44,000-year-old Neanderthal Jewelry

Well, didn't you always know that we beaders are in one of the oldest professions? An archeological excavation in France has found evidence for jewelry made by Neanderthal men:

Neanderthals were much more advanced than has been thought, according to a new examination of finds from a famous cave site that indicates that the creatures designed and made their own jewellery.

It had been assumed ornaments found with their bones were "borrowed" from ancestors of modern humans, or copied. This is now believed to have been a mistake. [...]

...finds belonged to Neanderthals who lived there 44,000 years ago. That would mean they were making decorated bone points and items of jewellery before modern humans arrived in Europe from Africa.

The Independent, online edition, August 28, 2006

Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

Too Many Beads?

You probably have a few beads at home... or a few thousand, but the following might be just a bit too much:

Artist Liza Lou, of Topanga, California, USA, used 40 million glass beads to create a kitchen and garden first displayed at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. If the beads were strung out, they would stretch 611 km (380 miles) – the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=53840

Well, you can watch the video at the Guiness Book of World Records site... my reaction was "so what?"


Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com