What do you think the earliest recorded use of beads is – is your first thought perhaps beadwork created by the Egyptians? Yes, there certainly were a lot of beaded items in Egyptian times, but beadwork has been found dating back to the Stone Age (the Upper Paleolithic period). Beads were added to rudimentary clothing; these beads were made of shells and ivory. Of course, the beads weren’t as finely crafted as later beads, but still, they were beads. So even in caveman times, men and women were.