The Giant Behegeek

And I must say it means so much to me
To be the one who's telling you,
I keep telling you,
That you're beautiful.
- Gordon Lightfoot.

The oldest pieces of jewellery made by modern humans have emerged in Africa.

Shell beads found in Blombos Cave on the southern tip of the continent are 75,000 years old, scientists say.

That the pea-sized shells were used as jewelry seems clear: They were taken from a river 20km away, apparently chosen for size, they all have similar holes in the same place, and show distinctive wear patters indicating they were strung and so rubbed against each other.

The find places the use of jewelry at least 30,000 years earlier than previously thought.

The real significance of the find is that is also pushes back the emergence of symbolic thought at least that far.