ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Headrest

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodOld Kingdom

Date2543-2120 BCE

MediumCalcite

Credit LineCollected by William A. Shelton, funded by John A. Manget

Dimensions9 x 7 13/16 x 3 11/16 in. (22.9 x 19.9 x 9.3 cm)

Object number1921.007

Label TextThis calcite headrest, comprised of four separate parts, likely came from a tomb and may have supported the head of a mummy. Wooden versions were used in life as a cooler alternative to a pillow. Headrests of a similar form are still used in Africa today.
Exhibition HistoryA Preview of the Collections, Schatten Gallery, February 15 - April 4, 1982
Monuments and Mummies: The Shelton Expedition, Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, February 8 - June 25, 1989
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, May 11, 1993 - January 1999
Africa's Egypt, Memphis Museum System, Memphis, Tennessee, February 20 - September 24, 1999
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, January/February 2000 - Spring 2001
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, October 6, 2001 - August 5, 2011
Life and Death in the Pyramid Age: The Emory Old Kingdom Mummy, Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 10 - December 11, 2011
MCCM Permanent Collection Gallery, February 2012 - Present
Published ReferencesEmory University of Museum of Art and Archaeology, A Preview of the Collections (Atlanta: The Museum, 1982), 8.
Michael C. Carlos Museum Handbook (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum 1996), 18.
Peter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum 2001), 27.
Peter Lacovara, "Life and Death in the Pyramid Age," Minerva (September/October 2011): 13, figure 4.
Susan Jaques, A Love for the Beautiful: Discovering America's Hidden Art Museums (Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2012), 41.

ProvenanceAcquired for Emory University Museum by William Shelton (1875-1959), ca. 1920.

Status

On view

Collections