Where did jewellery begin?

Long before there was a name for these lovely embellishments, little, beautiful objects were attached to the body or clothes and worn for personal adornment or other purposes. More than 100,000 years ago, when humans first began to use tools and wear clothing, jewels were created and worn by people. Beads constructed from Nassarius shells that date back 100,000 years are one of the earliest examples of this sort of archaeological artefact. These artefacts, which were discovered in the Cueva de los Aviones on Spain's southeast coast, are regarded to be the first examples of jewellery. The beads, which were crafted from tiny seashells, date back around 115,000 years.They were developed by Neanderthals, not Homo sapiens. Over 40,000-year-old beads crafted from perforated ostrich eggs were discovered in Kenya, and in Russia, archaeologists discovered a marble ring and a stone bracelet. This demonstrates the extraordinarily long history of jewellery use in human cultures around the globe.

 

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