Window into the Bible
Beds and Headrests
I have covered my bed with coloured linens from Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. (Proverbs 7:16-17)
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Wooden Bed
Date: c. 2400 BC Place: Egypt
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Note the legs in the shape of bull legs and hooves. The wooden slats are modern. The bed would have had a mattress stuffed with reed or grass.
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When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people. (Genesis 49:33)
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Bed
Date: Mid 2nd Millennium BC. Place: Thera [Santorini, Greece]
Photographed at the National Archeological Museum of Athens, Athens, Greece.
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Made from a cast, pouring plaster into cavities in the volcanic ash.
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Bed Models - One with Naked Lady
Date: 2000 – 1800 BC Place: Tell Asmar (bed on left)
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
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Domestic area at Nippur (bed on right)
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Grave Goods Including a Bed
Date: 2200 – 1570 BC. Middle Bronze Age. Place: Tomb P19, North Jericho, Israel
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
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Excavated between 1952 and 1958 by Kathleen Kenyon
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Terracotta Model of a Woman Sleeping on a Bed
Date: 3rd century BC Place: possibly Eretria [Greece]
Photographed at the British Museum, London, England.
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I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. (Luke 17:34)
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Couch and Footstool with Bone Carvings and Glass Inlays (restored)
Date: 1 – 2 century AD Place: Imperial Villa of the Emperor Lucius Verus on the Via Cassia outside Rome.
Photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA.
Reassembled from fragments found during excavations at the villa. The bed is decorated with scenes from Roman legends.
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You lie on beds adorned with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. (Amos 6:4)
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Bed of Queen Hetepheres (Reproduction)
Date: Original - c. 2600 BC. Place: Original – Tomb of Queen Hetepheres, Giza, Egypt
Photographed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts USA.
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The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. (Exodus 8:3)
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Bed of Queen Hetepheres (Reproduction)
Date: Original - c. 2600 BC. Place: Original – Tomb of Queen Hetepheres, Giza, Egypt
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Photographed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts USA.
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Travertine Head Rest
Date: Unknown Place: Egypt
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Photographed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts USA.
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Wooden Head Rest
Date: 1427 – 1352 BC Place: Tomb 94, Qustul, Nubia
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. |