Bead ornaments in the archaeological record
They say “A Diamond is Forever''. But is it really the case? Well, diamonds have not exactly been around ‘forever’ in the jewellery market, until De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. used the slogan to channel the consumer demands by marketing diamonds as being the symbol of eternal love. So then what exactly was the ornament type preferred by our good ol’ prehistoric folks? Before metal was discovered, the prehistoric humans used to fashion necklaces, earrings and other ornaments out of raw materials such as semi-precious stones, mollusc shells, animal teeth, eggshells, presumably flowers and bird feathers as well. Few or most of these materials were usually available in their vicinity. If you have read the earlier article I wrote about shells , then you probably know that they were frequently used to craft ornaments. But what I found surprising while researching for this article is that shell beads might have links with development of language in humans! Mind boggling right? Mar