The oldest jewellery designIntriguing facts about the oldest jewellery design: As I was finishing up my latest jewelry project I wondered when did it all start. When did the first, jewelry design start? Researching, some fascinating facts were revealed. 
alankarshilpa.etsy.com The oldest jewelery design goes back as far as forty to fifty thousand years ago considering the evidence of the first human dating back some six to seven million years ago. Experts believed (until very recently) that the earliest jewelry design must have started when human being migrated to the European continent from Africa about forty five thousand years ago. This is when they could use language and appreciate symbolic representations. Jewelry must have been worn to show some kind of symbolism, just like we do it today, to show off social status, wealth or power. Shell beads were found in Turkey, ostrich egg shell beads in Kenya , all had deliberately perforated holes. Though far apart in geographical sense, they were contemporary happenings- around forty to forty five thousand years mark. But recent findings shake this theory. May be the oldest jewelery even started earlier! See why.
Three nassarius beads were found in Israel and Algeria and a bunch of beads in the Blombos cave, (at the southern tip of South Africa)that are must older. They all had deliberate holes. Probably used for necklace or something to string. The first three beads date back over 100,000 years, the ones in Africa's Blombos cave almost 75,000 years! (Reference- "Oldest Jewelry - BBC NEWS JUNE 22, 2006) 
Nassarius shell beads from Blombos Cave, an archeological site on the South African coast are 75,000 years old (Credit- C. Henshilwood & F.d'Errico) Prof Henshilwood of the University of Bergen, Norway told BBC News Online that "the beads carry a symbolic message" This dramatically pushes back the dates of the first clear proof in the history of humans for the use of symbolism- the behavior that sets human apart from animals. I wonder then did the oldest jewellery design start even before we could talk? Well, why not? Jewelry comes from the root Latin word "jocale" which means "plaything". We do learn to play before we can talk , don't we? Here, British archeologist, Archibald Cambell Carlyle said it very nicely - "...the first spiritual want of a barbarian man is decoration" ( Ref: F. Rogers, A Beards, 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry>F.A.Stokes.Co.,NY)
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