Prehistoric Jewelry Reveals Nine Cultural Groups in Europe - Science and Art. Amber pendants, shell bracelets, fox tooth beads: the prehistoric jewelery found in a hundred excavations across Europe demonstrate that 30,000 years ago, in the Upper Paleolithic, there existed at least nine distinct cultural groups.
The populations of gatherers and hunters living on the continent were therefore more complex than described by genetic data alone. The choice of raw materials was not always determined by the resources available in the area.