=Houses of the well-to-do.=—­Rich men’s houses were, of course, more substantially and comfortably built.  Real mortar made of lime was used in the walls.  There were several rooms, including perhaps a cool “summer house” on the roof, making a kind of second story.  One climbed up to these upper rooms by a ladder on the outside.  The roof was solidly built and surrounded by a railing, so that on a hot summer evening the family could sit there and enjoy the cool evening breeze.  There were windows also, covered with wooden lattice work, which let in light and air.

No doubt every Hebrew father hoped that some day he or his children might live in such a house.  Some of them learned the builder’s trade and were able to lay stones in mortar and to use saws and axes and nails and other tools for woodwork.  Yet when David built his palace, he had to send to Tyre for skilled masons.  Evidently in his day the Hebrews had not progressed very far in the manual training department of their new school.

OTHER VILLAGE ARTS AND CRAFTS

Many trades, which with us are carried on in separate shops, were a part of the household work among the ancient Hebrews:  for example, spinning and weaving and the making of baskets, of shoes, girdles, and other articles of skin or leather.  We will study some of these household activities in another chapter.  Other trades, however, even in the early days, were carried on by special artisans who worked at nothing else.

=Trained artisans.=—­Metal workers, for example, formed a special trade.  Among the excavations of ancient Canaanite cities have been found the ruins of a blacksmith shop.  When the Hebrews entered Canaan no one had as yet learned the art of working in iron and steel by means of a forge with a forced draft.  All tools and metal implements, such as plowshares, knives, axes, saws, and so on, were made of bronze, which consists of copper mixed and hardened with tin.  The blacksmith melted the metals in a very simple and rough furnace of clay heated by charcoal.  The bronze itself, although harder than copper, could be worked into the desired shape by hammering and filing, without the use of heat.  We who are used to our sharp, finely tempered tools of steel would certainly have found these clumsy bronze affairs most unsatisfactory.

=The pottery shop.=—­Another very ancient trade is that of the potter.  This worker did not need much of a shop; only an oven in which to fire his products, a pile of clay, and a wheel.  This consisted of a frame, in which turned an upright rod on which were two flat wooden wheels, one small at about the height of the worker’s hands as he sat in front of it, and the other larger, to be turned by the feet.  A heap of clay was placed on the upper wheel, which was then turned by the revolving rod, the potter’s feet all the time kicking on the larger wheel below.  The whirling mass was shaped by the fingers, according to the plan in the worker’s mind.