endure in a cave may not be voluptuous , but the ancient inhabitants of southern Africa did their best to make their menage as snug as potential by creating softbedsout of ash tree and dope . According to a new study in the journalScience , this concoction allowed for a good Nox ’s eternal rest as it put up diffuse bedding while also helping to repulse louse , and was already in use some 200,000 yr ago .
Previously , the oldest do it use of plant bedding was from a77,000 - year - old site called Sibuduin South Africa , where researchers discovered layers of sedge interlard with ash and medicinal industrial plant that they think were used as rudimentary mattress . Yet this latest finding thrust back the day of the month of the earliest use of bedding by over 100,000 years .
The find was made inBorder Cave , which is also located in South Africa and is fuck to have been occupy intermittently from about 227,000 eld ago . Using a range of microscopical and spectroscopic techniques , the report author were capable to discover grass in a layer of white ash that has been dated back to the cave ’s early yr of human occupation .
In their write - up , the researchers claim that the cloth was discovered in a part of the cave that would most probably have been used for sleep , and that the ash tree would have repelled insects as it prevents them from crawling , blocks their bite setup , and dehydrates them .
This possibility is supported by the fact that the researchers were able to identify the clay of camphor leave of absence among the litter . Given that this aromatic plant is still used as an insect repellant in East African bedding to this day , the field authors are fair confident that Border Cave ’s earliest tenants were indeed using plants to make well-to-do , bug - loose sleeping outer space .
While the human activity of collecting soft leaf to kip on may not seem all that impressive , the kind ofcognitive complexitythat is required for this sort of innovation is in the main thought to have developed in humanity about 100,000 yr ago . That this uncovering significantly predates that threshold suggests that the potential for a sophisticated material culture was very much present at the dawn of man .
