Dark Ages - 1st Furniture

[cputnam]

Ok, now I have to ask, what started this thought process?

Spent the day rubbing steel on abrasive stones. Such activity tends to lead the mind down the garden path - especially when conditioned by the Schwartz' posts on chair making combined with the Fitz' medieval era posts. Life had to be brutish in those days. Simple things such as a water bucket probably were of great value to the peasant.

Adam's comment about chests strikes as making a lot of sense, but I am not a historian and am not about to commence research on the subject. Idle curiosity.

[adamcherubini]

I think that’s why they used to call them “dark” ages. I too have seen the Egyptian dovetails. I also saw similar in Pompeii, albeit newer.

It’s true what you say..things varied geographically. But it’s also true that people separated by time and geography had a lot of similar answers on their test papers.

[TGW]

I am now talking about northern Europe especially the Nordic countries...... except the Sami in the far north who used no furniture at all until a couple of generations ago.

As Adamcherubini wrote a chest or two would likely have been the first piece of furniture in most homes at the time.
A couple of benches made from a thick board with mortises or just round holes for the four legs.
Probably some sort of threstle table.
Not much more.
There was very little movable furniture in ordinary homes before the late 18th century.

At the time movable modern bedframes did exist but in all likelyhood they were used only among chieftains and royalty. Reasonably well to do commoners slept on some sort of fixed benches or possibly built in beds around the walls inside the single heated room in the house. The poor and the slaves in all likelyhood slept on the earthen floor.

The joinery was very simple yet often surprisingly well made despite the simple tools. Saws were not used and planes were very rare. Boards were hewn flat using a special technique called sprättäljning or glepphogging. Sometimes smoothed a little using a spokeshave yet must surfaces had the wavy pattern left by the very sharp axe. All crosscutting was done with axe or chisels. Spoon augers were used for drilling larger holes and pump or bow drills for small holes. Knives were used a lot in woodwork.

[Arlin Eastman]

My guess:
1. table
2. bench/stools
3. fire side stool, then a chair
4. bed frame of some sort 
5. bed side table for the candle or lantern

Now you have a fully furnished mud hut or log cabin.

Ok, now I have to ask, what started this thought process?

Also to add some of the above is if you are married since single guys did not need a bed frame or much of a table either.

So I will add if they were married then a shunk or chest for cloths storage.

[hbmcc]

The most basic of furniture needs, a place and furnishings for personal toiletries duty.

[Bibliophile 13]

Culture and location has a lot to do with the answer.  The Chinese had much different furniture than Europe, which had much different than Native American Tribes, Nomadic Culture in the Middle East, etc.  I spent last week in NYC and a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art reveals the Egyptians - far in advance of European "Dark Ages" had some pretty sophisticated furniture in 2000 BC.  Nomadic culture would have focused on lightweight chests or containers for their goods when traveling.

Also a good point.  Different regions in Europe might have differed quite a bit.  There was a lot of migration going on in the Dark Ages--Germanic tribes moving south and west, Celts being pushed to the margins of the European seaboard, etc.  These different people groups had quite different approaches to architecture and probably would have used somewhat different techniques.  So the kinds of working-class dwellings you might have seen in Anglo-Saxon England in, say, 700 might have looked different from the dwellings you might have seen in Ireland or in southern France in the same period.

But like Adam said, actual furniture would have been pretty rare in peasant households through much of the Middle Ages.

[TGW]

(.......), a place and furnishings for personal toiletries duty.

Which in all likelyhood means a wooden bucket or tub of some sort for washing yourself once a week (or month) and a smooth pole mounted horizontally above the manure heap.........

There are indications that saunas of some sort may have been used in parts of northern and eastern Europe already in the dark ages though this is not fully proven as far as I know. A sauna is great for killing off your resident louse colony.

[jgourlay]

Any furniture was a sign of wealth, or at least prosperity 'back in the day'.  The first pieces were front door and window treatments:  sills and shutter. 

Next were screens, the Chinese and Japanese versions being what we think of now as 'the west' moved to solid walls earlier than 'the east'.  If you could afford a door, windows, a screen, next was a little fold out table base, often ornate.  This base was used when guests came over, and was used to showcase the next level family treasure:  the large, elaborately engraved bronze or silver (BLING!!!!) platter used for serve tea and dainties.

There are multiple ancient sources going back as far as the West written records talking about how the smart money was on fleeing the city or the farm before the foreign army showed up.  The ancient version of modern preppers would remove the door, the windows treatments, screen, etc and take those with them when they fled.  The foreign army would come, set the farm and the city on fire, burning off the roofs but leaving the stone houses largely intact.  After the invasion swept through, the homeowners would come back and at least have all but the roof ready to go.

Japan and China followed a somewhat different pattern as they largely made their houses from wood.  The screen was an early aquisition.  In Japan, where second floors were not uncommon, the 'first' piece of furniture would be boxes.  Lots and lots of boxes, stacked to become a staircase.  We see "Tansu Chests", but really what call a Tansu "Chest" was, traditionally, a crap ton of boxes that could instantly and expeditiously be moved one by one into a cart or carried in the case of fire, flood, invasion.  But which, given the need to conserve space, would also double as the staircase.

Today, in primitive parts of Africa, particularly those with long exposure to the Arab world, the door/screen/foldy base pattern is not unknown.  Interestingly, my church was doing a 'get to know your neighbor' walk about two years ago, and I met one of the makers of these.  He had this intensely crammed to together little shop in his garage, where he would make these bases.  His market was Kenyan's and Nigerians that had moved to the US with nothing.  As they clawed their up the American Dream ladder, they would buy a house and before getting any furniture beyond a bed and floor-pillows, they would buy from him a handmade little platter base table.  And it was what you expect:  some endangered species he would refuse to say how he got, very fancy cut-out scroll work, beautiful mother of pearl inlay.

[TraditionalToolworks]

If I was living in the dark ages, I'd probably want to make some candles first.