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.
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.
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.
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’.
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!
This post draws on visual material created for an exhibition-based research project exploring the history of children’s jewellery. It is shared here for educational and research purposes. Full object documentation, image sources and references can be found in the related archive entry.
Postcard 1 is Fig 2 of my PhD thesis: c.10,000 – 8,000 BC.
La Madeleine, Dordogne, France
>> Learn more about Fig 2 on the Archive by clicking HERE <<
