Personal Ornaments in Prehistory - An Exploration of Body Augmentation from the Palaeolithic to the Early Bronze Age - Grand Format

What does a necklace mean ? Beads, bracelets, necklaces, pendants and many other ornaments are familiar objects that play a fundamental role in personal expression and communication. This book considers how and why the human relationship with ornaments developed and continued over tens of thousands of years, from hunter-gatherer life in the cave to urban elites, from expedient use of natural resources to complex technologies.
Using evidence from archaeological sites across Turkey, the Near East and the Balkans, it explores the history of personal ornaments from their appearance in the Palaeolithic until the rise of urban centres in the Early Bronze Age, encompassing technologies ranging from stone cutting to early glazing, metallurgy and the roots of glass manufacture.The development of theoretical and practical approaches to ornaments and the current state of research are illustrated with a wide variety of examples.