Headrest

Tellem artist · 11th-14th century

In the Bandiagara Cliff villages of the Dogon peoples, carved wooden headrests have been found in burial caves. The Dogon attribute them to the Tellem peoples, who inhabited the region from the 11th to the 16th centuries. Archaeologist Rogier Bedaux, who has excavated in the burial caves, asserts that headrests "do not occur in Dogon contexts."