Welcome to Jewelry Ooohh.com...

...where you can learn about jewelry and shop for it any time of day or night from the comfort of your computer. And guess what? Your personal computer may be the greatest communication tool of all time, but 100,000 years ago, it was jewelry. Yep, jewelry appears to have been the first communication tool in the known history of human beings. Not only that. Jewelry holds insights into the evolution of the human brain.

Archaeologists have recently come to believe that jewelry began in the Skhul Cave on the slopes of Israel's Mount Carmel about 100,000 years ago. Three shells found there tell the story. The earliest Homo sapiens had cut tiny holes in the pea-sized shells of Nassarius: a marine mollusk scavenger they had brought into the cave from distant rivers.

Why would they do this? By deliberately perforating the tiny shells with their tools of flint, were they making the first bracelets and necklaces? And if so, was this the first awakening of creativity in the Stone Age human brain? Was the purpose of such body jewelry to communicate a message and therefore, was this the dawning of human social behavior?

Scientists now think the answer is Yes. And this changes the long-standing belief that modern social behavior and creativity began only 40,000 years ago with the sudden appearance of ornamental jewelry made by Cro-Magnon man.

The Cro-Magnons made their jewelry from bone, stone and animal teeth. And while many jewelry designs originated as pins, clasps and buckles for functional use, jewelry evolved into something more. Jewelry has been used to symbolize group membership. Jewelry has been used as protection from evil. Jewelry has been used as currency, as a means of storing wealth, and as symbols of status and power.

And since the first commercial jewelry-making in Ancient Egypt some 3,000 to 5,000 years ago, jewelry has been communicating its symbolic messages through a great variety of materials. Today, of course, we have a breathtakingly endless selection of fine jewelry and costume jewelry in every imaginable design for use from head to toe.

While fine jewelry is made mostly of gemstones, coins and other precious items set into precious metals, costume jewelry takes advantage of manmade gems, glass, wood, shells, bone, ivory, clays and even plastics. And you can read all about it here.

Jewelry still sends social messages. But most all, it's fun. And there you are, with a computer that can take you anywhere in the vast realm of the Internet and through the doors of any jewelry store on Earth at the click of your mouse. That's fun too, don't you think? So let's go jewelry shopping!

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