Being a Jewellery Designer, I sometimes get asked why we like to wear jewellery?

Where did it start and what is it all about?

Looking back in human history we come to one of the earliest discoveries. A shell necklace 100,000 years old, discovered in a South African cave. The little shells are filled with red ochre, used either for face painting or a ritual of some kind.

Much later a famous pendant was discovered dating about 40,000 years old, made of obsidian, a volcanic glass, that had a sharpened edge used for cutting. This was found in Central Africa, hundreds of miles from its source in a Turkish dormant volcano. Precious pieces of jewellery have been left behind by many cultures and civilisations now long gone.

But even earlier was the propensity to tattoo ourselves. Looking at the peoples that comprised the Ancient Egyptians before they migrated to the Nile, they lived in the Sahara Desert when it was a lush savannah.

 Cave paintings of that era show how they tattooed themselves in a style very similar to the pectorals and bracelets later made in Ancient Egypt. In fact the oldest tattoos discovered are on 5,000 year old Egyptian mummies depicting a wild bull and barbary sheep. But it is impossible to date the very earliest tattoos as all evidence will have corrupted unless embalmed.