When did people start wearing accessories such as jewelry and accessories?

And what role did ancient jewelry play? What is the same and what is different from today's accessories?

SIRI SIRI designer Naho Okamoto asked archaeologist Saeko Miyashita to explore the essence of the relationship between people and jewelry by looking at the origins of accessories.

Naho Okamoto｜NAHO OKAMOTO

SIRI SIRI representative and designer. Graduated from the Space Design Department of Kuwasawa Design Institute. In 2006, he started the jewelry brand "SIRI SIRI". Making use of her experience in architecture and interior design, she creates jewelry using materials around her, such as glass. Currently researching communication between people and things at a graduate school in Switzerland. http://sirisiri.jp/

Saeko Miyashita｜SAEKO MIYASHITA

Joint researcher at the Institute of Iraqi Ancient Culture, Kokushikan University, former researcher at the Ancient Orient Museum. His published works include "Oriental Patterns" and "From A to Z in the British Museum".

life saving amulet

Okamoto: Is the ancient civilization you are researching the oldest human civilization?

Miyashita: Yes. You learn about the four great civilizations at school. They are Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China. Cities will be built from these places, and humans will create various things.

When a city is born, many people gather, so many things are organized and hierarchical relationships become strict. Then the high-ranking people start wearing a lot of jewelry to distinguish themselves from others. It is also necessary to attach something that ordinary people cannot make. For example, the gem called lapis lazuli can only be found in Afghanistan, but it was found in Mesopotamia in 3500 BC.

Okamoto: You said that jewels brought from far away became a symbol of wealth and were used as ornaments.

Miyashita: Another role of ornaments was that they had the meaning of amulets = good luck charms. Especially in West Asia, there are many amulets in the shape of animals. For example, sheep and frogs are made with wishes for a rich harvest, and lions are made as a symbol of strength. Archaeologists say that snakes shed their skin, so they were created in hopes of immortality, but in fact, there is no mention of that anywhere (laughs). Because there were no letters at that time.

Okamoto: Even so, amulets were basically worn because they wanted the power of nature, such as animals and plants.

Miyashita: In modern times, science has made it possible to understand why a cold is caused by a virus, but in the past, it was hard to understand. That's why people in the past thought that sudden headaches were caused by being stared at by something bad, or by being hit by a bad wind. And to prevent that, he wore an amulet. That's why the act of wearing an amulet or accessory was life-threatening.

Today, we wear accessories because we want to wear things that are different from others, and I think this is also a fundamental human desire. In the past, however, ornaments were worn out of a more earnest feeling, such as "wanting to protect something" or "wanting to protect something." Some of them have been worn by parents and children for generations.

But in a way, it might be a life-threatening thing for young girls to wear accessories because they want to look cute (laughs).

Okamoto: Depending on how you think about it, it might be a primitive desire to wear a strap on your mobile phone (laughs).

Jewelry as a home

Okamoto: While doing research recently, I read about a tribe in the Amazon that had absolutely nothing to do with other civilizations. When the Brazilian government took care of the last person in the tribe, he refused to wear clothes when he was given clothes because he was a naked tribe. However, when the director of a TV station who came for an interview gave him the beads as a souvenir, he happily accepted them and made his own jewelry to wear.

Until then, I thought it was the other way around. In other words, humans started wearing jewelry after inventing clothes. But that story made me think that maybe jewelry is more primitive than clothes.

Miyashita: From ancient ruins, you can find jewelry that looks like animal fangs with holes, but I think it was made long before fur clothes were made. The oldest pieces of jewelry were made by punching holes in small seashells and are said to be about 100,000 years old.

Okamoto: Before jewelry was used to express social status, it may have had a function like a talisman. SIRI SIRI customers also say that they wore jewelry as a talisman when giving birth, or that SIRI SIRI jewelry helped them when they were in a difficult situation. Every time I hear stories like that, I still feel that jewelry can be a “reliance” for people.

Miyashita: Just like Snoopy's Linus always has a blanket, I guess people want things that have a shape. Especially in modern times, I think that human existence is becoming smaller due to the advancement of civilization. That's why I want something extra to rely on.

Okamoto: Religion used to play that role, but its power may be diminishing with the development of science. Even so, humans still need something to cling to.

Miyashita: In other words, you have to live carefully so that you want something to cling to. Because I can't think so if I live with a clatter. It may be important to have the feeling that you want to cling to something.

create from experience