The Linear B tablets from the palace of Pylos make mention of pieces of wooden furniture: tables, thrones, and stools. But very few wooden objects have been found in Greece (O. Krzyszkowska, in Herrmann 1996, 85–103), and because there is such little evidence we have surely underestimated the importance of wood carving in Mycenaean art.

The best-preserved piece of evidence, from the Shaft Graves of Mycenae, is a sycamore box (Poursat 1977a, n° 215), whose sides are fixed with tenons and mortises. It is adorned with ivory plinths that represent stepped cornices, on which are placed relief dogs carved in wood (AE2, fig. 50). We should dismiss the hypothesis that this is an Egyptian import (Persson 1931, 179–81; contra Karo 1930–3, 319); this type of architectural cornice does not depict house roofs in the Egyptian style, but a form that does exist on Minoan relief frescoes.