The headrest consists of two elements attached together by wooden pegs with a curved support which was softened in use by the employment of a feather pillow or some form of linen padding.

Headrests are commonly encountered in Egyptian tombs from the Old Kingdom on. Originally placed within the coffin, they were intended to fulfil a ritualistic as well as a practical function, their protective role during the dangerous, vulnerable hours of sleep being alluded to both in the Coffin Texts and in the Book of the Dead. The specimen shown here, undecorated and of a highly practical form, was probably employed in daily life and subsequently placed into the tomb for the owner’s employment in the Beyond.