How’s this for thrilling? Two shells have just been identified as the world’s oldest pieces of jewellery. The shells, which were pierced to make beads, tell us about the behaviour of early man. So yah boo sucks to anyone who thinks jewellery is all twinkly trinkets. These shells have been dated as at least 100,000 years old, which makes them 25,000 years older than any previous examples of personal adornment. They were excavated in the Thirties, but it was only recently that an analytical geochemist at the Natural History Museum matched sediment on one with sediment from burial sites.
“This study refutes the hypothesis that humans only became culturally modern when they entered Europe 40,000 years ago,” says Marian Vanhaeren of University College London, who led the research.
So how is this relevant to you? Well, a sweet boyfriend once gave me cowrie shells he’d searched the surf for. As decorative objects they were underwhelming, so I took them to Holts, Hatton Garden (020-7405 5286), which attached gold loops and turned them into earrings for £40. Think, a souvenir and jewellery you want to wear – we’ve been doing it for thousands of years…
kate.reardon@thetimes.co.uk
Kate Reardon is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair