Trail of African bling reveals 50,000-year-old social network

Study finds ancient hunter-gatherers traded eggshell beads over vast area

Scientists have uncovered the world's oldest social network, a web of connections that flourished 50,000 years ago and stretched for thousands of miles across Africa.

But unlike its modern electronic equivalent, this ancient web of social bonds used a far more prosaic medium. It relied on the sharing and trading of beads made of ostrich eggshells - one of humanity's oldest forms of personal adornment.