Michelle, one of my regular readers, sent me a link to an article about a recent discovery of ancient shell beads from Israel. They don’t look like much, but they’re pretty important. While we know that humans have been creating and wearing all sorts of jewelry for thousands of years, I never thought about how significant it really is.

From the story:

“Personal ornamentation is not trivial at all. Archaeologically, it’s quite important. It’s really a symptom of the emergence of modern culture,” said Francesco d’Errico of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unité Mixte de Recherche (CNRS UMR) in Talence, France.
…
Over the years, archaeologists have unearthed a wealth of cave paintings, musical instruments, jewelry and other artwork from around 40,000 years ago in Europe. These finds seemed to represent a revolution of sorts, in which humans, who had long been biologically modern, developed modern behavior.

Making and wearing jewelry means that you are not just interested in yourself, but also in how others see and perceive you.

So, really, the fact that humans started creating symbolic art out of beaded seashell jewelry is a sign that we were thinking on a much higher cultural level than the other animals around the area. (Have you ever seen a dog make it’s own jewelry? LOL!) The article goes on to explain how symbolic thinking is key to language and art and even forming a modern cultural society!

And to think it all may have started with humans making bead jewelry!