14 DAY TRIAL // By the looks of it, folks who lived thousands of years ago were big fans of jewelry. Still, unlike the bling modern celebs like to flash, their jewelry was not made of diamonds or gold, but of mollusc shells.
Thus, scientists say that a 4,000-year-old necklace that was unearthed in Suffolk, UK, is made of carved shells taken from creatures such as dog whelk, i.e. predatory sea snails, and scaphopods, i.e. shelled marine molluscs.
For the time being, specialists cannot say for sure how it was that the people who made the necklace obtained these shells. However, they argue that, all things considered, they must have been locally-sourced.
“Dog whelks and scaphopods were likely to be available locally so these people did not have to travel far to get hold of the raw materials for their beads,” says Dr. Beatrice Demarchi with the University of York.
According to Daily Mail, the 4,000-year-old necklace now said to be made of ancient mollusc shells was uncovered while digging at an archaeological site close to the town of Sudbury.
In order to figure out what materials were used to piece together this piece of jewelry, specialists had to resort to powerful microscopes which helped shed new light on its makeup.
Researchers are yet to figure out who made this ancient piece of jewelry and to whom it might have belonged.