Who Made the First Beads?
The first recognizable modern humans came out of Africa, settling in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe 40,000 or more years ago. Mostly nomadic hunters and gatherers, small bands of early humans carried literally everything they owned with them, so they had to travel light. This period, the middle of the last ice age, was cold and dry. A large portion of the worlds water was locked up in vast ice sheets that covered much of the northern half of the earth. Life was hard and survival was always in doubt. Archaeologists have found evidence that as early as 20,000 years later people werent just existing, they were living well. An event referred to by archaeologists as the ‘Upper Paleolithic Revolution occurred at about this time, when people began to invent a large number of new things. These were mostly useful tools like awls and pins of bone, or burins (drill points) made of chert or obsidian, but there were also large numbers of decorative and beautiful ornaments. But why ornaments? One
