'Landmark paper' shows why ice age Europeans wore jewelry.

A recent study published in Nature Human Behaviour has revealed that the ornaments worn by ice age hunters in Europe 30,000 years ago may have signaled membership in specific cultures. The study compared thousands of handcrafted beads and adornments from various sites and identified at least nine distinct cultures across Europe during this time. The research challenges previous assumptions and highlights the importance of archaeology in understanding ancient populations. The study also suggests that genetic and cultural boundaries were porous, with shared ancestry not always aligning with similar jewelry choices. [Extracted from the article]