Ever since the prehistoric era, people adorned themselves with different pieces of jewelry to show social rank, status, religious rank, personal adornment, or to protect against evil eyes, sickness or bad luck, for the same reasons it is worn even today. The materials they used were found in nature or through the hunt: shells, wood, feathers, bones, later in history- metals. Early humans were practical, they would use everything form the hunt: skin for clothing, meat for food and the teeth, horns, claws as personal decorations.
Recent research showed that even the Neanderthal loved to accessorize. Colourful shells, dated 50.000 years ago, were found in Spain. These shells were painted with grounded pigments made of minerals and the interesting thing is that these pigments, i.e. dies were found near the painted shells.The Neanderthals were actually intelligent beings, and this jewelry just shows that they had the ability to think symbolically.
Some scholars think that they imitated the early modern humans, while others agree that these examples are Neanderthal independent creations.
What did we learn? If you want to impress a Neanderthal- wear some jewelry. :)
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| Prehistoric bone jewelry |
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| Prehistoric beads |
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| Prehistoric (Neanderthal) shell jewelry |
