Do you notice people on the street with brightly colored red or blue hair or people on the beach with pictures or patterns painted or tattooed on their bodies?
You might think these are the latest trends. Well, think again. People have used colorful decorations on their bodies for a long,long time
in fact, scientists recently have found the remains of a culture that dates back 80,000 to 100,000 years, in a cave in South Africa. In this cave, called Blombos Cave, they found some of the oldest tools of stone and bone. But more important, they found a lot of ochre, a red-colored iron ore. Scientists say that some pieces of the ochre look like crayons for drawing. Most scientists think that prehistoric people used the pieces of ochre to draw symbolic decorations on their bodies. Some scientists think that people painted their bodies to be attractive to members of the opposite sex. Scientists can also trace makeup back 10,000 years-to ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians used to grind colored stones like green malachite into powders thet they rubbed on their eyelids. both men and women used this eye makeup to be more attractive. More than 1,000 years ago, the ancient Celts in Britain dyed their hair with bright colors-most often red,but sometime bright blue.