Okay, so this little tidbit of information probably won’t help you at your next craft show, but it does make you think when you read that National Geographic is reporting about a new discovery indicates that human beings have been “thinking symbolically” and creating bead jewelry nearly 75,000 years ago. The “beads” in the story are shells of some sort that have clearly had holes drilled in them and show the wear that might be associated with beads on a string.

So maybe this obsession many of us have with making jewelry from beads is something that’s deeply rooted in our past! It’s also interesting to note that sea shell jewelry is still very popular today and almost every bead shop in the world still has some beads which really aren’t that much different from the ones our ancestors were using 75,000 years ago!