Oldest Known Mattresses Found; Slept Whole Family   National Geographic - December 8, 2011
The world's oldest known mattresses have been unearthed in South Africa, archaeologists have announced. The mattresses - which consist of layers of reeds and rushes - were discovered at the bottom of a pile of compacted grasses and other leafy plants. The bedding had accumulated at the Sibudu Cave site in KwaZulu-Natal (map) over a period of 39,000 years, with the oldest mats dating to 77,000 years ago.

World's Oldest Bedding Discovered in Cave   Live Science - December 8, 2011
The oldest known bedding - sleeping mats made of mosquito-repellant evergreens that are about 77,000 years old - has been discovered in a South African cave. This use of medicinal plants, along with other artifacts at the cave, helps reveal how creative these early peoples were, researchers said. An international team of archaeologists discovered the stack of ancient beds at Sibudu, a cave in a sandstone cliff in South Africa. They consist of compacted stems and leaves of sedges, rushes and grasses stacked in at least 15 layers within a chunk of sediment 10 feet (3 meters) thick.

World's Oldest Leather Shoe Found - Stunningly Preserved   National Geographic - June 9, 2010

First Shoes Worn 40,000 Years Ago   Live Science - June 7, 2008

Bones reveal first shoe-wearers   BBC - August 24, 2005

Sturdy shoes first came into widespread use between 40,000 and 26,000 years ago, according to a US scientist.

Woven cloth dates back 27,000 years   BBC - June 14, 2000

February 2, 2000 - Eureka Alert

Archaeologists have discovered what the well-dressed Ice Age woman wore on ritual occasions. Her outfit, however, including accessories, doesn't resemble anything Wilma Flintstone ever wore, or, for that matter, any of our carved-in-stone conceptions of "paleofashion."

Instead, the threads of at least some Ice Age women included caps or snoods, belts and skirts, bandeaux (banding over the breasts) and bracelets and necklaces -- all constructed of plant fibers in a great variety of cloth, from twined and basket wear to plain weaves. While styling varied across Eurasia, the finest weaves are "comparable to not only Neolithic but even later Bronze and Iron Age products, or, in fact, to thin cotton and linenwear worn today," Olga Soffer, James Adovasio and David Hyland wrote in an article to be published in Current Anthropology.

The evidence for Ice Age summer fashions comes in part from 80 textile impressions Soffer found on tiny clay fragments in the Czech Republic. The impressions are "the earliest evidence for cordage and textile production in the world and reflect technologies heretofore associated with much later periods," the archaeologists wrote.

Soffer, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois and a pioneer in the study of Upper Paleolithic life ways, compared the impressions to the representation of clothing on the so-called "Venus" figurines, which also date to the Gravettian period, roughly 25,000 years ago.

"It suddenly struck us that what we were looking at under the microscope on these little fragments was precisely what was being shown as clothing on some of these 'naked ladies,' " she said, noting that in all likelihood the Ice Age seamstresses also carved the figurines that showed off their "exquisitely detailed" weaving, plaiting and coiling skills.

Among other things, the findings "get our ancestors out of the smelly furs and hides that they've been dressed in in our imagination, and into fine woven clothing -- at least in warm-weather months," said Soffer, lead researcher in the study of women's wear "B.V." = "Before Vogue," as she likes to say.

The new research also provides a new way of thinking about our ancestors, Soffer argues. Up to now we have had "a monotonous image of our deep past," she said, which consists of hide- and fur-wrapped "brave men with lances going after mammoths." But these are the activities of a minority of the population. "Where were the women and children?" Soffer asks. "Where are the old people and the infirm, and what are they doing? Surely a lot more than simply sitting around admiring their brave heroes."

Indeed, the new analysis sheds light on the major role that some women played in late Pleistocene societies. The women who turned out such fine garments, the archaeologists hypothesize, probably enjoyed high status in the society, their wear considered items of great value.