How Did the Bed Develop as Household Furniture

We spend much of our lives in beds and numerous adverts discuss the merits of different types of beds that are intended to give us better sleep and comfort. Today, what represents a bed differs greatly from culture to culture. The history of the bed, like most furniture, has been shaped by its complex development. It is, on the one hand, an essential item of furniture, but for different cultures it has varied as an important object of cultural value to simply a utilitarian furniture piece.

Early History

The bed develops as humans began to built long-term settlements or more permanent dwelling places. 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 moved. Early beds were mainly built from wood, straw, or had underlying stone. However, what began to change in early beds is they became raised from the floor. This became needed as many agricultural societies need raised platforms for beds, as stored agricultural food in more permanent settlements began to attract rodents and other pests. Greater use of the physical space also meant that raising a platform or level above the floor became needed for early beds.

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 cushion with water, such as used in ancient Persian, which made, essentially, an early form of water bed.

By the Bronze Age, elites and likely wealth classes, had begun to make specific bed frames, often made of wood. 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.