Stone Bracelet May Have Been Made by Denisovans – Archaeology Magazine

Thursday, May 07, 2015

NOVOSIBIRSK, SIBERIA—A stone bracelet unearthed in Denisova Cave in the
Altai Mountains of Siberia in 2008 is being called the oldest-known
jewelry of its kind. Anatoly Derevyanko, director of the Russian Academy
of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, and the research
team believe that the cave’s Denisovan layers were uncontaminated by
human activity from a later period. The soil around the two fragments of
the jewelry piece was dated with oxygen isotopic analysis to 40,000
years ago. “In the same layer, where we found a Denisovan bone, were
found interesting things; until then it was believed these were the
hallmark of the emergence of Homo sapiens. First of all, there
were symbolic items, such as jewelry, including the stone bracelet as
well as a ring, carved out of marble,” Derevyanko told The Siberian Times.