Postcard 1 of 300: When I conducted my original research over 28 years ago (yikes!) - THE EARLIEST example of children’s jewellery that was documented at that time dated to c.10,000 - 8,000 BC and was found in a rock shelter at La Madeleine, in Dordogne, France
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It’s a well known and significant find of its time known as the La Madeleine infant. And depicted the grave of a 5-7 year old girl ritually buried in a head wreath, necklace, and pairs of elbow, wrist, knee and ankle bracelets made from animals’ teeth and snails’ shells.
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At the time of my research I was absolutely thrilled to find such evidence as it placed the concept of jewellery being associated with children into the prehistoric era.
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I’m even more thrilled to find even more up-to-date research from that find where they’ve re-dated the age of the young girl to be more like 2-4 years old and dated the burial to ‘9990-10390 cal BP’.
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There is also the fabulous image of the beads found at the site known as her jewellery ‘parure’ and documentation that suggests the tube-style beads may have been sown onto funeral clothing as well as the beads being worn as jewellery.
These really are - ‘little gems’ of history!
Postcard 1 is Fig 2 of my PhD thesis: c.10,000 - 8,000 BC.
La Madeleine, Dordogne, France
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