Who Invented the First Pillow?
Although there is no clear inventor of the pillow, in ancient Mesopotamia of 7000 B.C., people slept on stone pillows under their heads. Pillows were a status symbol.
Early pillows were rectangular and had grooves shaped for the head. The more pillows one owned, the wealthier they were. Ancient Egyptians used pillows as a solution to back, neck and shoulder pain, and pillows prevented insects from crawling in their mouth, nose or hair at night. The ancient Chinese created pillows out of bamboo, porcelain, stone, bronze and jade, which they believed gave the brain energy and cured illnesses. They made pillows with hard materials, because they believed soft pillows would steal energy. These pillows were decorated with glazed designs of nature. Ancient Romans and Greeks used pillows stuffed with feathers, straw or wool. The wealthy had elegantly embroidered pillows. In the 20th century, modern pillows began to be commercially produced.
