Wood identification of the headrests from the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Florence

Abstract This paper deals with the identification of wood samples from the collection of headrests held in the Egyptian Museum of Florence. Headrests were basic artefacts of the normal Egyptian life and, consequently, of ritual use in ancient tombs. They are largely present in several Museum collections, nevertheless very little information is available concerning the timber used to make headrests in ancient Egypt. To address this gap in our knowledge we undertook this analytic work. After an outline of the collection of headrests and a description of their role in ancient Egypt, the paper describes the analysis, starting from the sampling methodology that was organised to reduce the number and dimensions of the samples used to perform the subsequent micro-morphological analysis, through macroscopic and portable microscope observation. Due to the reduced dimensions of the samples, wood anatomical characteristics were collected through scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation. Thirteen species or group of species (generally speaking, taxa ) were identified; more than one half of samples pertained to two genera : Acacia and Tamarix , that are among the most common timbers found in Egyptian, confirming that, the shortage of timber in ancient Egypt forced the use of the few available timbers for any purpose. Wood identification permitted identification of wood from external sources, e.g. cedar of Lebanon, confirming trading of wood in ancient Egypt. Moreover, the presence of samples of less recorded species, such as walnut and African mahogany is probably in relations with recent restorations or fixing.