The art of covering up

Copying materials is an act of all times. In the ancient Middle East there are plenty of examples. Where a bed is quite an ordinary object, the imitation was mainly focused on luxury objects that were expensive and hard to obtain.

One such material was the blue lapis lazuli-stone. That had to be brought over all the way from Afghanistan and was often imitated with blue, glazed brick. The large Ishtar-gate of Babylon was entirely covered with this material, which is why it was considered a jewel of the city (Fig.1). There were many small-scale imitations as well. Glass beads were used instead of expensive gemstones, and in Egypt ostrich eggs were imitated from stone for use as a container (Fig. 2).

The question remains: why was a bed imitated in clay? Furniture was considered to be regular, and a miniature could also be made of wood, reed, or fabric - inexpensive materials. The reason behind this act of misleading remains unclear. We can finally conclude that, looking at the quality and beautiful details, this model bed must have had great value for the user. If the value was not of a material nature, then it had to be of an immaterial nature.