Short answers, pulled from the story.
The oldest known jewellery was created over 100,000 years ago by hominin precursors living in Europe and North Africa. Archaeologists discovered perforated shell beads in the Bizmoune cave near Essaouira, Morocco, dating to approximately 142,000 years ago, and similar perforated beads from Neanderthals in the Cueva de los Avions in Spain dated to 115,000 years ago.
The oldest gold in the world dates from 4,600 BC to 4,200 BC and was discovered at the Varna Necropolis near the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria. This discovery marks the beginning of a long history of gold as a symbol of power in ancient civilizations.
The Indian subcontinent boasts the longest continuous legacy of jewellery making, with a history spanning over 5,000 years. The Indus Valley civilisation, which flourished in what is now Pakistan and northern India, was one of the first to create gold earrings, necklaces, and metallic bangles by 1500 BC.
The Cheapside Hoard was a stock of a jeweller hidden in London during the Commonwealth period and not found again until 1912. It contained Colombian emerald, topaz, amazonite, spinel, iolite, and chrysoberyl from Sri Lanka, ruby from India, and Afghan lapis lazuli.
The global jewelry market size was valued at US$353.26 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.7% from 2024 to 2030. The Asia Pacific region dominated the jewellery market with a market share of 39.28% in 2024.