“My mother says I didn't open my eyes for eight days after I was born, but when I did, the first thing I saw was an engagement ring. I was hooked,” said Elizabeth Taylor, the most infamous figurehead for jewelry (and marriage) since Cleopatra. Liz Taylor’s “love affair with jewelry” made us consider our own relationship with accessories, that pendant we can’t imagine leaving the house without, the ring passed down through four generations. We wondered, when did jewelry stop being an accessory and start becoming an extension of us, and just how far back does jewelry go?

We took a stroll to one of the greatest institutions of knowledge in the world, the New York Public Library, and discovered that a recent report by the National Geographic News suggests that we may have been wearing jewelry as far back as 75,000 years ago – that’s 30,000 years earlier than previously thought. What’s more unexpected, jewelry goes back even farther than clothing.

Apparently our prehistoric ancestors sported their birthday suits while accessorizing with parts of the animals they hunted - fish teeth and shells, tusks and antlers. Fish bone earrings anyone? But this doesn’t really surprise us since we’d pick our lucky number 7 pendant over a pair of Sevens any day and we’d gladly trade the weekly dry-cleaning for a collection of cascade earrings. So while we can’t exactly picture wearing our lunch as bangles (and kukui nut necklaces are so last year), we can relate to loving a statement piece that says something about you.

By 3100 BC, Egyptians had already gained access to the precious metals we know and love such as gold and silver, and from early on jewelry held significance as many Egyptians wore jewelry as amulets endowed with magical powers, believing that precious stones could affect the fortunes of the wearer. Kind of like the bigger the rock, the longer the marriage.

And if you think your grandmother’s pearls are vintage, take a trip back a few hundred years; pearls were huge far before her time during the Renaissance. In the 16th century the fashion-forward Italians picked up the trend and ran with it in the form of a pearl drop choker, most often worn with matching pearl drop earrings that even men started donning in Elizabethan England. What’s cuter than his and hers pearls?

Perhaps the ultimate in jewelry-delirium came in 1626 in our neck of the woods. No doubt thinking they were getting the longer end of the stick, Native Americans reportedly accepted glass beads from a Dutchman in exchange for this little island called Manhattan. Whether or not this is true, considering the average Manhattan condo now sells for more than $1000 per square foot, it seems the Dutchman was "the Donald" of shrewd real estate investing. But Native Americans like the Navajo loved jewelry and in 1880 they combined the revered stone turquoise with silver in pieces that would have us drooling over a
counter at Bendels today.

Making its mark throughout the centuries, jewelry soon found itself in a whirlwind, moving quickly through evolving styles and colors and shapes,
transforming from a symbolic adornment to an artistic reflection of society. Between Art Deco's abstract geometric forms in the Roaring 1920's and Retro Modern's gaudy flamboyant curves and colors in the 1940's, suddenly there was jewelry that was "in' and jewelry that was "out," or fashion jewelry as we know it. And when "Project Runway's" Heidi Klum says, you're either in or you're out all we know is that we don't want to be out. we don’t want to be out.

Indeed, from Eva Longoria's crystal studded Sidekick to the annual multimillion-dollar Victoria's Secret fantasy bra, jewelry has found its way into every nook and cranny of our lives, be it a class ring or Dorothy's ruby slippers, your great-grandfather's cufflinks or bejeweled underwear. So when we consider the lifelong companionship of jewelry, Elizabeth Taylor's obsession over engagement rings seems like a passion for diamonds as much as wedding bells. And who could blame her? Afterall, a diamond is a girl's best friend.