Changes

The bed develops as humans began to built long-term settlements or more permanent dwelling places by around 8000-7000-8000 BCE. Before this time, beds were mostly ad hoc construction that would have been made from surrounding materials (e.g., straw or twigs) and often discarded as human populations movedor easily packed. Early beds were mainly built from wood, straw, or had underlying stone. However, what began to change in early agricultural societies is that beds is they became began to be raised from the flooras settlement places developed. This became needed as many agricultural societies need needed raised platforms for beds, as stored agricultural food in more permanent settlements began to attract agriculture also attracted rodents and other peststhat now also came to humans' homes. Greater use of the physical spacein homes, particularly the floors, also meant that raising a platform or level above the floor became needed for early beds to avoid the dirt and other activities going on (Figure 1).<ref>For more on early beds in the pre-Neoltihic and early settled societies, see: Robinson, Vincent Joseph. 2001. Ancient Furniture and Other Works of Art. Adamant Media Corporation. </ref>

While platforms of wood or stone raised the bed from the floor, cushioning was needed for a softer sleep. This led to the development of different materials, ranging from textiles stuffed with soft materials such as leaves, to other, less harsh forms of cushioning from basic materials, including feathers. Other innovations included filling a leather cushion made of goat skin with water, such as used in ancient Persia, which made, essentially, an early form of water bedwaterbed.<ref>For more on ancient Persian waterbeds, see: Coughlan, S. (2010). <i>The sleepyhead’s bedside companion.</i> London: Preface.</ref>

By the Bronze Age (3000 BCE), elites and likely wealth wealthy classes, had begun to make specific bed frames, often made of wood (Figure 2). The frames not only made beds portable, but they also allowed beds to become decorative and media of art. Frames began to be decorated or were created from expensive woods. Inlays, ivory, and metal decorations were now found on bed frames in the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. Pillows also became decorated and covered over with pillow cases made of expensive materials and embroidery. Beds were also sometimes recessed into walls or made from material that folded, a type of cot that could be stored.<ref>For more on early Bronze Age beds, see: Bottéro, J., & Finet, A. (2001). Everyday life in ancient Mesopotamia. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.</ref>

During the Bronze Age, beds began to be symbolically associated with the life cycle. While, on the one hand, beds were the creators of life, such as the marital or sexual bed, they were also the final resting place. In underground chambers used for burials for Mediterranean and Near East societies, beds were made into the chambers and deceases the deceased were placed in a sleeping position. In essence, the burial of the dead was seen as one's eternal resting, where gifts were also showered on the sleeping departed. Even for cultures that burned their dead, such as Indo-Aryan groups, the funeral pyre was often shaped as a type of bed.<ref>For more on the life cycle, beds, burials, and their association with households, see: Robben, A. C. G. M. (Ed.). (2004). <i>Death, mourning, and burial: a cross-cultural reader.</i> Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.</ref>