Early humans used grass to create bedding

[Still Waters]

Researchers in South Africa's Border Cave, a well-known archeological site perched on a cliff between eSwatini (Swaziland) and KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, have found evidence that people have been using grass bedding to create comfortable areas for sleeping and working on at least 200,000 years ago.

These beds, consisting of sheaves of grass of the broad-leafed Panicoideae subfamily were placed near the back of the cave on ash layers. The layers of ash was used to protect the people against crawling insects while sleeping. Today, the bedding layers are visually ephemeral traces of silicified grass, but they can be identified using high magnification and chemical characterisation.

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-years-humans-beds.html

 

[+Desertrat56]

I thought we already knew that.

[lightly]

Good idea !       I thought the layer of ashes under the bedding to keep crawling insects out was especially brilliant !