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→Early History
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 bed.<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 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 cotthat 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 bed, they were also the final resting place. In underground chambers used for burials for Mediterranean and Near East societies, beds were made and deceases were placed in a sleeping position. In essence, the burial of the dead was seen as one's eternal resting. Even for cultures that burned their dead, such as Indo-Aryan groups, the funeral pyre was often shaped as a type of bed.
