Terracotta Bed in the Louvre, June 2013

Funerary models
Numerous tombs in Myrina have yielded up funerary models of furniture, buildings and everday objects destined to accompany the deceased in the afterlife. They testify to the existence of objects made of perishable materials (wood, cloth, leather) that have not survived.

Furniture
Bed
2nd–1st century BC
L. 13 cm; W. 5.5 cm; H. 3 cm

In the Greek world, beds were also used as benches at meals. The bedstead was generally made from wood and laced across with bands made from plant fibres. A mattress was added, together with blankets and pillows, but sheets didn’t appear as such until the 4th century BC. This miniature model reproduces one of the simpler forms that was placed directly on the ground and had a mattress, a blanket and a pillow to support the head.

French School of Athens excavations, 1883
Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities
Myr 402


Text from: cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=8106&langue=en