A high school ring, a string of pearls on Oscar night-how we decorate our bodies says a lot about who we are. Archaeologists think such symbolic communication marks the mental leap that made art and language possible. But when did it begin? On page 1785, researchers claim that three grape-sized shells from the Levant and North Africa were worn as beads 100,000 or more years ago. If true, this would push back the earliest evidence for symbolism by at least 25,000 years.
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