Hi woodbender
As you may have suspected, workbenches and tables are almost as old as
civilization itself and there are many references to such benches and
tables even if few of them have survived. You mentioned Egypt, so
that's a good place to start.
Now by workbench, I must presume you are speaking of the work surface
rather than a fully equipped "woodworking lab" with benched saw and
all the equipment needed mounted on top of the thing.
The Egyptians did have many tools and work surfaces along with benches
and tables of all types from large surface general tables to specialty
benches designed to hold only one piece of equipment. The second
pucture from the top shows Egyptian woodworkers performing a variety
of jobs from drilling to sawing, and more. (
http://www.geocities.com/gpkillen/materials.htm ) - For many of these
jobs, the "bench" was simply the shop floor. You will also find in
the same article that Egyptians were skilled at working in wood with
low quality local timber as well as 55ft planks of cedar from Lebanon
so their woodworking industry had to have the means and equipment
(including benches and tables) to handle it all. the above link and
the first one below are from Geoffrey Killen's website "Ancient
Egyptian Furniture and Woodworking."
The fourth picture down is of an ancient work table ( a general table
as well ) ( http://www.geocities.com/gpkillen/history.htm ) - and to
see how these tables were used as work benches, here are some in
operation:
( http://www.touregypt.net/village/exhibits_ancienttechnology.htm ) -
These photos are from the Pharaonic Village near Cairo and are part of
touregypt.net website. This reconstructed town is to Egypt much like
Colonial Williamsburg is to Early America. It is where you can see
something of life in the past.
Now whether the Egyptians developed a table or bench for the lathe or
not is still up in the air. However, they did have the lathe and it
was part of their workshops, if not necessarily on the bench.
( http://historicgames.com/lathes/ancientlathes.html ) - From the
website "Early Wood Lathes."
The oldest "workbench" I have found mentioned dates to about 2600BCE.
What the bench was used for is unknown.
" The bench built against the southern wall of room 8 continued up to
the original doorway leading from room 8 to room 9. This doorway had
been blocked in antiquity, probably because an internal small room
(room 18) was added opposite it within room 8 (figs. 2, 3), which had
two doorways, one in the northeastern corner and another one giving
access to the west and the workbench (fig. 4). The arch in the middle
of room 18 may..."
( http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/AR/92-93/92-93_Sweyhat.html ) - Qiote
from the Tell Es-Sweyhat Expedition 1992-93 Annual Report - University
of Chicago
The move into the 'modern' workbench was an act of gradual evolution
as more tools and ways to hold them were developed and added to the
basic bench structure.
As for perhaps the most widely known workbench in ancient Egypt, it
was the embalming table and its related industries. From the mummy
embalming itself, to coffin and grave goods manufacturing, images of
artisans working at "benches" abound in Egypt.
Search Google
Terms - workbench history, workbenches egypt, ancient work benches,
ancient egyptian woodworking
Links and websites are included in the answer.
If I may clarify anything before you rate the answer, please ask.
Cheers
digsalot |
