety of pottery made from fired clay. From wine mugs to water jugs, ancient Egyptians had a lot of different types of pots used to hold various substances. Lamps also often consisted of pots filled with animal or vegetable oils and containing floating linen wicks. 

Potters of later Egyptian history would typically make their pots on pottery wheels, and would then submerge them in dye baths. Large clay pots were also commonly used for funerary purposes, often serving as vessels for internal organs or embalming fluids or sometimes holding entire corpses. Ancient Egyptian families would also often leave vessels in tombs, which were intended for use by the dead in the afterlife. 

Notebooks

The ancient Egyptian equivalent of Post-Its were thin shards of broken pottery, which families would scrawl notes and drawings on just like we might scribble something down in a notebook. Called ostraca, the hard little shards archaeologists have found over the years include everything from religious texts to delivery and tax receipts and children’s schoolwork. 

Between 2005 and 2026, archaeologists excavated over 43,000 ostraca from ancient Egypt’s Arthribis. They found that most of the pieces were emblazoned with Demotic script, a kind of Egyptian cursive. Many also contained hieroglyphs, Greek, and other language and lettering systems. Others bore drawings of gods, animals, or other aspects of daily ancient Egyptian life.

Stone Pillows

A stone pillow may sound like an oxymoron. But this was the reality for many ancient Egyptians, who fell asleep with their heads on stone pillow stands each night. Also known as headrests, these contraptions consisted of a crescent-shaped stone resting on a flat base, and could be made of marble, ceramics, ivory, or even glass. 

Ancient Egyptians used these unique pillows for a variety of reasons. Nights could sometimes be hot, but an elevated stone would have allowed air to flow freely under the neck. Additionally, the elevation helped prevent insects from crawling on people’s faces or into their noses or mouths. Additionally, these headrests served spiritual purposes. Ancient Egyptians believed the head was sacred and must be protected, and headrests often featured carvings of protective deities believed to fend off evil spirits.

Board Games

The ancient Egyptians enjoyed all kinds of leisure activities, from sports and hunting to swimming in the Nile. But board games were also a beloved pastime. Some tomb walls and papyrus scrolls even bear depictions of deceased people playing various board games with deities. Many of the games had religious significance, and the ancient Egyptians had a huge variety of them.

The most well-known ancient Egyptian board game is Senet, which means “passing.” The game itself was seen as a representation of souls’ journeys to the afterlife, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead even contains inscriptions of people playing this game.

Another popular game was Mehen, which is known for its circular board. The game is believed to be a recreation of the battle between the snake deity Mehen and enemies of the sun god Ra. Then there was Hounds and Jackals, which involved trying to move animal-shaped pegs to the end of the board before your opponent could. The rules for many of these games have been lost, but scholars have invented different modern takes and interpretations of these games.

Cosmetics and Perfumes

Cosmetics were popular among ancient Egyptians of all genders and social classes, though routines were certainly more elaborate among the upper classes. Wealthy women would exfoliate, use honey and sugar waxes, and wear facemasks before applying makeup. Servants might then apply eyeshadow, lipstick, and kohl, an eyeliner that helped shield the eyes from the harsh desert sun and dust—and of course provided a distinctive, striking look. Kohl was made from a blend of galena, malachite, oils, fats, and other ingredients, and was usually stored in special cases, which often bore elaborate carvings. 

Makeup was also popular among men in ancient Egypt, and it was often used for religious and spiritual purposes in addition to beauty reasons. Cosmetics bowls were often emblazoned with various symbols or deities, such as Bes, the god of fertility, households, and children. Makeup was also generally thought to protect against evil, in addition to warding off sunburns and dryness.

In general, the ancient Egyptians were fastidious about cleanliness, appearance, and scent. They bathed daily and washed their hands regularly. A chapter in the Egyptian Book of the Dead makes it clear that one is not to attempt to speak to the dead unless one is “clean, dressed in fresh clothes, shod in white sandals, painted with eye-paint, anointed with the finest oil of myrrh.” 

A perfume known as kyphi, which sometimes consisted of pine resin, saffron, frankincense, myrrh, mastic, mint, juniper, and more spices, was also extremely popular. So were breath mints, which could be made at home by mixing frankincense, cinnamon, pine seeds, and other ingredients together with honey. 

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