Richard Nowitz

Headrests for the dead were carved from stone burial benches in two Jerusalem cave tombs from the First Temple period (eighth to seventh century B.C.). Typical of the headrests in Cave Complex I beneath St. Étienne’s Church and of headrests in other, contemporaneous tombs, this headrest is a simple, raised horseshoe shape (see drawing). A markedly different style of headrest is found in Cave Complex II (see photograph).