Oldest Shell Jewelry Workshop in Western Europe Dates Back 42,000 Years

Between 55,000 and 42,000 years ago, the Châtelperronian people lived in what is now modern-day France and northern Spain. Their tool industry is among the earliest known from this part of the world during the Upper Paleolithic, a time spanning 55,000 and 42,000 years ago. And as new research suggests, Châtelperronians also had a knack for shell-based jewelry.

Researchers excavating at the Palaeolithic site of La Roche-à-Pierrot in Saint-Césaire on France’s Atlantic coast have discovered…